On Sunday 28 May 2006 16:11, James E Keenan wrote: > Last week I mentioned > (http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.module-authors/4576) that I will be > leading a discussion at YAPC in Chicago on the process of taking over > maintenance of CPAN modules. This will be based partly on my own > experiences in taking over maintenance of ExtUtils::ModuleMaker from > Geoff Avery, and partly on the responses I got from a survey letter I > sent to about a dozen CPAN module maintainers earlier this month. > > But why stop there? My early sample was totally unscientific. (In > fact, I can't even remember how I drew it up.) But if you would like to > express your thoughts on this subject, you can view the questions at > http://thenceforward.net/pipermail/module-maintainers/2006-May/000002.html > and respond as described therein. >
<<<Your name:>>> Shlomi Fish <<<Your email:>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <<< Module(s) whose maintenance you took over: >>> Error.pm, WWW::Form, and also wanted to take over Mail::Webmail::Gmail (but the latter's maintenance has been eventually resumed by the original author). <<< Author or previous maintainer: >>> Error.pm - first Graham Barr then Arun Kumar U WWW::Form - Benjamin Schmaus Mail::Webmail::Gmail - Allen Holman <<< 1. Were you a frequent user of your module before taking over its maintenance from the author or previous maintainer? >>> I used Error.pm in several projects to some extent. I used WWW::Form in a web application I wrote when I contacted its author about some missing features and bugs. I utilised Mail::Webmail::Gmail in some scripts. <<< 2. Before taking over your module's maintenance, had you submitted patches to its author or previous maintainer? >>> Yes for all three. <<< 3. Did the author or previous maintainer initiate the change in maintenance, or did you? (Or was it some combination of the two?) >>> Well, WWW::Form is co-maintained at the moment. I don't recall who suggested giving me co-maintenance status for it, but it was a natural step after my contributions to it. As for Error.pm, it was neglected for several years. I posted a request-for-comments for transferring the authorship to me on my "use Perl" journal ( http://use.perl.org/~Shlomi+Fish/journal/29151 ). There, I was suggested to contribute to it by sending patches to fix bugs which I did. Afterwards, I contacted Graham Barr (who is its originator) and asked him to make me a co-maintainer. He did just that. (Arun Kumar U who maintained the module for a time, seems to have disappeared, and I could not reach him.) Mail::Webmail::Gmail's co-maintainership was initiated by me by having a patch in its bugtracker for a gmail login. I asked the CPAN admins for making me a co-maintainer, but eventually the author came back to life. <<< 4. Once you took over maintenance of your module, how much interaction did you have with its previous maintainer? >>> With WWW::Form - a lot. I've talked with its author on E-mail and IM extensively. With Error.pm none, as Arun Kumar U has disappeared. <<< 5. Once you took over maintenance of your module, to what extent did you change its coding style (e.g., variable naming conventions) from the original? >>> I didn't. <<< 6. Were there aspects of your module that you felt were incorrect and subsequently fixed? >>> With WWW::Form, I fixed some bugs (including some Cross-Site-Scripting bugs). With Mail::Webmail::Gmail, I fixed the login process, which was broken due to gmail changes, and also tweaked one function from having a lot of nested if's, to have if ($condition) { return ; }. <<< 7. To what extent did you modify your module's test suite? >>> I added some tests to WWW::Form. I don't recall how many were there originally, but they weren't adequate. (and still aren't probably). I added some tests to Error.pm to test for bug regressions. <<< 8. To what extent did you re-write or modify your module's documentation? >>> Minor (probably maintenance and feature-documentation) changes with WWW::Form and Error.pm, and none with Mail::Webmail::Gmail. <<< 9. In retrospect, what were the most positive -- and most negative -- aspects of the process of taking over your module's maintenance. >>> With WWW::Form the most positive aspect was becoming friends with its author. I don't recall any particular negative aspect. With Error.pm the most positive aspect was squashing the bugs one by one. The most negative aspect was the limbo between announcing my intenions of maintaining the module and actually maintaining it. <<< 10. What would you say you learned in the maintenance process -- with respect to either Perl code or interacting with other programmers? >>> I learned about the proper procedure of assuming co-maintenance or alter-maintenance of CPAN modules. I also learned a bit about Perl, especially from Error.pm. Regards, Shlomi Fish --------------------------------------------------------------------- Shlomi Fish [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.shlomifish.org/ 95% of the programmers consider 95% of the code they did not write, in the bottom 5%.
