Modules *AND* applications
"Why choose?" -- Fatima Dinssa
In Modules vs Applications, Sawyer X noted that one of the "issues" (emphasis mine) of Perl people is the tendency to write modules instead of applications. That CPAN is great but due to the lack of end user programs there is no WOW factor. He suggested that we write programs/applications that everyone can use to attract more people to Perl.
While I agree with the last suggestion, I don't agree with the preference to modularize everything as an issue. As someone who wrote a program years ago that is comprised of many separate scripts and duplicated code (even in different languages, just for the fun of it) and still have to maintain it today, I'd say that not putting as much code as possible into reusable modules is a mistake.
I'd instead suggest that we still write modules (which is what made CPAN great anyway), but try to *also* accompany each distribution with a demo app (preferably in the App:: namespace).
I myself will try to do that from now on.
A programmer (mostly Perl 5 nowadays).
My CPAN ID: SHARYANTO. I'm sedusedan on perlmonks. My twitter is stevenharyanto (but I don't tweet much). Follow me on github: sharyanto.
I don't think anyone was advocating only writing apps. Sawyer X was simply pointing out that there is currently a strong preference for only writing modules. We need to get to a point where we can do both.
It's the way I think of it as well.
I'm happy you put it into words, and that I inspired you to do so. :)