It's not about trusting other people's work. Admittedly, my feeling is that many coders don't want to use Module::X because they can't figure out what the hell it does.

On the other hand, different people think in different terms. Maybe I want to rewrite Module::X because it doesn't fit the way I think, or to address problems in my situation that are not a problem for the majority of users of Module::X. Or maybe I think I can do a much better job or just want to sharpen my skills.

I started off writing games for the 286/386 mostly on Extended DOS using Rational 4G. I had to create everything myself. Every video card chip with modes above 320x240 worked in a different freaking way (planar/banked/etc). You had to write assembler to drive them all. (Over 8 chipsets when I stopped.) I know the hell of having to write bimodal interrupt handlers that can handle the context switch from real mode to protected mode. It's not a place I every want to go again.

When I found Perl and the huge amount of code on CPAN, I was amazed at how simple it was to build complex and diverse apps in no time flat. So for me, it isn't a matter of trust.

-Lee

"To be civilized is to deny one's nature."