I was reading a module on meta::cpan when I spied a small issue. I went up to the Issues link, clicked, and was sent to rt.cpan. I know that many module authors now have their modules on sites like GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. Before I posted the issue on rt.cpan, I checked the author's profile for a linked account to one of the other sites. I found the module on GitHub and read the CONTRIBUTING.md to find the author does want issues reported there and not rt.cpan. I did not report my original issue, I reported the link issue instead as it seemed more important.

Today is not the first time I noticed this issue with a module's bug tracking.

Before continuing, I have not released a module to CPAN and am still learning all that goes into releasing one. Please be gentle if I am wrong or stating an obvious well known fact.

I read one of the META.json resources called bugtracker can be set to a URL on the preferred platform. So, have CPAN authors checked their META.json files to make sure issues are being linked to the right place by meta::cpan?

For those modules written before the use of other sites for bug tracking, will issues on rt.cpan get ported over to the new bug tracking location? Should there be a link to rt.cpan somewhere in the documentation for older modules whose issues have been moved away from it? Issues closed as a wontfix, for example, on rt.cpan could rear their heads on the new bug tracking platform possibly making more work for the modules' maintainers if not noted somewhere. There could be duplicate issues in both places too.

One known problem with porting issues from rt.cpan to another platform could be problematic because of the use of different user names by issue reporters and maybe even module maintainers. For issues I have raised on rt.cpan, my user name is "ALEENA"; for issues on GitHub, my user name is "LadyAleena". However, both of those identities are connected through my meta::cpan account, so that could be used to resolve user name mismatches.

To all those who have modules on meta::cpan, does it link your bug tracking to the correct location?

A little over a month ago I learned about the Perl Weekly Challenges. The site states the challenges are for any skill level. So, I went and took a look. After looking at the first challenge that week, I realized “any skill level” did not mean my skill level.

My skill level is pretty basic.

I can …

• open, read, and close text files and do simple manipulation of the data.
• add, subtract, multiply, and divide when it comes to math.
• tack on words or phrases to the beginnings or ends of strings okay with loops.
• write some basic regexen.
• even roll things randomly.
• do most of the above conditionally.

… that is about it.

I read the challenges and my mind is totally blank on where to start after…

I wish I could grasp the concepts in the Perl Weekly Challenges, especially the math. I have not taken a math class in over 30 years, and what math I remember is, as I said, pretty basic.

Oh, and one needs to be more than a little familiar with Git and GitHub to contribute, which I am not.