Recently, the Perl module system has been receiving a major overhaul. CPANPLUS, Module::Build, and the recent MakeMaker refactoring are all examples of this. But one thing that hasn't changed is storage of metadata. Metadata in Perl still consists of setting $VERSION in your module and plugging some values into your Makefile.PL (or Build.PL).

I've recently written a module that could change that, but I'm not sure if I should pursue it.

It's not even in alpha--I haven't actually tried it out--but here's what its metadata would look like: 

use Module::Metadata
    author  => 'BRENTDAX',
    version => ($VERSION=0.01),   #compatibility
    license => 'perl',
    threads => 'none',
    thrsafe => 'unknown',
    depends => {
        perl => 5.005   #might work in earlier versions
     };

[download]

No fancy attributes or formats involved--just a use line. There isn't even a global or even computer-specific metadata database--it's just there to be extracted. Module::Metadata would know how to extract its own metadata from any module text, somewhat like the $VERSION extraction code that's in half a dozen modules, but more sophistocated and general.

Obviously, to make it work as well as it could I would need cooperation from MakeMaker, Module::Build, and CPAN and PAUSE (to modify the indexing scripts). Is this idea worth pursuing, or is it a total pipe dream?

=cut
--Brent Dax
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In reply to Module::Metadata by BrentDax

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