how to assess the quality of CPAN Perl modules? [closed]

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In CPAN, a huge amount of Perl modules are available.

Which is your favourite way / method to assess the quality of a Perl module ? --- in prior to a manual test.

It seems like a rather easy question but it implies an impact. Many modules are buggy and time wasters. And it is not my intention to name a few of them to avoid an unnecessary defamation.

Answer 1

MetaCPAN Metrics: Rating, Bugs, Last Updated

In order to get easy access to these, try searching on metacpan.org instead of cpan.org. It displays number of open bug reports and average rating on the left-hand side, as well as telling you when the module was last updated and gives you an overview of the speed at which changes are made to the module.

You can also easily see a list of dependencies on the right, so you can look for any modules in the groundwork which are less-than-stellar. It doesn't give you any data you can't get on cpan.org, but it does put it all in one place.

Obviously, if you're working on critical infrastructure, nothing is going to replace an old-fashioned code review as you need to be confident not only in the quality of your program but in your understanding of the plumbing, but those are the metrics I usually look at first.