Re: Choosing the right module (Judging the Quality of a CPAN module)

Thanks for asking this Bod. I will focus on how to generally make choices like these.

Judging the Quality of a CPAN module

Warning signs:

Bad reviews
Only one release and/or hasn't had releases for many years
Its test statistics show a lot of failures
Lots of unresolved bugs
CPANTS Kwalitee score

Recommended modules:

Task::Kensho - a list of recommended modules for various tasks, sponsored by the Enlightened Perl Organisation

Discouraged modules:

Switch (do not use - see perldoc Switch Statements)
File::Slurp (has a lot of issues, better to slurp manually - see Re^3: Extracting selected fields form file record (don't use File::Slurp))
XML::Simple (only useful for a very narrow range of tasks, better modules are: XML::Twig, XML::Rules, XML::LibXML)
CGI (consider more modern web frameworks, such as Catalyst, Dancer/Dancer2, and Mojolicious)
Acme (it is almost certainly a very silly idea to use an Acme module in production code! :)

See Also

Re^3: Perl Code Changes Behavior if Two Subroutine definitions are swapped by haukex (2016, how to tell a good CPAN module from a bad one)
Criteria for when to use a cpan module by nysus (2019, when should you depend on a CPAN module rather than write your own code?)
Re: Criteria for when to use a cpan module (Buy vs Build) (my checklist: when to use a CPAN module, when to write your own code)
Writing Solid CPAN Modules (see especially the "Dependencies" section)
CPAN Module Evaluation Red-Flags by bsb (2003)

Updated: Minor reorganisation of the material in the original post. Added "See Also" section. Added warning re using Acme modules (thanks cavac).

Comment on Re: Choosing the right module (Judging the Quality of a CPAN module)

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Re^2: Choosing the right module by Bod (Parson) on Oct 23, 2022 at 16:17 UTC
Thanks for asking this You are welcome - I thought you would like the question eyepopslikeamosquito Task::Kensho - a list of recommended modules for various tasks Thanks! I had not come across this module previously. Interestingly, it recommends all three of the modules I listed as being good choices for the application. Plus others as I expected.	[reply]
Re^2: Choosing the right module by cavac (Parson) on Oct 24, 2022 at 12:46 UTC
I'd add the whole ACME:: namespace to the list of discouraged modules, too. Older PerlMonks will already know this, i newbie might not. And i'd also put up a warning flag around most of the JSON:: modules. They work fine for most stuff, but can be VERY flaky when it comes to nested JSON structures in combination with Unicode/UTF8. (Why would you have nested JSON structures? Because you can, apparently) PerlMonks XP is useless? Not anymore: XPD - Do more with your PerlMonks XP	[reply]
Re^3: Choosing the right module by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Oct 25, 2022 at 02:49 UTC
I'd add the whole ACME:: namespace to the list of discouraged modules Good point! I've updated my response with an Acme link (for Perl users not around in Acme's heyday of the early 2000s) along with a warning: *it is almost certainly a very silly idea to use an Acme module in production code!*	[reply]
Re^4: Choosing the right module by cavac (Parson) on Oct 25, 2022 at 08:09 UTC
I must admit, i use one module in a sort-of-production system on the dev side to test code. Acme::Umlautify is great for finding Unicode/UTF-8 bugs in your code. PerlMonks XP is useless? Not anymore: XPD - Do more with your PerlMonks XP	[reply]
Re^5: Choosing the right module (Acme::EyeDrops used in production) by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Oct 25, 2022 at 10:35 UTC
Re^6: Choosing the right module by cavac (Parson) on Oct 27, 2022 at 10:36 UTC
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