Re: Regrettable module names

[demerphq]

Naming things intelligently is hard. It requires a certain genius that frankly I think most people, like myself, lack. I spent a long time agonizing over what to call Data::Dump::Streamer. I eventually went with that name over some strong internal reservations (its too damn long for a utility modules) because a number of folks who i respect quite a bit seemed to favour it. Although a few releases later I added a "psuedo-namespace" to it called DDS, its not listed or registed but can be optionally installed when building DDS. The problem was that most of the Data:: namespace'es useful names are already taken, with a bunch of them taken by fairly poor quality modules. In fact I need to remove Data::BFDump as being obsoleted by Data::Dump::Streamer.

Also I've never understood why that name wasnt registered. Actually, while im not certain of this I have heard that of late very little registration is actually occuring. Perhaps because as you say you represent a SPOF and when you dont have the time the whole process comes to a halt.

The other one that _really_ annoys me is that the vast majority of Tie:: modules are horribly named. They should ALL be named Tie::Type(::Name)+. It seems so silly that there is no easy way to find out what types of tied array you can download for instance. I personally think Tie::Array::PackedC is a much better name than most of the Tie:: namespace. Consider:

# Well named
Tie::Array
Tie::Array::BoundedIndex
Tie::Array::FileWriter
Tie::Array::Iterable
Tie::Array::Iterable::BackwardIterator
Tie::Array::Iterable::ForwardIterator
Tie::Array::PackedC
Tie::Array::RestrictUpdates
Tie::Array::Sorted
Tie::Array::Test
Tie::Array::Unique
Tie::File
Tie::Hash
Tie::Hash::Abbrev
Tie::Hash::Abbrev::BibRefs
Tie::Hash::Abbrev::Smart
Tie::Hash::Approx
Tie::Hash::Array
Tie::Hash::Cannabinol
Tie::Hash::Constant
Tie::Hash::Expire
Tie::Hash::FixedKeys
Tie::Hash::Indexed
Tie::Hash::Interpolate
Tie::Hash::Layered
Tie::Hash::Longest
Tie::Hash::MultiValue
Tie::Hash::Rank
Tie::Hash::Regex
Tie::Hash::Sorted
Tie::Hash::Stack
Tie::Hash::Test
Tie::Hash::Transactional
Tie::Hash::TwoWay
Tie::Scalar
Tie::Scalar::Decay
Tie::Scalar::Escaped
Tie::Scalar::MarginOfError
Tie::Scalar::OK
Tie::Scalar::RestrictUpdates
Tie::Scalar::RingBuffer
Tie::Scalar::Sticky
Tie::Scalar::Test
Tie::Scalar::Timeout
Tie::Scalar::Transactional

# not so badly named
Tie::FileHandle::Base
Tie::FileHandle::Buffer
Tie::FileHandle::MultiPlex
Tie::Handle
Tie::Handle::CSV
Tie::Handle::Scalar

# outright badly named.
Tie::Alias
Tie::Alias::Array
Tie::Alias::Handle
Tie::Alias::Hash
Tie::AliasHash
Tie::AppendHash
Tie::Autotie
Tie::CArray
Tie::CPHash
Tie::CSV_File
Tie::Cache
Tie::Cache::LRU
Tie::Cache::LRU::Array
Tie::Cache::LRU::Expires
Tie::Cache::LRU::LinkedList
Tie::Cache::LRU::Virtual
Tie::CacheHash
Tie::Cacher
Tie::Cfg
Tie::CharArray
Tie::ClockTimer
Tie::Collection
Tie::Concurrent
Tie::Config
Tie::Counter
Tie::Coupler
Tie::Cvs
Tie::Cycle
Tie::DBI
Tie::DBI::ER
Tie::DB_File::SplitHash
Tie::DB_FileLock
Tie::DB_Lock
Tie::DNS
Tie::DataUUID
Tie::DeepTied
Tie::Depth
Tie::Dict
Tie::DictFile
Tie::Dir
Tie::DirHandle
Tie::Discovery
Tie::DiskUsage
Tie::DxHash
Tie::EncryptedHash
Tie::Eudora
Tie::FTP
Tie::FileLRUCache
Tie::Filter
Tie::Filter::Array
Tie::Filter::Hash
Tie::Filter::Scalar
Tie::FlipFlop
Tie::Folded
Tie::Form
Tie::FormA
Tie::Func
Tie::Function
Tie::GHash
Tie::Google
Tie::Gzip
Tie::HTML::Entities
Tie::HashDefaults
Tie::HashHistory
Tie::History
Tie::InsertOrderHash
Tie::IntegerArray
Tie::IxHash
Tie::IxHash::Easy
Tie::LDAP
Tie::LDAP::Entry
Tie::LLHash
Tie::Layers
Tie::LazyList
Tie::ListKeyedHash
Tie::LogFile
Tie::MAB2::Dualdb
Tie::MAB2::Dualdb::Id
Tie::MAB2::Dualdb::Recno
Tie::MAB2::Id
Tie::MAB2::Recno
Tie::MAB2::RecnoViaId
Tie::MLDBM
Tie::MLDBM::Lock::File
Tie::MLDBM::Lock::Null
Tie::MLDBM::Serialise::Storable
Tie::MLDBM::Store::DBI
Tie::MLDBM::Store::DB_File
Tie::Math
Tie::Mem
Tie::Memoize
Tie::MmapArray
Tie::Mounted
Tie::Multidim
Tie::NetAddr::IP
Tie::NormalArray
Tie::NumRange
Tie::OffsetArray
Tie::OneOff
Tie::Parent
Tie::PerFH
Tie::PerfectHash
Tie::Persistent
Tie::Pick
Tie::Proxy::Hash
Tie::PureDB
Tie::Quick
Tie::RDBM
Tie::RDBM::Cached
Tie::RangeHash
Tie::RefHash
Tie::RegexpHash
Tie::Registry
Tie::RemoteVar
Tie::RemoteVar::Callback
Tie::RemoteVar::Constant
Tie::RemoteVar::Tie
Tie::Restore
Tie::RevHash
Tie::RevRefHash
Tie::RndHash
Tie::STDERR
Tie::SecureHash
Tie::SentientHash
Tie::ShadowHash
Tie::ShiftSplice
Tie::Simple
Tie::Simple::Array
Tie::Simple::Handle
Tie::Simple::Hash
Tie::Simple::Scalar
Tie::Simple::Util
Tie::Slurp
Tie::SortHash
Tie::Static
Tie::StrictHash
Tie::SubstrHash
Tie::Sysctl
Tie::Syslog
Tie::Table
Tie::TextDir
Tie::TieConstant
Tie::TieDict
Tie::Tk::Listbox
Tie::Toggle
Tie::Tools
Tie::TransactHash
Tie::TwoLevelHash
Tie::URI::Escape
Tie::UrlEncoder
Tie::VecArray
Tie::WarnGlobal
Tie::Watch

Pretty much none of that last part of the list should have been registered IMO. I suppose its arguable that the ones _ending_ in 'Type' should be in the "not so badly named", but IMO they are just as bad. And there are probably a few in there that cant be better named because they have some special extra property, but even still I think the namespace is a just a big mess.

[tilly]

And here we see why broadly-offered criticism is risky.

Take a look at Tie::Static which is one of your "outright badly named" modules. But take a closer look at it and tell me the better name that it should have, noting carefully that it handles scalars, arrays and hashes.

[demerphq]

And here we see why broadly-offered criticism is risky.

On the contrary I specifically mentioned that there would be a few such modules included in the "bad list":

And there are probably a few in there that cant be better named because they have some special extra property, but even still I think the namespace is a just a big mess.

So I think I preemptively resolved this point. Anyway, IMO that module should be named Tie::Any::Static or something along those lines. In fact, in my eyes the fact you cant tell that module can handle any type of tie just by looking at the name says to me its badly named.