Re: How best to "fix" a bug in a standard module?

In <574o9eF2bql82U1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> anno4000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

kj <socyl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in comp.lang.perl.misc:



I frequently run into minor bugs in modules downloaded from CPAN.
Aside from the issue of reporting the bug to the modules' maintainers,
there's still the immediate problem of fixing the bug for our own
use.

AFAIC, it is out of the question to replace the installed module
with one I have fixed.

Why?

Primarily because among my cow-orkers there are a few whose notions
of what constitute bugs, and whose ability to "fix" them, I don't
trust for a second. If I were to fix a standard module "in place",
as it were, I'd be setting a precedent that'd effectively give
these clowns permission to do the same thing. This is a scary
prospect.

Besides, some other code in our codebase may already expect and
work with the buggy behavior, so the ad-hoc "in place" fixes could
conceivably break this code. Of course, this will happen when the
buggy module gets fixed in a later version, but it looks to me that
letting these fixes correspond to "official" releases of the module
will ultimately result in less cumulative confusion.

kj

--
NOTE: In my address everything before the first period is backwards;
and the last period, and everything after it, should be discarded.
.