Over Using Modules

More and more I see perl programs that look like no more than a call up of 10 or more modules. Most people will tell you that is efficient code. Not me.

Calling modules is fine and very useful. But every module you depend on can change in new publications and can stop your program from working on other servers. That is the primary problem.

The next problem is the system resources to call and run several modules rather than one single program. And, like most cases, people will tell you the system resources are insignificant. Of course, that will come from people that have never challenged high end servers.

Its like having a table that supports 100 pounds. Great to eat at, utill the family shows up for Thanksgiving and you dump 2 30lb turkeys and a tub of mashed potatoes. The table will colapse ruining the meal and costing your time and money.

The usual response is that, it has work for the last year, no problems. That is, until you really needed it.

Programs are the same.

Runing a business that is so dependant on perl modules is like trying to run a restaurant serving frozen TV dinners.

Since everything is preprepared, you have little contol over the programing. And if you don't know the code, you are open to every exploit that a module may have.

It is difficult to build on modules, since you only know the ins and outs rather than what the code is actually doing.

I am not against modules, they are great. But using 10 in one program is just foolish.

Many times a perl module is called and the function can be written in a few lines of code witing the program.

I have seen modules called to format the date, when a simple /bin/date command will do it for you.

Using object oriented perl is great. But at some point, you need to make your code unique. To have something that is not commercialy available you need the ability to go beyond the modules and write unique code.

Don't be afraid to actually write code. It will get you much further and allow for greater expansion of your applications.