[Bioperl-l] Splitting Bioperl
Sendu Bala
bix at sendu.me.uk
Wed Jul 4 10:00:31 UTC 2007
To summarise some previous threads:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.perl.bio.general/15315
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.perl.bio.general/15338/focus=15409
# Bioperl is currently one monolithic distribution of ~900 modules
# There is some desire to split it up into smaller functional groups
# There are some problems with that proposal
# An extreme variant of that proposal is to make the groups individual
modules
Following this discussion:
http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2007/07/msg55160.html
(especially Adam Kennedy's postings of 4/07, soon to appear in that
archive), the extreme variant doesn't seem like a good idea.
I'm now suggesting that Steve's original split idea, as
modified/expanded by Adam's driver and other ideas, is the best choice.
The problems I previously identified can be solved in the same way they
were solved in my extreme variant: the splits are done by Build.PL
automation working on a single repository/code-base, not by splitting
things up at the repository level.
As I see it, the way forward now is for someone interested enough to
decide on the specifics of how things will be split and offer them up to
the group for discussion. I don't mean vague possibilities of what might
work as a split, but rather some real thought should go into it to make
sure the split makes sense and will actually work in practice.
Following that, the splits can be implemented by some automated dist
action of Build.PL.
If there isn't sufficient interest to make this happen, I don't see that
as a terrible thing. There are benefits to keeping Bioperl monolithic,
and some of the problems (eg. lack of updates) can be solved without
changing its nature.
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