First: some folks are putting their money where their mouth is and providing a place to talk about CPAN modules. Gavin Estey recently created a wiki site for people to comment on CPAN modules. Check it out.

Second: it really does seem counterproductive to have so many modules, many of which duplicate one another. At least until you think about the CPAN and the community using it as a marketplace of ideas. Just like a normal marketplace there's lots of competition and seemingly little differentiation in areas where many people congregate (e.g., templating, web applications, accessing databases) and that have a fairly low barrier to entry. There's not as much competition in more esoteric problemspaces (largescale number crunching, biological analysis, etc.).

And just like a marketplace certain products win not just by being the best (however that's defined) but by attracting other people to support and discuss it by other means (good documentation, professional website, excellent support, charismatic leader, strong forum presence, etc.). Arbitrarily weeding modules out (even bad ones, which I bitched about recently) is unnecessary -- the bad ones will fall by the wayside, never updated and never discussed. It can be tough to distinguish these but time, and articles written by an expert (like Perrin) are IMO the best solutions.

Anyway, my point is that having all these modules and the interplay among them is the best way for the cream to rise to the top. Maybe in a year I'll get tired of supporting SPOPS and contribute to Class::DBI or Alzabo. Or maybe someone will pick up the ball. Or maybe something new will come along trumping us all. Who can predict the future? All I know is it's an awful lot of fun being in the marketplace, as chaotic and messy as it can be.

Chris
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