Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?

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From: Bogart Salzberg
Subject: Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Date: 20:37 on 18 Jul 2005

Recently I asked a question of this list and received an answer from  
Tony almost immediately which helped me to fix my problem and move  
on. I understand that I can't generally expect this level of  
responsiveness, but I will appreciate it anyway:

Imagine you are trying to install a Ford Mustang engine in a Ford  
Festiva. It doesn't work at first. You call the Ford Motor Company  
and ask to speak to the head of the engineering department. You ask  
your question, and he answers it, and it works.

This is extremely unlikely because of the static, insulated hierarchy  
of that industry. But _we_ are all just Perl hackers, all making a  
living in roughly the same way, all trying to save some time by  
borrowing code and some of us sewing good karma to harvest later.  
Enter CPAN.

CPAN is a good example of a collaborative institution that continues  
to be useful and fairly well structured without the heavy-handed  
machinations of a select few. I find it somewhat miraculous,  
actually, that this giant pile of effort by self-selected volunteers  
is so widely considered by the geeks-in-suits to be an essential  
business tool. (Many others dismiss it and Perl, of course).

But does CPAN have a monopoly on credibility? Do maintainers of  
cornerstone modules 'owe it' to users to conform to the CPAN  
distribution model? Has CPAN itself become the heavy hand, darkening  
other venues with its vast shadow?

Coming around, I wonder if we are acting out a rather old-fashioned  
drama here: CPAN is _entitled_ to distribute the code; users are  
_entitled_ to prompt updates; the maintainer is _entitled_ to  
authority over the code in the base namespace. That's a lot of  
entitlement and ownership and stratification and... hierarchy?

It's often practical to trust the experts. This should not be  
construed as complacency. It can become practical to disagree with  
the experts. This should not be construed as mutiny. As we are  
fortunate to agree on the open-source principle, the only _thing_ we  
really have to fight over is the 'brand', whether it be the  
'Class::DBI' brand or the 'CPAN' brand. While use of these brands is  
unrestricted, ownership, for better or worse, is concentrated.

So, my over-simplified solution is: collaborate or compete. Both  
options are reasonable and achievable. CPAN's successor, if there is  
to be one, can be built with the same software tools. (In fact, there  
are probably some CPAN modules which would help a great deal ;-). But  
the brand can't be built with software. It is built with customers.  
Collaboration will take the day.

Bogart

now accepting tomatoes

My one-act play on the subject of Perl certification:
http://inkfist.net/boston-pm/theatre/

(message missing)

Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Matt S Trout 15:24 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 15:33 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Matt S Trout 15:57 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 15:57 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Dan Sully 16:06 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 16:34 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
William Ross 16:59 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Matt S Trout 16:23 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 16:29 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Stephen Quinney 08:43 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 09:14 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Brett Sanger 13:13 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
merlyn (Randal L. Schwartz) 13:27 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 16:03 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Brett Sanger 16:11 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 16:41 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Brett Sanger 17:39 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 18:05 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Brett Sanger 18:13 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Christopher Hicks 19:12 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Casey West 18:20 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Simon Wilcox 16:23 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 16:57 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Simon Wilcox 17:11 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 17:34 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Simon Wilcox 17:51 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ask_Bj=F8rn_Hansen?= 20:23 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Brett Sanger 17:54 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Bryan Allen 18:20 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 18:55 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Casey West 19:05 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Cees Hek 19:17 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Bogart Salzberg 20:37 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Sam Vilain 06:05 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
leif.eriksen 06:22 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 08:10 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Casey West 13:40 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 14:47 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Brett Sanger 15:00 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 17:10 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Gordon Haverland 15:59 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 16:27 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tyler Rorabaugh 16:33 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Simon Wilcox 16:35 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 16:48 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
hartzell 20:52 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 21:05 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Aaron Trevena 18:44 on 19 Jul 2005

[was: Wherefore the 1.0 release?] What's wrong with CPAN
Jay Strauss 13:55 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: [was: Wherefore the 1.0 release?] What's wrong with CPAN
Tony Bowden 15:15 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: [was: Wherefore the 1.0 release?] What's wrong with CPAN
Jay Strauss 16:49 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: [was: Wherefore the 1.0 release?] What's wrong with CPAN
Rick Measham 00:40 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: [was: Wherefore the 1.0 release?] What's wrong with CPAN
Aaron Trevena 18:26 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 10:20 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Edward J. Sabol 19:15 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 19:21 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Edward J. Sabol 19:31 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Matt S Trout 19:32 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Dana Hudes 02:33 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Matt S Trout 02:54 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Rick Measham 21:27 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Michael G Schwern 21:34 on 17 Jul 2005

RE: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Andrew O'Brien 00:26 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 00:34 on 19 Jul 2005

RE: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Simon Wilcox 08:03 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Mike Whitaker 08:05 on 19 Jul 2005

RE: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Andrew O'Brien 01:04 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Matt S Trout 17:06 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 17:07 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Dana Hudes 17:24 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Mike Whitaker 18:18 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Sebastian Riedel 18:40 on 17 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
leif.eriksen 03:01 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ask_Bj=F8rn_Hansen?= 07:35 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Matt S Trout 13:52 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 14:55 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Michael Peters 14:56 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 15:16 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: [was: Wherefore the 1.0 release?] What's wrong with CPAN
Simon Wilcox 15:37 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 18:16 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 18:36 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Mike Whitaker 18:39 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 18:47 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Michael Peters 19:30 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 19:44 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ask_Bj=F8rn_Hansen?= 20:32 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 20:41 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 18:45 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Scott McWhirter 19:19 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 19:29 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Rick Measham 00:23 on 19 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Bryan Allen 19:24 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 19:24 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Matt S Trout 19:38 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 19:39 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
hartzell 20:53 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
merlyn (Randal L. Schwartz) 21:35 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 21:50 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 19:35 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Matt S Trout 19:58 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 19:56 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Rhesa Rozendaal 20:34 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 23:01 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
David Baird 00:31 on 19 Jul 2005

Peter Speltz 05:54 on 20 Jul 2005

Re: your mail
Tony Bowden 07:19 on 20 Jul 2005

Re: Wherefore the 1.0 release?
Tony Bowden 19:43 on 18 Jul 2005

Re: your mail
Peter Speltz 16:12 on 20 Jul 2005