Proto -- making your life slightly easier

Proto is (C) Copyright 2010 by the Proto contributors (as listed in
AUTHORS). The license is Artistic 2.0; see LICENCE.

Proto is a hyper-lightweight dependency tracking and module installation
system.  Its only purpose is to help you set up a running environment
where you can play with Perl 6 modules with minimal hassle.  It is not
to be taken too seriously.  It is not a full-fledged module installation
system, as Parrot's Plumage aims to be.  It is a prototype; in fact, its
very name was chosen to indicate this fact.  It is currently trying to
prototype ideas for the loadable module ecosystem of Rakudo *, which can
also handle multiple copies of modules distinguished by :auth and :ver
name parts.

Proto bootstraps on Unix and Windows from a single file download.  It
keeps terminal output concise.  It has few commands and options.  It
does automatically handle the dependencies between your projects.

What proto will do for you:

1. Download, compile and install Parrot and Rakudo
2. Download, test and install Perl 6 modules
3. Create new modules (in projects, with tests)
4. Help your Perl 6 code use all these modules

To install Rakudo (and Parrot), type the following at the prompt:

  % ./proto configure
  % ./proto install rakudo

Installation of Parrot and Rakudo is merely a convenience; what proto
was really built for is installing modules. The command

  % ./proto install <module> [<module> ...]

will look among its list of registered modules for <module>, and
download and build whatever it finds.

Should the downloaded module happen to explicitly depend on other
modules, these will be downloaded and built before the dependent module
is built. And so on, until it all bottoms out.

The upgrade command

  % ./proto upgrade <module>

will check the module <module> and all that depend on it for upgrades,
and rebuild them in the required order. Omit the name of the module, and
all your installed modules will be upgraded.

See the file PIONEER for how to set up your project with proto, or let
the create-new-project script make one semi-automatically. TODO: convert
create-new-project (a bash script) into another Perl 6 module.

Removing a module is as simple as

  % ./proto uninstall <module>

If a dependency cycle is detected during the download process, the
install is aborted and the dependency cycle is described. It might still
be possible to install all modules despite the cycle, but the mere fact
that there's a cycle merits human attention.

There are many things which proto does not do. Even so, it is the hope
of its authors that it might be of some use, and make Perl 6 poets bold
in splitting up their work into logical independent units.