Orphan Module not on CPAN

Coplan has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Before I get flamed and down-voted because I didn't do a super search, let me say that I did find a lot of nodes already pertaining to this topic. But I think my situation is a bit different, so let me explain.

Several months ago, I stumbled upon a module that was used in a script that my friend was working on. I, of course, found quite a bit of use for the module, so I started using it recently in a script of my own. I've found a few bugs in the module, and I will likely be patching my copy of the module. I would like to submit it to the maintainer, but the maintainer's address is now not working. So I jumped on CPAN to see if I could find the module and find out a more current e-mail address. No luck. The module doesn't exist on CPAN.

I've considered submitting the module to CPAN complete with the patch. But I don't want to assume the role of maintainer for this module. I am, after all, not a veteran perl coder, and I have very little experience writing modules. But I honestly don't know what to do. Does anyone have some advice for me?

--Coplan

Comment on Orphan Module not on CPAN

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Re: Orphan Module not on CPAN by Limbic~Region (Chancellor) on Apr 15, 2003 at 16:50 UTC
Coplan, It is very possible that this mysterious module has been replaced by some new module that is on CPAN and is being maintained. It is hard to tell, since you didn't give the name of the module or even what it does. Cheers - L~R	[reply]
Re: Re: Orphan Module not on CPAN by RMGir (Prior) on Apr 15, 2003 at 18:10 UTC
I'm guessing he's run into the Amine Moulay Ramdane Win32 modules... The site where they were hosted has been gone for more than a year now, and they were never on CPAN. ~~Searching in google groups for recent posts about those modules brings up several "I need Win32::{xxx}, but Amine's site is gone"-type messages.~~ (Edit: This wild guess of mine turns out to be wrong, see below.) -- Mike	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: Orphan Module not on CPAN by Jenda (Abbot) on Apr 15, 2003 at 18:25 UTC
I don't really think so. Amine did not distribute the sources of the C part of his modules (As far as I know:-( so Coplan would only be able to patch the Perl part Anyway I second Limbic~Region's suggestion. Coplan, please tell us what module it is, who's the author and maybe someone will even know where did the person go. Jenda Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live. -- Rick Osborne Edit by castaway: Closed small tag in signature	[reply]
Re: Orphan Module not on CPAN by crenz (Priest) on Apr 15, 2003 at 16:49 UTC
Have you googled for the author's name, old e-mail address, module name or some parts of the POD? That might help. Also, you might want to mention that data in a reply to this thread; if the author is known in the Perl community, someone here might know him.	[reply]
Re: Orphan Module not on CPAN by Molt (Chaplain) on Apr 16, 2003 at 11:28 UTC
I'd personally recommend not submitting the module to CPAN unless you can get the agreement of the original author. There are many reasons that that may not have put the module there themselves- maybe they don't view it as good code so don't want it public, possibly they were working for a company who's contract precludes releasing things for open source, they may just not subscribe to the CPAN ethos, or the code may simply be under a non-compatible license. Whilst it would be a shame to lose what sounds like a potentially useful module it would be a greater pity were the author to be annoyed about the distribution of his work, or the CPAN to face any potential legal problems.	[reply]
Re: Orphan Module not on CPAN by Coplan (Pilgrim) on Apr 16, 2003 at 15:39 UTC
The only information that I have about the author is that he goes by Porp, and his e-mail is (supposed to be) porp@porpucs.com. The module gets a bit hairy. The modules is called "LISTGEN" and I have no installation files for it. It's purpose is to generate mp3 playlists based on a certain amount of criteria. That alone is a certain questionable cause. While I do have a bug fix for the module...do we really need to have another list generation utility on CPAN? I was actually likely going to switch to a different module -- one that has a maintainer. The only reason I'm using it now is because it was the very first module I ever worked with. I've learned a lot more...and I would like to switch gears a bit. I guess my original question is more for hypothetical situations. This particular module is in need of a patch, however, and if there were to be some way to let it be known that a fix exists...then I'd like to offer it up. --Coplan	[reply]