"Tim Bunce" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> On Thu, Nov 21, 2002 at 12:16:41PM -0500, Steven N. Hirsch wrote:
> > 
> > Is there somewhere I can grab a tarball to beat on prior to
> > release?
>
> Maybe.  Not yet.

I don't mean this as a criticism, just as an observation. The DBI is
an awesomely important part of Perl, and I am deeply indebted to Tim
and all those who have helped develop it. And, I would like to see it
be even better if possible.

It seems that many perl modules are still being developed in a fashion
that doesn't really help promote their growth - this seems especially
true of DBI and the DBD drivers.

Most of the DBI/DBD modules are following the old patterns set by the
p5p-style of doing things: the module has a single maintainer, patches
get submitted to that person via email or mailing list, and all the
source code is privately maintained.

This has the unfortunate consequence that it's really dificult to know
what the status of any of the modules are - are they being actively
maintained or (in the case of DBD::Pg for a while) has the maintainer
dropped off the face of the earth. Also - as in the case with Steven
asking to get a tarball - there isn't a public code repository to
check the status of new modifications.

Given the ability to get free time/space on servers like sourceforge
or even perl.org, why is this still the case? I'm really happy that
DBD::Pg is now being maintained openly via postgres.org, and I think
that we're already seeing benefits from making the module's
development more open just in the sheer number of DBD::Pg posts
recently.

Thoughts?
jas.


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