I'm a new member of PAUSE, looking to upload my first module. I ask for some advice from those who have more experience than I, as I'd like to do this the right way the first time :)
1. I have developed a module that provides an XS interface to the WMI library (libasync_wmi_lib.so) that is generated by building the Zenoss WMI software and provides a method of calling the WMI client without forking to use the wmic binary. My initial inclination was to just call the module WMIClient, but I'm not sure if WMI::Client or some other name would be better. The only 2 modules I currently see on CPAN that provide similar functionality are DBD::WMI and Win32::WMIC, both of which collect and parse the output of `wmic`, which is what my module is designed to avoid. Suggestions on the best way to name it would be greatly appreciated. 2. Said module currently has 1 function, wmiclient, which I was planning on exporting by default. I see that it's generally recommended not to do that, but it seems that there's little chance of polluting the general namespace, given that the existing WMI modules don't use it nor do they operate that way. At some point I may add an OO interface, but that's not an immediate concern of mine. Do you have any strong objections to the default export? 3. The module uses several chunks of C code from the WMI package itself, which are distributed under the GPL. My initial license though was to distribute the .xs file as GPL with the rest of the module package under the same terms as Perl itself, but I don't know if that's a valid licensing model. Can I do that, or do I need to distribute the entire module as GPL (which is OK with me). Is this a problem for distribution via CPAN? 4. In order to successfully build this module, you need to have the WMI library installed and specify the location of the WMI source code as a parameter to 'perl Makefile.PL' so it can find the necessary headers (which I'd rather not have to package with the module source). I have specified this in the README and Makefile.PL, but I don't know how to handle that requirement via CPAN. Suggestions/pointers would be appreciated. 5. I'm only starting to look into testing now, but one of the requirements for testing this will be that information be passed regarding username/password and machine to test against. Again, I don't know how to handle that requirement via CPAN - if you can point me to a good reference on how to do that, I'd appreciate that as well. Thanks, and I look forward to your response. Josh Joshua Megerman SJGames MIB #5273 - OGRE AI Testing Division You can't win; You can't break even; You can't even quit the game. - Layman's translation of the Laws of Thermodynamics j...@honorablemenschen.com
