[Catalyst] reference lib outside Catalyst web applicationdirectory

[Matt S Trout]

On 13 Dec 2006, at 14:59, Dave Howorth wrote:

> Matt S Trout wrote:
>> I'm asking why the web part can't be in the main app directory :)
>
> I've been reading this thread with interest because Leandro's
> description seems to fit my situation as well. This seems like a  
> pretty
> lame response. Does it mean that Catalyst can't be configured to  
> live in
> a separate place from the bulk of the 'business' logic?

Yes it does, it's impossible to write an application that depends on  
external code - that's why you can't use CPAN libraries with Catalyst

...

no, wait, you can :)

> The ability to put different bits of an application suite in different
> places is a pretty useful capability for application designers.

And if you want to do that, you can happily have a MyApp-Base  
distribution, a MyApp-Web distribution, etc.

Just make them normal perl dists with appropriate dependencies.  
catalyst.pl creates you a valid CPAN dist which makes it trivial to  
do that for  the web part - anything else should be done the same way.

>
> The ability to separate concerns is a fundamental strategy in software
> engineering.
>
> Or am I misunderstanding?

I think you and Leandro are both trying to do something the hard way.

If it lives as part of the main dist, put it in lib/ like normal.

If it wants to be separate, make it a separate dist that depends on  
the common stuff.

Screwing around with @INC when you can just write stuff that can be  
'make install'ed is the only thing here I'd call lame :)

-- 
Matt S Trout, Technical Director, Shadowcat Systems Ltd.
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