# The following was supposedly scribed by
# Ken Williams
# on Friday 17 June 2005 01:07 pm:
>> Calling the new module ::Modern and claiming that ::Long is
>> crufty, too flexible, and unpredictable probably set the mood.
>
>Amen. Eric, that was really obnoxious. You might have had more luck
>convincing people that your approach had some merit if you were less
>haughty about it.
Ouch!
Please note the "RFC" in the subject. That's not "Requests For
Congratulations and Clamoring new users".
This is a work in progress, and I was requesting (primarily) feedback on
the name (which I *know* is a dumb name (no. Really. The dumbest name
I've ever thought of.))
Had I used Getopt::WorkingTitle, would this discussion have been rosier?
My slides contain some notes about what I was trying to fix in G::L.
There were some scathing objections to my take on how the option
processing should behave. So, I was trying to get to the bottom of the
logic (past the religious fervor, etc, etc.)
What I've learned about this is that:
1. Historically, "--no-" was intended to reset hard-coded and
config-file options.
2. Since then, lots of people have been using it to override aliased
options (and as a fancy backspace key) (taking advantage of the
coincidental command-order of implementation detail.)
Where I'm going from here:
1. History wins the '--no-'. Fine. That doesn't mean we can't move
forward.
2. More examples on the program-order evaluation, which appears to be
largely misunderstood.
3. A clearly written set of design objectives, for my sake and the sake
of discussion. Hell. Maybe we'll even manage to hammer it into a
standard.
The trouble with open-source is that instead of cursing a black-box, I'm
able to dig through the code that's not doing what I want and find
what needs to change. So, I curse what needs fixing (of course this is
only what *I* see as needing fixing by definition I'm incapable of
seeing anything else) in there without stopping to say:
Wow! This module really does some great stuff! Isn't perl beautiful
and I'm really impressed at what Getopt::Long is so far. Pats on the
back for everybody and smiles all around. Now. Let's get to work
because we can do better.
I am grateful to everyone who participated in the discussion. Without
you, there wouldn't have been one. And it was a good discussion.
Maybe I'll see a few of you at OSCON. Send me an e-mail off-list and
I'll buy you a beer.
I do have strong opinions. I also don't surrender them easily. Of
course I think I'm great, but I never said I was better than anybody
else :-)
I'm not posting to seek approval. Tell me this is the dumbest idea
you've ever heard and I'll be happy as long as you tell me why because
I will have learned something and my code (or at least someone's code)
will improve because of it.
Thanks,
Eric
--
We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals.
--Quarry worker's creed
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