# from Gabor Szabo
# on Thursday 27 May 2010 04:33:
> why do all these people spend their free time on writing modules and
>uploading them to CPAN?
This doesn't explain the 'why', but: it's not free time. Sometimes it
is my time, but that doesn't make it free.
>Then we - the CPAN authors and other contributors - have these
>discussions on various mailing lists and blog posts on how much we are
>supposed to care about the "user experience": writing docs, not
> breaking backward compatibility, fixing bugs... etc.
We contributors have these discussions because we are also the users.
Some non-contributors may also have opinions, which they are welcome to
have and hold.
>Is it for the fun of writing code? ...
>Is it to participate in the community?
>Is it to get a virtual pat on the shoulder...
>Is it to make other people happy by letting them do their job easier?
>Is it because you feel obligated as you are using other peoples code
>free of charge?
Because if you don't publish your work, you aren't doing science? The
proprietary model works by putting the smallest saleable innovation in
an opaque box by itself and collecting rent. If there were a viable
model somewhere between that and "completely free", software would be
much better off and we wouldn't need to be asked about all of these
warm and fuzzy reasons for showing our work.
Why are open systems more maintainable, scalable, secure, and performant
than closed systems? If you can't see and understand the fundamental
pieces of a complex system, how are you going to understand the whole?
Software without source code is just a parlor trick.
Of course, a collection of reusable modules has more value being open
and transparent than in a bunch of black boxes. Even if you haven't
yet looked at the source, would you use Perl if you couldn't get the
source code for the interpreter?
--Eric
--
Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to
predict the future is to invent it.
--Alan Kay
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