Parrot "standard libraries"

Geoffrey Broadwell geoff at broadwell.org
Fri Jul 31 23:47:56 UTC 2009


On Fri, 2009-07-31 at 15:37 -0700, Geoffrey Broadwell wrote:
> Some IRC discussion in #perl6 about this, covering a few points I hadn't
> seen previously in this thread:
> 
>     http://irclog.perlgeek.de/perl6/2009-07-31#i_1358894

That thread petered off after 22 minutes, at 22:15 log time.  However,
it picks up with some excellent points from pmichaud at 22:54 log time:

    http://irclog.perlgeek.de/perl6/2009-07-31#i_1359027

In particular, pmichaud and I found general common ground on the
following heirarchy of libraries:

1. True core

Just what is needed to get read access to the module repo.  Parrot
release management owns these (they are considered part of Parrot in
every sense, including deprecation cycles), and they should be truly a
minimal set.

2. Basic batteries

The stuff everyone has hashed to death, agree on, and (like DBDI) form a
common layer through which other things are easy to plug in.  The Parrot
and HLL teams work together to decide what goes into this set, with a
general preference for less rather than more.  We may want to have a
separate "basic batteries release manager" who takes care of making
these releases (perhaps on the same day as Parrot Core, perhaps a day or
two later), thus taking stress and politics off the Parrot Core release
manager.

3. Power packs

What we currently think are the most common modules people would want
for a particular market segment.  For example, there could be a "Power
Pack for Scientists" and a "Power Pack for Hackers".  Anyone should be
able to create and manage power packs, and it is expected that the
market place of ideas will do its magic -- for example, someone may
decide to make a "Power Pack for Bioinformatics" that has more focus and
depth than the general scientific pack.  These are explicitly NOT
managed by the Parrot team; we merely support the tools necessary to
make them easy to install.  I personally think we should try to create a
culture among the power pack owners to deprecate and clean regularly,
but as pmichaud pointed out, there is likely a market for power packs
(especially in the business spaces) that make stability and long-term
support the primary goal.

4. Go use the module repo

If you need anything not in a power pack, just use the module repo
directly; the tools to use it are after all part of Parrot Core.


-'f




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