One of the implications of the work on Test::Harness 3.0 is that Test::Harness::Straps will no longer exist as part of Test::Harness. For new applications you are encouraged to use TAP::Harness / TAP::Parser. The awkwardness of Straps was one of the reasons to embark on a rewrite of Test::Harness and the new code should make it far easier to write ad-hoc testing applications.
That leaves the question of what should happen to Straps. As Schwern points out it will still work once you have installed Test::Harness 3.0 - but it would be orphaned: installed but unmaintained with no updates available. The solution might be to make an independent release of Test::Harness::Straps. There's a slight danger then that people would continue to use it for new code but the documentation would carry warnings about the inadvisability of that - and ultimately if someone finds it useful, why not?
Let me know what you think.
I say pull it out and wrap it in a package. Push the POD out to Test::Harness::Straps::Manual and replace the Test::Harness::Straps POD with a single “DEPRECATED AND LARGELY UNSUPPORTED. DO NOT USE FOR NEW CODE” warning.
Re:(Separate distro)++
Alias on 2007-10-17T05:26:29
I concur.
Split it into a separate distro, increment the version, label it as experimental.Re:(Separate distro)++
AndyArmstrong on 2007-10-17T10:58:19
I think that's what's going to happen. Schwern has taken on that task since I posted the story.
I see absolutely no harm in still having Straps around. I'd hate anyone to be faced with a pile of code they couldn't use / had to rewrite because we'd decided to kill it.
