I see this problem all the time. Because I wrote an article about templating systems, I often get mail from people who say "hey, I have this great new system that I built." I look at it, and it's very close to one that already exists, but with a fraction of the functionality and polish. I point this out and I hear "well, mine is smaller and faster." Then I point out that it's smaller and faster because it doesn't do a whole bunch of things that any non-trivial system requires. Then I hear "well, I looked at that one but I didn't really get it."

It's a common problem. One thing I tell people about this is that it's okay to grab a CPAN module and hack it to pieces so that it works just the way you want it to. I've done that before, and it saved me time. Yes, you have forked the module at that point, but you also got a solution that works with minimal effort, and there's a good chance you will be able to either release your version or merge future changes from CPAN into it.

Not everything on CPAN is great, but some of it is. If people are telling you "hey, check out DBIx::Padiddle because it rocks for what you are trying to do" then you should really put some effort into understanding it. Big modules can be scary, but usually they are big for a reason, and writing your own version will not be as simple or as fast as you imagine.

In reply to Re: Reinventing the spaceship by perrin
in thread Reinventing the spaceship by nothingmuch

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