[Catalyst-dev] Catalyst + Bread::Board

[André Walker]

Hello,

Following Christiaan's lead, I'm also writing this to ask for input for 
Google Summer of Code. I will also be applying for Catalyst this year, 
on the same project as last year, i.e. reworking Catalyst component 
loading system using Bread::Board.

Last summer I did implement the component loading system, but it is 
still not ready to be released. If you try the code from the 
gsoc_breadboard branch, you can create your own custom container. But 
some things aren't quite ready to be used. For instance, setting the 
lifetime of the component to "per request" is not working, and the sugar 
syntax (which, while not required, is pretty cool!) is also not 
finished. Also, some features were removed or deprecated, and back 
compat is needed. In the last few weeks of GSOC, while implementing the 
new features, some things had to be broken and important modules like 
Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema stopped working with the branch.

So, summing up, it does load everything with Bread::Board, it is 
possible to use the new features, Config::Loader is merged into the 
core, and we're approaching a developer release. But we have a couple of 
blocker bugs that were introduced, which shouldn't take long to fix. 
Aside from that, there's room for improvement in sugary syntax, and 
maybe other features. Lots of tests to make sure it won't break anything 
that was working before, and also lots of documentation, because most 
people have a hard time understanding what Bread::Board is about, and 
how it can be used to improve Catalyst :)

So this is what I've got so far to write my proposal to this year's 
GSoC. Other than that, I'd like to hear from you. What do you want to be 
able to do with Catalyst's new component loading system?

Regards,
André