[epo-core] Grant Proposal

[Mark Keating]

Hey all,

RJBS has put forward the following grant proposal for us to consider 
(below) we should work out if it is something we should do, and if we go 
for the full grant money he has asked for.

Kind regards

Mark

-----------------

=head1 Improve Dist::Zilla's Tests, Documentation, and Structure

=over 1

=item Name:

Ricardo Signes

=item Email:

C<rjbs at cpan.org>

=item Amount Requested:

$2000

=back

=head2 Synopsis

Dist::Zilla is a tool that helps Perl programmers build distributions 
for the
CPAN.  It eliminates boilerplate, handles packaging, interfaces with 
changelogs
and version control, improves prerequisite management, and generally 
makes it
easier to be a CPAN author.  This grant will fund work to make it easier for
new users to adopt Dist::Zilla and for Dist::Zilla itself to be more easily
extended, maintained, and understood.

=head2 Benefits to the Perl Community

Dist::Zilla makes the CPAN better.  More code can be released because 
the code
to do so is greatly lessened.  The code that is released can be of a higher
quality because more time can be spent on the code rather than the 
packaging.
It can also improve the lives of CPAN authors in general: if you don't 
want to
spend the time that Dist::Zilla saves you on writing more code, you can 
spend
it on anything else you like: skiing, sleeping, or eating ice cream.

=head2 Deliverables

=head3 reusable testing tools

Dist::Zilla and most of its plugins (both core and otherwise) are not well
tested, because testing it is tedious.  This could be greatly improved by
writing a few test classes or mock plugins.

Estimated time: two days

=head3 extensive testing of the core

The reusable test tools will be put to use (and thus proven useful) when 
tests
are written for all the core functionality.  These tests may not be 
exhaustive,
but they will be extensive and will be written with the goal of making
contributors feel that they can trust the test suite to catch most 
regressions.

Estimated time: four days

=head3 simplification of the command line tool's code

Right now, a number of hookable events are defined only in the code
implementing the F<dzil> command, which too tightly couples the main class
behavior to the command line tool.  As much as is possible, the 
App::Cmd-based
code for F<dzil> will be turned into a very thin wrapper around 
Dist::Zilla's
methods.

Estimated time: one half day

=head3 event structure for distribution creation

In other words, plugins will be able to attach more behavior to distribution
creation, to create new source code repositories, start files, and so on.

Estimated time: one half day

=head3 improved prerequisite handling

This will include improved methods for specifying versions required by 
allowing
shorthand identifiers for the latest version of a prerequisite, or the 
version
with which the author has tested.

(If the META.json 2.0 specification is sufficiently finalized by the 
time this
work is approved, the core Dist::Zilla prerequisite system will be 
improved to
match it.  I am familiar with the proposed changes to META and have a 
plan for
how to support them.)

Estimated time: one day

=head3 improvements for authoring distributions containing XS

I do not write XS code or C, but a number of users of Dist::Zilla do and 
have
asked whether I can improve Dist::Zilla's ability to accomodate them.  
Florian
Ragwitz has given me some ideas on how to do this, and I would like to carry
out his plan so that Dist::Zilla does not discriminate against XS authors.

Estimated time: one half day

=head3 documentation: improved new user's guide

This will extend and supplement the existing Dist::Zila::Tutorial, starting
from the position, "So you want to release code to the CPAN..."  There 
will be
a Pod version shipped with Dist::Zilla, but also an HTML document and 
slidecast
to more clearly walk new users through the process.

Estimated time: four days

=head2 Project Schedule

I can begin work immediately upon receipt of first-third payment.  I predict
about ten or twelve Saturdays of work.  (If payment were received before the
holiday season, there might be some weekends on which no work is performed.)

The figure quoted about, $2000, reflects about twelve full days at the very
reasonable rate of $20 per hour.

=head2 Bio

I'm RJBS on the CPAN.  I have released or adopted hundreds of modules, and
Dist::Zilla is the result of my own desire for a tool to make maintenance of
CPAN distributions simpler.  My previous TPF grant-supported work on
Pod-munging tools was also in furtherance of making it easier to 
maintain CPAN
distributions.  That work was completed without problems and the 
released code
has been succesfully adopted by a number of CPAN authors.

=cut


-- 
Mark Keating BA (Hons)          |  Writer, Photographer, Cat-Herder
Managing Director               |  Shadowcat Systems Limited
Director/Secretary              |  Enlightened Perl Organisation
co-Leader                       |  North West England Perl Mongers
http://www.shadowcat.co.uk      |  http://www.enlightenedperl.org
http://northwestengland.pm.org  |  http://linkedin.com/in/markkeating