I love perl.

I really do.

But I feel I have to say something. I realise that as a new comer here and to the perl community in general my opinions are not worth much, however I beleive we are all mature enough here for a fair point to be taken regardless who is making it.

I had an idea, a whacky way to use XML, something that the existing sets of code are simply not designed for. I chose my favourite language to develop this idea in. But then I hit a brick wall.

The existance of all these wonderful modules of code, which make life so easy in perl seem to be stifling innovation and the acceptance of new ideas. Without new ideas there is only stagnation. Now it really doesnt matter if my idea is good or not, the simple fact of the matter was that the prevailing attitude I got was one of pomposity, "if it aint already in cpan its not good for anything" type of arguements.

Now I'm not having a go so don't take me wrong. All I'm saying is that there is always room for improvement, always room for a new idea to come out of the blue and shake the whole room up. We should gaurd against the feeling that what we have is already perfect, and embrace new and innovative ideas, for they are the source of the next generation of code, the next level which will simply not exist if the new people with new ideas are shunned because their ideas dont fit into pre-concieved models of how things should be done.

I'm sorry if that offends anyones sensibilites, but seriously, software never has and never will stand still. If you try to, you will soon become obsolete.