[sf-perl] Let a thousand flowers bloom

[Andy Lester]

On Apr 3, 2008, at 1:20 PM, Duane Obrien wrote:
>> Holy crap!  Andy Lester and Randal Schwartz are duking it out on our
>> list.  I feel like a spectator who turns up in the town square to  
>> find
>> Lords Montague and Capulet going at it.
>
> I would like to depart from the topic long enough to recognize that
> the above statement is damn funny and shout be recognized.


I have to say I cringed a little when I read it, because it helps  
reinforce the idea that there's a sort of Perl Hierarchy, or that  
there are Perl Gods, or that "you must be this tall to ride".

Randal and I are just normal ol' Perl hackers.  We just spend a lot of  
time on Perl, and writing about it, and talking about it.  The only  
reason we are Perl luminaries is that we are Perl luminaries.  I'm not  
necessarily a better programmer, or have better ideas, or I'm a better  
debugger than anyone else.  I just do it and make noise about it.

Even though Joey's response was out of line, I admire his spirit of  
"I'm just going to go do it."  TMTOWTDI is one of the cardinal rules  
of Perl.  Similarly, over on the module-authors list, the perennial  
argument of "Maybe CPAN should have minimum requirements for posting  
modules" has raised its ugly head.  Instead, I said what I always say  
during these arguments: "CPAN thrives BECAUSE of the unfettered  
uploading of shit, not in spite of it."

So to it will be with Joey's website.  Maybe it will be a dismal  
failure.  Maybe it will become the Next Great Perl resource.  However,  
I know that there is zero chance of Next Great Perl resource if he  
doesn't try.  The only way you get home runs is by stepping up to the  
plate, and if you strike out, you're doing pretty good.  Batting 3/10  
is a great batting average, but in real life we find those odds  
terrifying.

Personally, as much as I like the community around Perlmonks, I think  
it's a terrible site for new people, and is practically unsearchable.   
I'd love to see something leapfrog Perlmonks and become the Next Great  
Thing.  That's why I stopped writing to use.perl.org, because I think  
it's a terrible news source.  Instead, I started perlbuzz.com, and  
went with that.  Yes, it's different, but that's OK.

Let a thousand flowers bloom!

xoxo,
Andy

--
Andy Lester => andy at petdance.com => www.petdance.com => AIM:petdance