NAME

Alt - Alternate Module Implementations

SYNOPSIS

cpanm Alt::IO::All::crackfueled

DESCRIPTION

Alt:: is the namespace for alternate implementations of CPAN modules.

The purpose of the Alt module is to provide documentation explaining the Alt concept, how it works, and guidelines for using it well.

THE PROBLEM

For a given piece of software, CPAN only allows for one implementation of a given module/distribution name.

GitHub on the other hand, is not limited this way. Any author can make a fork, since GitHub repos are namespaced by author id.

On CPAN, even the author(s) of the module in question is limited by this, as they cannot release newer or older forks of their code, without introducing a new name.

THE SOLUTION

A module Foo::Bar is distributed on CPAN as Foo-Bar. It may have submodules like Foo::Bar::Baz.

To make an alternate CPAN version, leave everything exactly the same, except distribute the new version as Alt-Foo-Bar-AltIdentifier.

When a user installs your module like so:

cpanm Alt::Foo::Bar::better

they will get your version of the Foo::Bar framework (Foo::Bar, Foo::Bar::Baz).

Obviously, this completely overlays the old Foo::Bar install, but that's the whole idea. The user isn't surprised by this because they just asked for an Alternate implementation. If they don't like it, they can simply reinstall the original Foo-Bar, or try some other alternate.

WHENCE ALT?

The Alt- concept was thought up by Ingy as he tried to figure out how to revamp the somewhat popular IO::All and YAML.pm modules. Alternates can now be released and alpha/beta tested, while the originals remain stable.

When Alt-IO-All-new is "community approved" it can replace IO-All. If people want the old code, they can can install Alt-IO-All-old.

GUIDELINES

This idea is new, and the details should be sorted out through proper discussions. Pull requests welcome.

Here are the basic guidelines for using the Alt namespace:

Name Creation

Names for alternate modules should be minted like this:

"Alt-$Original_Dist_Name-$phrase"

For instance, if MSTROUT wants to make an alternate IO-All distribution to make it even more crack fueled, he might call it:

Alt-IO-All-crackfueled

He might also just call it:

Alt-IO-All-MSTROUT

By having 'Alt' at the start, it guarantees that it does not mess with future IO::All development. The "phrase" at the end can be anything unique to CPAN, but should describe the spirit of the alternate. If the alternate is meant to be short-lived, it can just be the author's CPAN id.

Module for CPAN Indexing

You will need to provide a module like Alt::IO::All::MSTROUT so that CPAN will index something that can cause your distribution to get installed by people:

cpanm Alt::IO::All::MSTROUT

Since you are adding this module, you should add some doc to it explaining your Alternate version's improvements.

Versioning

It's not yet clear what kinds of versioning issues will come into play.

Other Concerns

If you have em, I(ngy) would like to know them. Discuss on #toolchain on irc.perl.org for now.

AUTHOR

Ingy döt Net <ingy@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2012. Ingy döt Net.

See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

cpanm Alt

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Alt