I don't believe so(course, it is possible...), but even if what you are writing has been written prior - it does not exactly mean it was written well OR written to fit your particular situation. I think that is why modules were created in the first place. There was a need for a particular piece of code and it could be useful in different situations. Therefore, someone took it upon themselves to create a module that could be useful for someone else down the road. So, my basic answer to this question is no, I think that's a tad general to say that everything has been created before. But on the other hand, useful functions or routines(i.e. a Module or library) most likely have been created OR will be created to be used by others.

My opinion on the above topic...is a bit mixed. I don't think using a module is wrong, as long as one understands the logic and fully understand the documentation to be as efficient as possbile using the module. But as a newbie, that's pretty difficult. Being in that situation, I think as long as one understands the concepts behind what is going on - and then writes code to utilize the module, understanding everything else will fall into place in time. Experience with modules helps enlighten the programmer on how to use it most effectively, as well as writing something efficient. If I had time as a newbie, I would do what you suggest snafu - I think it could be an excellent idea and a wonderful learning experience. On the other hand, if I was a programmer who was just starting out in Perl in a job situation and knew there was a module out there that could help me - I'm going to use it due to time constraints and the understanding that they know better than I on how to write a particular routine.