Xiong
I agree with Nadim; Keep It Short and Simple.
If you have something to contribute then just go ahead and do it instead
of talking about it. Choose a module name, it can very easily be changed
in the future when you can demonstrate what it can do and you can get
feedback then.
Stop talking, start coding.
Regards
Ian
On 24/08/2010 23:37, Xiong Changnian wrote:
Naming a new module or other Perl project is difficult. Perhaps the
process cannot be easy but it seems more difficult than necessary.
Various people may be consulted but while they may be ready to express
an opinion on a suggested name, they are less motivated to originate
one. I believe it is a circular dependency: A specific name arouses a
specific interest; an interested party discusses one name and perhaps
suggests another. I'd like to look for an independent way to inject name
suggestions and get the cycle started.
The required data is at hand: CPAN itself, in the form of POD. Each
module describes itself and while this is not perfect, it's good and
it's available.
My concept has the projector of a new module *begin* by describing his
project as best he can, in a plain English text file, preferably as POD
for the imagined module. This "search text" can then be compared with
the POD database and a list of *existing*, related modules generated.
That list may serve as a starting point for the projector to select a
name or two to submit to closer, human examination.
As a trivial side effect, if the search text includes a tentative name
for the new project and the name is already in use, this will be
flagged. As a more significant effect, if the search text matches any
existing module *too* closely, it may be taken as a sign that the new
project so closely duplicates existing effort that the projector might
better consider collaboration. A byproduct of this service is an
alternate method of locating modules for direct use. Both Google and
CPAN search have limitations.
I'd love to discuss the technical aspects but first, like all projects,
this one requires a name (and is not yet available to suggest one for
itself!) So, please, take a moment to think about this; the sooner you
offer an acceptable name, the sooner you will have to deal with fewer
requests of the same sort.
--
-Xiong
