[plt-dev] a common collection for utility modules

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 6:46 PM, Ryan Culpepper <ryanc at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> I propose to add a new collection called "unstable" to serve as a place to
> put small libraries that might be of general use but either don't fit or
> aren't ready for any of the existing locations. For example, a graph
> traversal algorithm using an idiosyncratic list-based graph representation
> doesn't fit in scheme/list, and it isn't significant or general enough to
> justify creating scheme/graph. But it might be useful to more than the one
> module that currently uses it.
>
> There are 62 files in the collection tree ending in either "util.ss" or
> "utils.ss". At least some of that code must be useful to more than one
> client.
>
> The name "unstable" is intended as a warning that the *interfaces* in
> particular are unstable. Developers of planet packages and external projects
> should avoid using modules in the unstable collection. Contracts may change,
> names may change or disappear, even entire modules may move or disappear
> without warning to the outside world. Of course, people who make changes to
> modules in unstable must fix up any uses within the collections tree.
>
> I hope the unstable collection will lead to more code sharing. I also hope
> that it will be a place to hash out interfaces and get implementations Just
> Right before promoting code to the major leagues^W collections. Not for all
> code, just for code that doesn't immediately fit in anywhere else.
>
> Ryan

+1

--Carl