Comment Re:Why CPAN works (Score 3, Informative) 78
Matts,
I think you're right that CPAN got going because of its open access and wide distribution. But I also think it's a different world now than it was when CPAN started. Sourceforge, CodeHaus, and others have made it easy for developers to get that kind of distribution -- and much more, such as bug tracking and announcement lists -- for free and for any language. Many of the needs CPAN fulfilled no longer are as pressing.
CPAN's utility for developers, though, continues, and that's what I hope CodeZoo can offer for other languages. I think the problems for Java (and other) developers are much different than those CPAN faced at its launch; for instance, which one of these 200 Java XML parsers am I supposed to use!? We've designed the site to address the needs we see today.
You make a good point about open submissions encouraging new developers, though, and I think we should have a way to provide that. I'd call it the "code petting zoo," but that comes out wrong...
Thanks for all the great comments.
Marc Hedlund
O'Reilly
I think you're right that CPAN got going because of its open access and wide distribution. But I also think it's a different world now than it was when CPAN started. Sourceforge, CodeHaus, and others have made it easy for developers to get that kind of distribution -- and much more, such as bug tracking and announcement lists -- for free and for any language. Many of the needs CPAN fulfilled no longer are as pressing.
CPAN's utility for developers, though, continues, and that's what I hope CodeZoo can offer for other languages. I think the problems for Java (and other) developers are much different than those CPAN faced at its launch; for instance, which one of these 200 Java XML parsers am I supposed to use!? We've designed the site to address the needs we see today.
You make a good point about open submissions encouraging new developers, though, and I think we should have a way to provide that. I'd call it the "code petting zoo," but that comes out wrong...
Thanks for all the great comments.
Marc Hedlund
O'Reilly
