Re: Re: The quantity vs. quality lesson

[PetaMem]

I have no problem in rating a module. I could do this day and night and not fear that I'm "discriminating" the author. But if I do this in some hidden thread @ PM (perlmonks), or in PM (personal mail), I will help an/several order(s) of magnitude less people, than if CPAN natively provided such a voting/commentary mechanism.

E.g. comment for a given module:

Tree::Nary

• the author has not time to maintain it
• it is written as a 1:1 transcript from a C implementation of Nary trees. Moreover it uses a hash for every node. If native Perl structures were used such as Lists, the memory requirements would go down 50% and the speed improve by a factor of 5.
• if the module was rewritten more radically so an object would be a whole tree (using lists of lists) and not every leaf, this would give a memory requirement of 25% of the CPAN solution and a speed improvement by a factor of 38!

How do I know? I have these implementations here. Will I contribute them? Not to this CPAN.

Lingua::NL::Numbers

• generates simply wrong output. Bug: 1100 is "duisend" (thousand)

Lingua::IT::Numbers

• requires 5.8.2 with no reason
• The most bloated module I've ever seen. requires Regexp::Common::numbers for NO reason.

[adrianh]

I will help an/several order(s) of magnitude less people, than if CPAN natively provided such a voting/commentary mechanism.

Which it does. We have:

• RT for public bug tracking
• cpanratings for public reviews
• cpan testers for public test results

All of which are integrated into http://search.cpan.org/.

[PetaMem]

Good links, and I must admit (that's a big shame on me), that I didn't know them before. I looked at cpanratings, and am very glad, that they are honest. Unfortunatedly: Where are the consequences?

That is: If a module gets beaten by the cpanratings nearly to death, where is the mark (yes - call it stigma if you like). Every potential CPAN user should see it on a prominent place prior to download.

[adrianh]

That is: If a module gets beaten by the cpanratings nearly to death, where is the mark (yes - call it stigma if you like). Every potential CPAN user should see it on a prominent place prior to download.

The rating is on prominent display on http://search.cpan.org. As is the pass/fail rate for the tests. Along with a link to the RT bug tracking system. For example see the page for my Test::Exception distribution.

[borisz]

I think CPAN is good enough for all this.
• Tree::Nary is propably not the best module, but if you remove that _that_ might force to rewrite or reinvent what Tree::Nary does already.
• If you have a better idea of the same module ask the author and maintain the module.
• If your module is very different, since your interface change, release a new module. And describe the need for the new module in your pod.
• If Lingua::NL::Numbers generates wrong output use http://rt.cpan.org/ to inform the author and others about the bug.
• And for Lingua::IT::Numbers I recommend provide a patch to the author and put the patch and a discription on http://rt.cpan.org/.

[PodMaster]

Lingua::IT::Numbers requires 5.8.2 with no reason

This is common mistake among new authors and it's usually due to tools like h2xs or ExtUtils::ModuleMaker.

It's important to note that http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Lingua-IT-Numbers still does not have a bug report about this (*hint hint*).

[dragonchild]

If the author doesn't have time to maintain it and you have a better solution, then why don't you offer to adopt the module and release your improved version? There are at least 10 modules I know of where this was the case.

If you have thoughts about a module, THEN TELL THE AUTHOR. I would love to have this kind of feedback about my modules. But, you know what, people don't tell me! Why, I have no idea. (PDF::Template, Excel::Template, Graph::Template - in case you're wondering)

[itub]

How do I know? I have these implementations here. Will I contribute them? Not to this CPAN.

Right, you write perfect software but you won't lower yourself to our level. What an excuse. As others have said, the best way of increasing the quality of CPAN is by contributing quality software. Also, if you submit the bugs and reviews through the proper channels instead of whining here you'll have a better change of getting them fixed.

[Hanamaki]

Let me add to the list of sinners another module which is not ripe for primetime:
Lingua::DE::Num2Word

Which is a CPAN Module provided by your Company and runs also on your companies website, It is only useable after reading the sourcecode and only if you know German, to understand your implementation of the cardinal number 1 . I for myself view the missing information about the handling of the number 1 at least as a documentation bug. So my advice as a reviewer is to not use this Module except for hobby projects.

Expample: 4801 becomes viertausendachthundertein. This is not exactly wrong, but documentation is needed.

[dragonchild]

Why are you telling us? Have you told the author(s)? Have you submitted a bug report with accompanying test case(s)? Have you submitted a documentation patch?

[Hanamaki]

Why are you telling us? Have you told the author(s)? Have you submitted a bug report with accompanying test case(s)? Have you submitted a documentation patch?

I am not sure, wether I did the right thing here. The moment I wrote this, I thought it is fine to shoot a little back to a perlmonk who critizies other module authors so hard, but does not live in the cleanest house, too. Anyway, I hope that will not end in a flamewar or something like that. I am willing to participate in efforts to make the linguistic cpan a better place if someone wants to organize such an effort.

... Okay, probably I played the teacher Mr. Asshole here. Sorry for that. (Private Messages over CB on this topic solicted)