in reply to Efforts to modernize CPAN interface?

CPAN is a very-mission-critical software system that presently works.   It is used by an unknowable number of projects throughout the planet.   Function, and predictable stability, is far more important than appearances.   (Kindly notice that PerlMonks continues to look – and, to function – much as it has done for ... decades.)   Suggestions for functional or use-case improvements should be welcomed, but an engineering tool whose purpose is to provide access to a vast software repository has no particular need to be “sexy” ... nor to be possibly-destabilized in pursuit of it.   Freight locomotives are not good-looking, except to railfans . . .

I would absolutely treat any such proposal just as I would for any client, as one which inherently manifests a substantial amount of business risk.   You should bring to the table a concrete set of proposed changes, along with an assessment of the perceived benefits and potential risks.   If the proposal gains traction, a very-detailed project plan and test plan will then be expected, along with an assessment of costs, calculated just as though the developers who were tasked with doing (and gruelingly testing) the changes were making their salary and not volunteering.   (If they actually are, in this case ...)

It will not be easy – and, if I may suggest – this just might be why it has never been implemented.   I am certain that it has been proposed many times before.

But, if you would like to have a go – start with your detailed change-plan and benefit/risks assessment . . .

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Re^2: Efforts to modernize CPAN interface?
by nysus (Parson) on Dec 22, 2017 at 19:53 UTC

    For now, I would just say an effort could be made to make only the most superficial, easiest fixes for now that entail about zero risk. If your house has no curb appear, do the easy stuff first. So if, for example, you've got an old couch sitting on the front lawn, start by getting rid of that instead of scraping off the peeling paint and repainting. Like, just what the hell is that box in the upper left of the page on PAUSE? OK, it's a pause in a musical score. Pure geek humor. But really, it looks like the site is badly broken the way it's executed. And the menu literally looks like it's from 1995.

    Now, these are very simple fixes. And it seems to me that if someone were thinking about these kinds of things, they would have been done a long time ago. And so I'm asking myself, why have people left a couch sitting on the front lawn for 20 years? Why didn't someone move it? Perhaps this is done purposefully and the decidedly dated design is a kind of statement that Perl is no nonsense (I don't think the approach is working and there are probably much better ways to pull that effect off). Or maybe Perl programmers by nature don't pick up on these things and stop to think these superficialities are important. Personally, I think they are important.

    And I'm not knocking anyone here. I'm grateful for whoever put PAUSE up. But we all have our strengths and weaknesses and we also tend to focus on what we are good at and prioritize those things. And that's absolutely fine.

    $PM = "Perl Monk's";
    $MCF = "Most Clueless Friar Abbot Bishop Pontiff Deacon Curate Priest";
    $nysus = $PM . ' ' . $MCF;
    Click here if you love Perl Monks

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      So you've switched to couchy shoes on your monitor?
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