We have an Acme namespace, so joke modules don't clutter other namespaces.
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I agree (somewhat) with your message - if it's that searching through CPAN is sometimes less helpful because there are so many things to search through. However, it's a "high class problem" - it would indeed be much harder to search for what you needed were there nothing to search through. CPAN is difficult to search, this is unfortunate reality, but I'd argue that it is not CPAN's job to provide search functionality - it is a repository not a search engine, there are other tools and (ahem) communities devoted to solving that problem
Furthermore, if you don't have anything nice to say....
It's not what you look like, when you're doin' what you’re doin'.
It's what you’re doin' when you’re doin' what you look like you’re doin'!
- Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
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Work is not the only point of any programming language. Fun, hobbies and humor are all legit too.
Isn't there enough pointless modules to wade through on CPAN already, without cluttering the namespace even more?
Nah. Bring em on! Besides he explained how in fact this wouldn't be a pointless module.
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You have a point. OTOH, some of my most treasured discoveries were made while I was looking for something else - new words, new ideas, things that jarred me out of my mental ruts - they've all been useful, even when I found them accidentally as I scrummaged around for something...
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Every search result that ISN'T valuable wastes time and money for people actually trying to get WORK done with the language, which is the only point of a programming language.
I disagree. The point of a programming language is to program - and the motivations for that are myriad. Accomplishing work is one of them, certainly - and to many people, that is the only point of programming. It's just a job. You do your job, get your pay, and do something fun on weekends, like watch television or participate in the running of the bulls or something.
Other people love to program for the joy of making something - much like some people build models, or lay out their own gardens, or put together a radio. To many people, programming is fun - a hobby, an avocation, the reason they hold a boring job - it permits them to program in their spare time.
I have no solid facts to back up my belief, but I suspect that a huge number of Perl modules on CPAN were made by people, simply for the love of making a fine tool. I'm not talking about ACME::Bleach, but useful, practical modules that are used in serious applications - by professional programmers. Whatever their motivation, writers of Perl modules weren't doing it for the money. To them, it wasn't WORK, it was PLAY.
If you find CPAN so useless, you are free to write whatever modules you need. Apparently, despite the frivolous modules and the difficulty in finding ones you need, you still find CPAN less trouble than rolling your own. But the reason those modules even exist, is that many programmers - professional and amateur - enjoy programming for its own sake, and the modules are a result of their PLAYING.
Finally, try to lighten up. Learn to love programming, or find a job you love. Life's too short to be all crabby about fun stuff. | [reply] |