* On Sat, Apr 05 2008, Shlomi Fish wrote: > Hi all! > > In regards to the previous discussion about trimming down CPAN and finding > better ways to find quality modules, I got an idea of making CPAN "category" > reviews. The idea was originally derived from Freshmeat.net where they often > have category reviews of the various software hosted there: > > http://themes.freshmeat.net/articles/section/category%20reviews/ > > Now I thought of importing that idea for CPAN. > > [cut] > > So what do you think - is there an interest in this?
I think you should just do it. Then we can see if there is interest or not. Personally, I don't like reviews. I think reviews tend to aim for quantity over quality. For example, can you really become an expert in Template Toolkit, HTML::Mason, Template::Declare, and HTML::Template in a weekend, and then write an article? Of course not -- I use TT and TD extensively every day and I don't think I could give them a fair review. There are parts I like, but I don't think I could give you a full overview on exactly why or why not to use them. So the issue is that the reviews are very superficial unless the reviewer is an expert in all of the modules, which is rarely the case. If there are 5 similar modules, you are probably just going to pick one -- in which case, you won't be qualified to write about the other 4. So anyway, I prefer articles like "here's a cool thing I did with Foo::Bar". People can see what's good about Foo::Bar in a natural way, instead of having some review shoved down their throats. If some like Quux::Foo better, then they can write an article about that. In this system, the experts write about their areas of expertise, and let everyone else make decisions for themselves. I think that's what we need more of. As an example: http://blog.jrock.us/articles/Devel%3A%3ABeginLift.pod I suppose you could categorize that as documentation, but I like it for the "here's a module you haven't heard of before" factor. Another example: http://blog.jrock.us/articles/Adding%20more%20methods.pod The goal there was to show what you can do with Class::MOP and Moose. It's probably something you weren't looking to do, but now that you know about it, you have a new tool in your toolbox. I think that is more valuable than comparing Text::Template and TT. Anyway, no need to worry about what I think. Just add yourself to Planet Perl and start writing. Instant access to 2000+ readers. Regards, Jonathan Rockway -- print just => another => perl => hacker => if $,=$"
