On Wed, Sep 25, 2002 at 03:37:51PM -0700, david wrote: > a lot of modules in CPAN have overlap functionality. they exist solely > for the users' benefit.
It depends on the module, and for many of the modules that may be true. But there is another reason there are overlapping modules on CPAN: the authors have an unwillingness or an inability to collaborate with each other. This can be either out of ego, ignorance of another similar project, an inability to contact the other author, clashing personalities, or an inability to collaborate in general. > POSIX for example, is probably the most complicated module in CPAN and yet > a lot of the functionalities are either directly available from Perl or > another module is build to do the same thing with a prettier interface. > some modules are simply a wrapper around another module with a different > interface or with only the most useful functionalities retain. I understand your point, but POSIX isn't really a good example; it comes with Perl, and is there to provide a POSIX interface for POSIX-compliant operating systems. Certainly it overlaps with many modules on CPAN, and with Perl itself, but it's the only module I know of that fills the particular role of providing a POSIX interface. Maybe in that it isn't such a bad example; there are modules, and Server::MUServer may be one of them, that overlap others, but bring together quite a bit of functionality that would otherwise be difficult to get from each of the overlapped modules. > we don't hear a lot people complain that there are too many module doing > the same thing in CPAN. You may not hear people complain about it, but I believe it is the single biggest problem we have with CPAN; there are too many modules to choose from that do the same thing with minor variations. Choosing between them involves installing each to evaluate what kinds of bugs there are, how the interface works, etc. Choice is important, but in this case it also makes things much more difficult for what appears to be little added benefit. I would much rather see some of the authors of the similar modules combine their efforts. Michael -- Administrator www.shoebox.net Programmer, System Administrator www.gallanttech.com -- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
