It all comes down to one thing - whether it gets the job done

I haven't done much in perl for quite a few years now. This weekend, I needed to write some program that talks to LDAP.

I initially decided to do it in Ruby. I searched around and found Ruby's net/ldap library. I downloaded it and started to play with it. Everything looked fine for the first 5 minutes and it was easy to use, but when I tried to use the API to search for entries on LDAP, I simply couldn't got it to work - the return code always indicated that the search was successful, but the result set is empty all the time. I was pretty sure that I were using the library as supposed, but...

After a hour or so, I thought that that was a waste of time. My purpose was to have a piece of program that talks to LDAP and do things, and I don't care whether it's written in Ruby.

I searched for libraries in various languages, and when I landed on Graham Barr's Perl Net::LDAP on CPAN, I decided to give it a try.

Within 5 minutes, I got it talk to LDAP, and when it comes to search for entries, it worked great. After couple of hours, I completed the entire program and got everything I wanted.

Perl is old for sure, and I don't neccessary like everything about Perl, but it gets the job done for me, in this case and in many other cases.

Graham Barr did a great job to create the Perl LDAP library. It is easy to use, easy to understand and it is OO.

CPAN is a great treasure.

Peter (Guo) Pei

Comment on It all comes down to one thing - whether it gets the job done

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Re: It all comes down to one thing - whether it gets the job done by sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Oct 25, 2010 at 13:44 UTC
I am reluctant to say that the implementors of Ruby’s package did not know what they were doing, or something like that ... because that, quite obviously, would not be the case. Nevertheless, when you are about to embark across the desert sands, which do you prefer? A sturdy beast of burden (perhaps with a few grey whiskers, and the tired-looking eyes which have guided the animal through this same journey for many years), or a newcomer? The jewel might gleam brightly in the safety of the tent, but if you dropped the thing into the sands would you ever find it again? I have been burned too-many times by well intentioned language systems that championed “the one right way to do it.” Competently crafted though they might have been, by well-seasoned programmers, I simply have been burned, too many times. Their “best way” was not exactly “the way I needed,” and suddenly I found myself sticking shims and wedges all over their mechanism, trying to get it to work. Also, I have learned to look with a very skeptical eye at anyone who says, in effect, that theirs is “The One Right Way.” It sells seminars and textbooks, to be sure, but I just do not believe it anymore. (And furthermore, it rarely applies: nearly all of the software you are going to encounter is already in service and cannot be replaced, even with something that is “better.”) Does the world really need yet another procedural programming language? Have every one of the software engineers in the last fifty years really been “clooless?”	[reply]
Re: It all comes down to one thing - whether it gets the job done by toolic (Bishop) on Oct 25, 2010 at 13:26 UTC
It's great that you praise Net::LDAP so highly here. You should also rate the module on CPAN so that others may benefit from your experience.	[reply]
Re: It all comes down to one thing - whether it gets the job done by hominid (Priest) on Oct 25, 2010 at 13:32 UTC
Yep, I agree. I have had to do LDAP programming in a few languages, (Perl, PHP, Python, Java, C# and VBS), but I definitely prefer Perl and Net::LDAP. It is rock solid and very easy to use.	[reply]
Re: It all comes down to one thing - whether it gets the job done by JavaFan (Canon) on Oct 25, 2010 at 13:43 UTC
Graham Barr did a great job to create the Perl LDAP library. It is easy to use, easy to understand and it is OO. You are aware of the unit "milliBarr", aren't you? It's the unit (coined by the #perl IRC channel) that measures bad OO practices.	[reply]
Re^2: It all comes down to one thing - whether it gets the job done by merlyn (Sage) on Oct 26, 2010 at 14:01 UTC
I'll take the blame for creating both milliBarr and its cousin milliGraham. I spoke those only in jest, and anyone taking them seriously should not themselves be taken seriously. Seriously. -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.	[reply]


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