Maintainer looking for a module

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Re: Maintainor looking for a module by Fletch (Bishop) on Nov 28, 2005 at 20:43 UTC
I'd think any maintainer might be somewhat leery of someone coming out of the blue asking to help with the maintenance of one of their modules. There's also the problem that if you just pick something at random now you might get bored with it n months down the road and then the module's back unloved again. A better route might be to just do your work and find out what modules you are using regularly and then work on improving those (fix bugs, submit patches, etc). You'll be more likely to keep involved since it's your itch that you're helping to scratch.	[reply]
Re^2: Maintainor looking for a module by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Nov 29, 2005 at 00:50 UTC
You'd be wrong. I know plenty of maintainers (however you spell it), including myself, who accept help for people they don't know. All that matters is that they do good work or send in good patches. The modules that most people use regularly are already the modules that get a lot of attention and don't need that much help. If someone wants to work on their Perl chops, choosing a neglected module is a pretty safe and effective way to do it. -- brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com> Subscribe to The Perl Review	[reply]
Re: Maintainer looking for a module by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Nov 29, 2005 at 00:44 UTC
Heh, I'm always looking for help with the back-log of patches for my modules. If you're interested in working on anything by me (BDFOY), let me know and we'll work something out. -- brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com> Subscribe to The Perl Review	[reply]
Re^2: Maintainer looking for a module by pileofrogs (Priest) on Nov 29, 2005 at 01:07 UTC
Woah, that's like a million modules you go there... Most of 'em look like something I could help with. Any in particular you'd like help with? Lemmi at that back-log of patches! -Pileofrogs	[reply]
Re^3: Maintainer looking for a module by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Nov 29, 2005 at 01:10 UTC
Let's talk about it in email. And that goes for anyone else who wants to do the same. :) -- brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com> Subscribe to The Perl Review	[reply]
Re: Maintainer looking for a module by wazzuteke (Hermit) on Nov 28, 2005 at 22:01 UTC
My suggestion would be to continue to use CPAN and contribure your own modules as you find that some ideas may not have been published as of yet. As far as becomming a maintainer of different modules, I would recommend this: If you use a module that you find bugs, want modifications, add functionality, etc., that would be a good time to get ahold of the author. When in contact, you may also express your wishes to maintain more CPAN modules and that you would be happy to make your requests for fixes, functionality modifications on their behalf. This should be pretty fair to the authors and yourself as well. Be warned though, there are a number of mods that have been in CPAN for some time now, and the authors might be out of date with the Perl community. The e-mail address, personal URL's, etc might be out of date. No matter the case, I would keep the recommendation. It will not only allow you to be the maintainer you wish, but it will also keep your interest since applicatons you maintain will be using the modules as well. ---hA\|\|ta---- `print map{$_.' '}grep{/\w+/}@{[reverse(qw{Perl Code})]} or die while ( 'trying' );`	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Maintainer looking for a module by pileofrogs (Priest) on Nov 28, 2005 at 21:56 UTC
Fletch, you make some really good points. I'm trying to go the top-down easy way to glory, when a bottom-up approach is probably more appropriate. Dragonchild, I appriciate the suggestion and the offer, but it's actually a great example of what Fletch was talking about, since I don't know the first thing about PDF. Diotalevi, you would be astonished at what I can misspell. Does that really give you a bad impression, or are you just making fun? If it really does give a bad impression, I better start using a spell checker...	[reply]
Re^2: Maintainer looking for a module by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Nov 29, 2005 at 16:01 UTC
You want to know something? When I took over PDF::Template, I knew nothing about PDFs, either. I actually wasn't intending on taking it over. I was tasked with adding a feature to my then-employer's PDF generating library. That feature would have required a complete rewrite of that library. Or, I could do a rewrite of PDF::Template and get its benefits (reports take half the time to write and look better). Turns out that the original author didn't want to maintain it anymore, so I took it over completely by accident. Frankly, some people would say that I still don't know anything about PDFs. :-) As for spelling ... if the only impression someone will get of you and your skills is how well you write, I think it would behoove you to write well, whatever that means. My criteria for good software: Does it work? Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?	[reply]
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Re: Maintainer looking for a module by rinceWind (Monsignor) on Nov 29, 2005 at 11:26 UTC
Why don't you sign up for the Phalanx project? These guys may well be able to help you pick a module, and you'll probably learn a lot about testing and "kwalitee" in the process. -- Oh Lord, won’t you burn me a Knoppix CD ? My friends all rate Windows, I must disagree. Your powers of persuasion will set them all free, So oh Lord, won’t you burn me a Knoppix CD ? (Missquoting Janis Joplin)	[reply]
Re: Maintainor looking for a module by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Nov 28, 2005 at 21:27 UTC
Call for PDFlib/PDF::API2 users My criteria for good software: Does it work? Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?	[reply]
Re: Maintainer looking for a module by pileofrogs (Priest) on Nov 29, 2005 at 19:13 UTC
Thanks everyone for your responses to the original question. While some folks found the criticism of my poor spelling disruptive (and it kind of was), I'm actually grateful for the debate. Before now, I thought spelling was no big deal. I foolishly believed that the only people who cared about spelling were marketing and sales types. I actually wore my bad spelling as a badge of pride. Now I know there are a good body of technical people who really really hate poor spelling. I'm a little surprised at myself for not realizing this earlier. Because I'm a member of the camp who believes it's the communicators job to be as clear and accessible as possible, I'm going to try to improve my spelling. Big thanks to BrowserUK for mentioning web browsers with built in spell checkers. I hadn't thought of that. I've just installed Spellbound for firefox, and I'm checking this post with it right now.	[reply]
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