http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=1226750

Say, for example, I get eaten by a bear, roll my truck off into the lake, get crushed by falling mountain boulders or otherwise burn in a fire, I'm wondering what will happen with my CPAN distributions.

I mean, I won't care if I'm dead, but if they are being used (from what I can tell, they are in a 'minimalistic' sense (I don't know numbers)), what happens? By default after years of trying to understand, they'll fall into a state of disrepair and then go through the normal channel of adaption.

I'm wondering what my fellow Monks think about this.

My question here, is would it be worth working it up the chain to have a "will" of sorts; someone you could "dedicate" your distributions to, within the Makefile (or whatever dist thingy one uses). A new attribute, effective across all build platforms and accepted by CPAN, that acknowledges who you want to oversee what you've written.

I'm not talking about co-auth here. I'm talking about someone who may not even care about one's work. I'm talking about someone who cares about Perl enough that one would feel comfortable with rightfully distributing one's distributions accordingly, because they are somewhat familiar with the Perl ecosystem.

This is totally off the wall, but I've been through so much in the last 24 months, that I'm trying to think of everything.

Would a IF_I_DIE flag within a Makefile.PL that is easily searchable be a good idea, or an idea of a madman who keeps buying sensors to write Perl around?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Delegating responsibility of one's CPAN distributions (In Memoriam References)
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Dec 05, 2018 at 09:45 UTC
[reply]

      VSarkiss was before my time. I cried when blazar died… He had been trying to find ways to participate here, like keyboard shortcuts for the monastery, through blinding, crippling pain; without ever complaining, just soldiering on and trying to be normal and alive during his final weeks. I have a little Italian and I was always embarrassed to just try with him though we chatted a bit in the CB and he was perfectly friendly at all times; a genuinely nice person. I regretted not becoming friends. It’s part of why I have been open to making friends with others, like LanX and erix. I was also quite sad to hear about almut but didn’t know her as well, just her posts and expertise.

      Kudos to OP. It’s a caring and considerate position to take.

[reply]

      Thank you for posting this. I always enjoy your curated slices of PM history. Often one thing leads to another and I end up browsing into some new area of learning, or as in this case, becoming acquainted with monks of yesteryear, and sometimes wandering even further afield, as today, via Bill Harp's obit, which led me to a long writeup about the Perl Whirl and the First Heyday of Perl circa the change of the millenium, which was a nice trip down memory lane.


      The way forward always starts with a minimal test.
[reply]
Re: Delegating responsibility of one's CPAN distributions
by LanX (Saint) on Dec 05, 2018 at 02:32 UTC
    Front paged!

    IMHO the internet is still so "new" that most concepts take immortality for granted.

    The need for Digital Wills is going to grow immensely soon.

    Cheers Rolf
    (addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
    Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice

[reply]
Re: Delegating responsibility of one's CPAN distributions
by LanX (Saint) on Dec 05, 2018 at 16:37 UTC
    I think you are free to put your "will" everywhere you like and think it'll be found.

    IMHO from a general legal and organizational point of view, it should be somehow like and near the licence information in your module.

    Different people will want to handle it differently on a module's basis (competence varies, a DBI expert might not be the best to handle a Tk module) and general schemes would be nice (like hypothetical "in case of longer absence the Saints of PerlMonk should poll" or "the most depending CPAN authors should decide").

    BUT from a practical view people are reluctant to talk about their own death, so hiding it in Makefile or Meta sounds more feasible.

    In the end it should be somewhere where the CPAN admins can easily retrieve and handle it.

    edit

    And "absence" should be defined, being 10 years coma or going missing in an Asian land war (freely citing Brian d Foy) are not much better.

    Probably all of this is better handled by an institutionalized fork and branch technique... ?

    Cheers Rolf
    (addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
    Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice

    PS: In case of my own death, I want all my PM posts to be edited and translated to Japanese Haikus. ;-)

[reply]
Re: Delegating responsibility of one's CPAN distributions
by stevieb (Canon) on Dec 05, 2018 at 22:36 UTC

    In bed last night, I went through terrible thoughts of "what the 'hell' did I post, I'll never be able to face Perlmonks again".

    The post was made in a clean and sober state, but I was genuinely curious, and spurred by yet another tragedy in my life.

    I was looking for reality, and I got it.

    Want to thank and show appreciation for everyone who responded. It's a terrible thing when we lose someone close to us (or the communities we serve), so I know it's an exceptionally difficult subject.

    The info presented is both informative and wonderful. I've read many great nodes and information and for that, thank you.

    By the way, I'm hoping I have a couple of good years left yet... I still got that Perl Breathalizer project I've promised people I'd finish...

    -stevieb

[reply]
      > what the hell did I post,

      Nonsense, sorry!

      Some may call me cold hearted, but I think the mourning branch in this thread is missing the point.

      Estimates say there are 15 dead people for every person living in human history.

      It's only clear-sighted to expect the dead CPAN authors outweighing the living in the not so distant future.

      Thanks again.

      Cheers Rolf
      (addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
      Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice

[reply]
        "It's only clear-sighted to expect the dead CPAN authors outweighing the living in the not so distant future."

        I may be missing your drift here LanX, perhaps through language barriers.

        I am in no way, nor has anyone else (I don't think), denouncing anyone deceased, especially there's been no comparison between the dead and dead CPAN authors.

        Seems as though people have been respecting the dead people they know is all, but I could be wrong.

        Let's put this in perspective as to why I wrote the post:

        • had my niece and eight other friends murdered in a mass shooting
        • had my mother fusking entire area evacuated by forest fires in which I chose to return, across lines to ensure friends in the area had supplies
        • My wife had a very close friend shoot himself in the head
        • A mutual friend died from OD
        • My mother fscking brother will spend life in prison
        • My daughter up on four felony counts in the US
        • Another tight family friend, dead

          • I have a body count. Again, I'm missing something here, but unless there's a loss in translation, I don't believe I'm missing a point.

          Update: I respect you greatly, LanX, so please don't take this as animosity... I'm just venting. It's been a hard walk bro.

[reply]

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