I agree with this one. In a lot of my EFnet #perl chatting, I see a lot of people ask how to "get Net::Telnet working" or "having troubles with Expect", or even "can't get this socket code to work". When I question them further, 9 times out of 10 it's because they are either fetching a web page (the hardest way possible {grin}) or speaking some other basic protocol like mail or news. When I point at the myriad of solutions on the CPAN, usually their electronic jaw drops to the table, and they're on their way, not having to reinvent the wheel by gluing together popsicle sticks.

Perhaps it's because when people come to Perl from other languages, they're already conditioned to have to "roll their own". The CPAN is a fairly interesting advantage in the Perl community, and too many of us take it for granted. As I often say in Usenet posts:

The CPAN is your friend. Use the CPAN!

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

In reply to Always ask for the context of the question by merlyn
in thread Installing Expect.pm and IO by adamsj

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