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Ovid (2709)

Ovid
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http://publius-ovidius.livejournal.com/
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Stuff with the Perl Foundation. A couple of patches in the Perl core. A few CPAN modules. That about sums it up.

Journal of Ovid (2709)

Wednesday September 21, 2005
02:55 PM

Bundle::Ovid -- What is the CPAN for?

[ #26818 ]

Seems some folks are taking me to task for having the temerity to upload Bundle::Ovid to the CPAN. That bundle is just a bunch of modules I constantly use but people seem to be frosted that I would (ab)use the CPAN like that. One person wrote "This is not what CPAN is for". Really? What is the CPAN for?

I have to admit, this confuses me. No one seemed to be upset when Simon Cozens started the trend. No one complained when Schwern followed suit. Ask has one. And don't forget Alberto Manuel Brandão Simões, brian d foy and José Alves de Castro (cog). However, I'm the only person getting flack for this.

So, what do you think? Do you think tiny bundles which take up virtually no resources but are extremely helpful to some developers are a bad idea? If you argue "waste of resources", are they your resources? Do you want the Acme:: namespace pulled, too?

It's often been said that a technology proves its worth when it's profitably used in ways the inventors didn't anticipate. That's part of what makes the CPAN great. This is also part of the reason why ideas to "forcibly improve CPAN quality" are constantly shut down. We want to make the CPAN easier for people to contribute, not harder. That's what people are missing.

So go make your personal bundles and put 'em on the CPAN. The next time you do a fresh install of Perl or go to work on a new Perl job, you'll be grateful.

And for some reason, I'm getting weird "error reading from remote server" messages when I try to log in an and comment on the reviews. Gah!


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Bundle::Ovid -- What is the CPAN for? 17 Comments More | Login | Reply /

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  • Hm, you could almost consider this as a list of non-core modules that you recommend highly. In my mind that's a better recommendation than "WOW, this module is SO COOL because it ships TWO POD TESTS that couldn't possibly be different on any user machine."

  • Hey, you are taking 5 kB of space on CPAN! I'll have to buy a new hard drive to host my CPAN mirror because of you! I'll send you the bill! ;-)

    Nah, my guess is that in the "old times" it wasn't as fashionable to watch the recent CPAN uploads every day and rate them immediately. That's why COG, BDFOY, et al. slipped below the radar. :-)

    As it is often said: CPAN is what it is because it allows anyone to upload junk, not despite of it. I think it is fine if you upload "vanity" modules/bundles, as long as they
  • How about a new namespace? Bundle::Personal::* or something?
  • The only thing I wonder about is the line at the top of Makefile.PL. use 5.008007; Is there some reason only people running 5.8.7 can install your bundle?
  • So someone gripes about a bundle on CPAN. Whine whine whine.

    CPAN thrives BECAUSE of the unfettered uploading of shit, not in spite of it.

    --

    --
    xoa

  • OK, i'm probably opening myself up for ridicule, but, where's the harm in making a module for your use, and making it available to others who might find it useful? I've always thought there should be an easy way for users to get setup easily for the task at hand, and a bundle seems like the logical choice for that.
  • I offered my opinion about your bundle on cpanratings.

    Let me make a few remarks about your recent comments. First of all, Simon Cozens' bundle predates cpanratings as does brian's and probably the others you point out.

    So yours drew attention when you uploaded it. (itub already pointed this out in a previous reply.)

    I am not singling you out. I don't even know you personally, and don't make presumptions about your character or habits based on a single module. I am only commenting on your contribution to the C

    • Possible it wasn't clear from my post, but I didn't take it as a personal attack against me. You can tell me that all of my modules are awful and I'll know you're talking about my modules. No worries there.

      And while I certainly have a different view on this issue, I also haven't made any presumptions about you. You're probably a great person; I just think you're wrong about personal bundles :)

  • Years ago I begged people to do this because it's better than ratings and the damned SDK will never come to pass. It never really caught on as people prefer to piss on OPM instead but I still have hope it will quietly gain momentum after all these years. The SDK will never come to pass and ratings remain useless. This is the only way. They're small and harder to game than other methods currently in use. Fucking whiners can go pound sand.
  • Spread the word: Bundles are the nearest thing we have to Software Development Kits.

    That's the reason http://search.cpan.org/modlist/Bundles [cpan.org] is titled "Bundles (and SDKs)". (Of course that only lists 'registered' bundles, but that's a separate issue.)

    I'd like to see many more people uploading bundles defining sets of modules that they use. Even better if the bundles define explicit module versions that are known to work together.

    Better still if the bundle definition is managed as part of the configuration m

    • This is a timely thread, as I was just grazing for modules to recommend for our site_perl libs, and wasn't finding kwalitee or ratings terribly helpful. (Kwalittee doesn't even add a point for removing blah blah blah and a.u.thor@ from template POD!)

      Using Bundle::* as the real recommendation will be rather more useful, for some of the Bundles. Those bundles that are personal SDK sets (e.g., Bundle::SDK::PAUSEID) are far more useful as "recommendations" than Bundle::ALLBY::PAUSEID, which some of these Bun

      --
      Bill
      # I had a sig when sigs were cool
      use Sig;
  • I would say it was because no one really cares about me and you get a lot more attention, but then there's brian's case...

    Whatever.

    I actually gave a lot of thought to uploading Bundle::COG or not. The truth is that it really saves me a lot of time, and it does serve a couple or purposes which I'll not go into.

    The thing is:

    For some time I've been thinking of uploading a Bundle::SDK::COG (kind of like Simons' Bundle::SDK::SIMON, but with the modules I use the most).

    I think now I will.

    I'm standing up right nex
  • "What is cpanratings for?" My answer is that it's a place for blowhards to let off steam, and I suggest you treat it as such.
  • Sorry, but I didn't read all the comments, as I'm in a hurry at the moment. But somebody told me there was my name in this post, so here is my answer: Bundles includes just a few text. Everytime I release a new one, I delete the old one. Everytime I release a new module, I check if I should remove an old one. I think the people concerned with the space should ask people which maintain dozens of copies of the same module in CPAN.
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