Re^2: Module Bloat and the Best Solution

To further emphasize this point, there are a number of edge-cases that most programmers will never encounter, even in such a "simple" problem as unique-ing a list. For example, undef and "" will both be treated the same way, which may not be appropriate. Two-faced scalars may not be handled correctly. Objects and references will certainly not be handled correctly. A library, on the other hand, can solve this problem without you even needing to know that the edge-cases existed. That is the big win.

(Note: This isn't to say that the library always does it right. The version of uniq() in List::MoreUtils doesn't handle two-faced scalars correctly, but it does handle objects and references correctly, as expected.)

My criteria for good software:

Does it work?
Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?

Comment on Re^2: Module Bloat and the Best Solution

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Re^3: Module Bloat and the Best Solution by oxone (Friar) on Nov 09, 2007 at 16:17 UTC
>>A library, on the other hand, can solve this problem without you even needing to know that the edge-cases existed<< Unfortunately you can never take it on trust that any given library will, so it's still really down to you to try and think of all the edge cases, test them, and then possibly fix them. Sounds like your own example bears this out.	[reply]
Re^4: Module Bloat and the Best Solution by chromatic (Archbishop) on Nov 10, 2007 at 20:02 UTC
I think you mean "you and everyone else who uses the library and could possibly run into the same bug", which is a rather different point.	[reply]