[MacPerl] ports and builds

[Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com>]

I want to start a system of coordinating module porters and builders.
Arved Sandstrom, Paul Schinder, I, and others (hopefully many others more!)
are actively engaged in porting and/or building modules from CPAN, and it
makes sense to me to have a place to coordinate these efforts.

I want to do two things here.  First, I want to work out a system of how to
package ports.  Second, I want to work out the system of organizing things
for the porters and for the users.

So here are my thoughts.

First, a web site for MacPerl CPAN Porters.  Volunteers would be put in the
system for checking in distributions, and checking out distributions.

Those who check out will be those equipped and able to build a module if it
involves XS, or to simply port it if it does not.  If the porter can't do
it for time or some other reason, it can be unchecked out.

Those who check in will be porters, and in addition, people who just want
to help out and access CPAN regularly, like CPAN Testers.

The main page will contain a list of modules with the date and name of the
person who checked it in, the date and name of the person who checked it
out, a link to the main distribution, a link to the port (when finished),
and a link to notes from the porter.

That's about it for that.


As for distributions, I have these thoughts:

All built binaries go in :lib:Mac(PPC|CFM68K):auto:xxx:yyy:.  All other
ported files would replace the original file, with the original moved to a
root-level directory called "Mac_changed" or something.  Additional files
needed for the build, like Makefile.mk, etc., should be added, too.

The README should be the original README, with notes from the porter put at
the very top (including noting what was changed, and any special
considerations).  The distribution should be packed up with targzipme, or
done similarly (i.e., converting all text files to LF newlines, and
macbinarizing shared libraries).

They should be named something like:

    Original-Module-1.00-bin-1-MacOS.tar.gz

Keep in mind that 31 characters is the max for Mac OS, so it should be
renamed to something like:

    Orig-Module-1.00-bin-1-Mac.tgz

Hopefully, in the near future, we will add an additional step of adding a
Binary::Original::Module::MacOS module file (or something), but for now, we
can leave it like this.

Then the file would be uploaded to CPAN and/or elsewhere, and a link would
be put on the MacPerl CPAN Porters page.  And it could then be installed
via CPAN.pm:

  cpan> install CNANDOR/Orig-Module-1.00-bin-1-Mac.tgz

And we're home free.

Any thoughts, questions, comments?

--
Chris Nandor          mailto:pudge@pobox.com         http://pudge.net/
%PGPKey = ('B76E72AD', [1024, '0824090B CE73CA10  1FF77F13 8180B6B6'])

***** Want to unsubscribe from this list?
***** Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch