Role
The CPAN's main purpose is to help programmers locate modules and programs not included in the Perl standard distribution. Its structure is decentralized. Authors maintain and improve their own modules. Forking, and creating competing modules for the same task or purpose is common. There is no formal bug tracking system, but there is a third-party bug tracking system that CPAN designated as the suggested official method of reporting issues with modules. Continuous development on modules is rare, many are abandoned by their authors, or go years between new versions being released. Sometimes a maintainer will be appointed to an abandoned module. They can release new versions of the module, and accept patches from the community to the module as their time permits. CPAN has no revision control system, although the source for the modules is often stored on GitHub. Also, the complete history of the CPAN and all its modules is available as the GitPAN project, allowing to easily see the complete history for all the modules and for easy maintenance of forks. CPAN is also used to distribute new versions of Perl, as well as related projects, such as Parrot.
The CPAN is an important resource for the professional Perl programmer. With over 23,000 modules (containing 20,000,000 lines of code) as of July 2011, the CPAN can save programmers weeks of time, and large Perl programs often make use of dozens of modules. Some of them, such as the DBI family of modules used for interfacing with SQL databases, are nearly irreplaceable in their area of function; others, such as the List::Util module, are simply handy resources containing a few common functions.
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Famous quotes containing the word role:
“Of course, some men are very effective caregivers [of elderly parents]. But this situation occurs far less frequently for males than females, because it is a role reversal. For women, caregiving is an expected duty; for men, it is an unexpected expression of love or devotion.”
—Tish Sommers (20th century)
“Today, only a fool would offer herself as the singular role model for the Good Mother. Most of us know not to tempt the fates. The moment I felt sure I had everything under control would invariably be the moment right before the principal called to report that one of my sons had just driven somebody’s motorcycle through the high school gymnasium.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“Certainly parents play a crucial role in the lives of individuals who are intellectually gifted or creatively talented. But this role is not one of active instruction, of teaching children skills,... rather, it is support and encouragement parents give children and the intellectual climate that they create in the home which seem to be the critical factors.”
—David Elkind (20th century)