[igneous4]

> Its darwinian

I think you're correct, but that there are trade-offs. Take Python, for example. They have "batteries included", and when modules make it into the std lib, they pretty much stop evolving. However, on the up-side, Python gains users who like having everything packaged up nice and neat so they don't need to go looking for modules quite as much.

Perl takes the popularity hit of not having too many batteries included, but benefits from the darwinian element that works to make the 3rd-party modules better. So, perlers need to spend more time asking around (or checking cpanratings), and also dealing with it when there's turnover (the module that they chose a few years ago is eclipsed by a competitor, or stops being maintained, and now they need to rewrite some of their code).

In the end, I think Perl has better modules.

[draegtun]

Yes i've touched briefly on CPAN vs stdlib approach before (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2088040). They're just different approaches and neither is better or worse than the other.

BTW... I believe all language repos will have darwinism acting upon it. I see it in Ruby & Python as well as on CPAN. Its Perl philosophy and CPAN size that just stirs the pot a bit more!