# from Andy Lester
# on Saturday 05 April 2008 09:57:
>The focus needs to change from the
>tactical ("Let's have reviews") to the strategic ("How do we get the
>proper modules/solutions in the hands of the users that want them.")
What good is strategy in a distributed anarchy? It seems to me that a
tactical approach is the only option available to any individual who is
going to take the initiative to create and host a given tool.
If you have a tactic for deploying a strategy, I would like to hear it.
It appears that our current strategy is this:
* rely on a proprietary web application for search (search.cpan.org)
* create multiple, unconnected web apps hosting diverse information
* mention and apologize for the above web apps in a wiki (web app)
* count on fewer than 10 people to keep the web apps working
So, I would love to see a better strategy -- probably involving more web
APIs and desktop clients, but definitely with more openness.
As for the problem of actually finding the right module for the job, the
challenges are, as ever:
* domain/topic identification
* option paralysis
* quality assessment
I think one good tactic for addressing all of these is to look at the
*who* behind the code: the authors, maintainers, and other authors who
depend on a given module can be a really good indicator of whether it
is right for you. Not only as a matter of "what would Jesse use", but
also in that you probably know a few authors from your domain and they
may have encountered problems similar to the one on your desk today.
If a significant number of the modules installed on your machine
frequently connect (via one or two degrees of require()) to a handful
of authors, that's probably a great metric for quality. Similarly, if
you look at the connections from a given problem domain, you are likely
to find answers there.
And just to make it clear that I think we're drowning in web apps: you
can't analyze the modules on my machine from a web app. You also can't
politely nag me to write a review for the ten candidate modules which I
dealt with this morning (at least not without e-mail.)
Aside: we *might* get a wxCPAN from Summer of Code this year, but we've
got a few days still before the applications are all in.
--Eric
--
Consumers want choice, consumers want openness.
--Rob Glaser
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