<rant>
I guess I should have expected it. But I just cannot belive some people.
Some seem to expect that it is thier right that things not be changed unless they agree with them.
Well to all those who think the new search site is "useless", sorry not my problem go somewhere else. But if you have useful input for improvement, I am listening
</rant>
Site Redeisgns
ziggy on 2002-08-12T23:24:14
What you're experiencing sounds on par for a typical web redesign -- lots of "why did you have to
change" and "I
liked it the old way" complaints for a few weeks.
Eventually, the complaints will subside. Until then, either ignore them or see them for what they really are: proof that search.cpan.org is a valuable service to a lot of people that they actually noticed that the site changed. :-)
Thanks again, Graham.
Re:Site Redeisgns
petdance on 2002-08-13T01:17:59
It's not just site redesign. It's ANY change. For any given change, some people are going to squawk and complain.
Allow me to quote from that great philosopher Ricky Nelson:
It's all right now
I learned my lesson well
Y'see, you can't please everyone so
Ya got to please yourself
Your Work is Very Much Appreciated
Herkemer on 2002-08-12T23:54:02
I know that the CPAN Search site is a life saver for myself and my co-workers. We couldn't do our jobs very well without it.
Re:Your Work is Very Much Appreciated
oneiron on 2002-08-13T01:35:07
Agreed. search.cpan.org was already an excellent site. The new version, overall, is a big improvement IMHO. For every whinger, there are many (mostly silent) people who really appreciate the improvements. Thanks for your efforts, Graham.
We like it!
wickline on 2002-08-13T01:29:44
I've been using the search-beta since I heard about it and saw how much better it was. My coworkers as well. I've also seen other folks reference modules with search-beta URLs in mailing list discussions.
Check your logs. I bet you'll find lots of folks loved search-beta
:) In fact, I wouldn't be suprised if the standard site lost traffic as word of the beta site spread.
People love to bitch, so you'll probably hear more bitching than anything else.
...but know that there's oodles of us quiet folks who can't get enough of the new site.
Thanks!
-matt
I Almost Didn't Notice...
chromatic on 2002-08-13T02:40:58
After seeing the demo at TPC, I immediately switched to search-beta exclusively. If it weren't for the story about the switch, I probably wouldn't have noticed that it went live. I'm a very pleased customer.
Thank you very much
ajtaylor on 2002-08-13T16:45:48
I'm just adding my thanks to lots of other people. I use search.cpan.org almost every day, and the new design is a big improvement. I just found a few minutes ago the new "Browse" functionality. This is VERY COOL! Now I can borrow other's ideas faster than ever.
:-)
And is it just me or is the new search faster? I know the new server (thanks Elaine & Sun!) helped out, but I would guess that perhaps the new code is more efficient. And can we see the code that runs everything?
Thanks for all your (and everyone else's) hard work to provide us with search.cpan.org.
thanks. :-)
autrijus on 2002-08-14T08:26:33
I'd just add my gratitude to the work on search.cpan.org. The new interface even renders the Unicode smileys in my PAUSE name correctly!
Are there plans to do a REST interface? I'd like to help if the underlying site implementation is available.
Thanks a lot. Really.
Re:thanks. :-)
autrijus on 2002-08-14T14:36:19
Apparently I should've just RTFAQ:
Can I get the results to be output in XML format?
Yes, by adding a 'format=xml' in the URL like so:
http://search.cpan.org/search?mode=module&format=xml&query=LWP
Thanks again. :-)
"CPAN is Useless"
bart on 2002-08-16T23:22:39
Well to all those who think the new search site is "useless", sorry not my problem go somewhere else. Tsk. Touchy.
In case you hadn't noticed: that "CPAN is Useless" I quoted is just the title of a lightning talk. I'm not saying <search.cpan.org> is crap, honestly, it's great. It is. But I'm familiar with CPAN. This particular talk discussed the difficulties for first time users, which we all here, are not. So we are pretty poor judges.
What I got out of that talk, was that the main complaint is that it's too damn hard to distinguish a link to download the package from all those links that merely display the docs. And that is something that has not been addressed. Perhaps it just doesn't matter to you (all).
What is so horrible about the word "download" that it seems to be a taboo to put it, literally, on a page? Because this is what I think first time users will do: hit "ctrl-F", type in "download", hit "enter", and let the browser search for the proper download link. It will find nothing.
