Hi Dick,
Sorry to take so long to reply. This has been sitting in my inbox, because I
didn’t want to just fire off a quick reply. But then I did reply at all :-(
> The author of Net-FullAuto-1.0000327 has continued, for two years, to upload
> an inexorable stream of incomprehensible drivel.
>
> CPAN is being abused here; there is no meaningful attempt to create anything
> useful.
It seems like Brian is creating something that’s useful for him.
Most things on CPAN started life as something that was useful for the author,
and they shared it in the hope that others might as well.
Many of us looking at Net::FullAuto wouldn’t consider using it. Some people
have tried to point out some of the problems, and different approaches he
should be taking:
https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=100658
Part of the “CPAN philosophy” is a low barrier to entry. As a result there are
a lot of questionable things on CPAN, but sometimes they evolve into something
good. Either by being adopted by someone else, or by the original author being
nudged and learning a lot as they work on it.
> CPAN guidelines for authors are not being followed.
There are a lot of guidelines related to CPAN, but very few rules. Even though
Net::FullAuto avoids or breaks many conventions, that’s still not grounds for
removing it from CPAN. We just choose not to use it.
> The Makefile.PL can only be characterised as malicious.
I’d probably classify it as “misguided” rather than malicious, but I know what
you mean. I really wouldn’t want anyone to run that!
> IMHO, this is one of those rare occasions where robust action by CPAN
> librarians would be fully justified.
> As a minimum, authors maintainer rights over Net-FullAuto should be removed
> to prevent further uploads, and existing versions deleted.
Some of the other PAUSE admins will tell you that there are times when I wish
there were a firmer hand on the tiller of CPAN. But they always remind me that
that’s not our way. And they’re right.
A better approach would be to write one or more blog posts about what behaviour
is appropriate in Makefile.PL and other parts of a distribution. And how to
decompose applications, and what sort of things should go in CPAN modules, and
what things should stay private. I’m not saying *you* should write such posts,
but I think they’d be useful and of general interest.
Such blog posts could use Net::FullAuto as examples of what not to do, both in
an attempt to educate/help Brian, and also to ensure people know to avoid it.
I completely understand your frustration with Net::FullAuto, and desire to
protect CPAN users from it. But we can’t start putting fences around CPAN, to
stop people uploading because we don’t like the way they write software.
Cheers,
Neil
