: Faré
: Robert Goldman
:long-description #p"README.md"
Let me see if I understand clearly:
As before, if you put a string in here, you get the string itself as the value of :long-description.
If there is a pathname literal in here you get the contents of that file as the value of :long-description.
Is this correct?
I'm ok with this, but not so enthusiastic that I'll do it myself. I'd be happy to accept a pull request.
I was thinking even simpler: system-long-description returns whatever you put in :long-description, whether a string or a pathname. But if it's a pathname, whichever document-generating application (Quickdocs, Declt, etc.) is responsible for looking at that file, interpreting it according to its file extension and/or self-describing content, etc. It isn't ASDF's responsibility to either read the file contents or interpret them. You've been given the raw data, now you're on your own.
I'd also like some discussion about how this change would come into being. It's not especially backward compatible, but it should not cause breakage -- people using older versions of ASDF would just see a pathname in the unlikely event that they tried to retrieve the long-description.
Can anyone else think of any unexpected consequences?
I don't believe anyone is currently using a pathname in that field, so allowing a pathname and associating some semantics to it, whether actively supported and enforced by ASDF or not, is sufficient. The main burden would be to document the convention and convince a few key players to adopt it (e.g. Eitarō, Didier, Eudoxia, and other influencers).
—♯ƒ • François-René ÐVB Rideau •Reflection&Cybernethics• http://fare.tunes.org Q. Why does "philosophy of consciousness/nature of reality" seem to interest you so much? A. Take away consciousness and reality and there's not much left. — Greg Egan, interview in Eidolon 15