Re: why the perl documents is hard to understand?

Xiaoshen Li <xli6@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am learning Perl now. I have computer science background. One
> important tool for learning a language is to learn how to read its help
> manual. For example, JAVA has all the functions document pages online.
> So any time, if I don't understand a function or need a function for
> doing something, I can check out the document pages. But I found Perl's
> document pages are so hard to read.
>
> http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl/pod/perlfunc.pod
>
> I have tried to read the descriptions of some functions. I am so totally
> lost. The wording, the phrases are so hard to follow. I feel I am
> reading an acient scripture.

That's because you are reading a reference manual, not a learning book.

> Unix/Linux 's man pages are also badly written.

Yup, if you use them to learn, true. They are reference pages.

Java class documentation is also very hard to read if you know nothing
about the language. Of course, since it's a reference, not a tutorial.

--
John Small Perl scripts: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
Perl programmer available: http://castleamber.com/
I ploink googlegroups.com :-)

.

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