[Bioperl-l] Regarding Bio::Root::Build, was Re: bioperl reorganization

[George Hartzell]

Chris Fields writes:
 > On Jul 22, 2009, at 3:14 PM, George Hartzell wrote:
 > 
 > > Chris Fields writes:
 > >> On Jul 19, 2009, at 11:15 PM, George Hartzell wrote:
 > >>
 > >>> Chris Fields writes:
 > >>>> [...]
 > >>>> Prior to Module::Build the Makefile.PL we just looked for the
 > >>>> dependencies and reported back if they were missing; installation  
 > >>>> of
 > >>>> those modules was left up to the user. [...]
 > >>>
 > >>> Chiming here a bit late to say that I really *like* it when we leave
 > >>> installing the modules to the user.  I'd often rather install them  
 > >>> via
 > >>> e.g. the FreeBSD ports system instead of system, but how/why would
 > >>> BioPerl ever know that?
 > >>>
 > >>> g.
 > >>
 > >> That's a good point.  Leaving it up to the user does make things a  
 > >> lot
 > >> simpler.
 > >>
 > >> The only downside is the onslaught of users who don't know why a
 > >> specific module doesn't work.  May be the reason this was added in?
 > >>
 > >
 > > If we keep our dependencies current and write use_ok() style tests for
 > > our modules so that
 > >
 > >   ./Build test
 > >
 > > fails when a dependency is missing I think that we've done our part of
 > > the job.  We might be able to pick up some automated way to check
 > > dependencies (stolen from the autodepend Dist::Zilla plugin or
 > > something) and increase our odds of staying on top of it.
 > 
 > We have added some bits to the test suite (largely thanks to Sendu)  
 > for checking these things for us, so tests requiring a specific module  
 > are not run and a warning is issued.
 > [...]

What I was describing is a layer simpler than what Sendu et al. have
done.  In a module testing Foo, Bar::Bah, instead of 

  use Foo;
  use Bar::Bah;

use

  BEGIN {
    use_ok('Foo');
    use_ok('Bar::Bah');	
  }

and that way if there's some missing dependency that wasn't properly
specified/dealt with then it's handled as part of the framework,
"rather than just vomiting if its load fails" (in the words of the
Test::More author).

g.