Perl Problem Resolution Checklist (was Re: Perl equivalent of this script?)
- From: Tad McClellan <tadmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 13:55:55 -0500
Ted Zlatanov <tzz@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 17 Jul 2006, tadmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Paul Lalli <mritty@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
george.varsamopoulos@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Tad McClellan wrote:
You didn't even look in the Perl FAQ? That's not very nice.
I tried to "google" for it,
Allow me to suggest that when looking for assistance with Perl, Google
be your *last* resort, not your first.
Allow me to suggest that when looking for assistance with Perl,
posting to a Usenet newgroup be your last resort. :-)
I don't think you worded that well, Tad.
I was trying to say that Google is not a last resort, since it
should come before posting to Usenet.
Are you saying the OP should
buy a book on Perl, look at the Perl source code, e-mail Larry Wall,
etc. before he asks for help here?
No. Let me try it again:
Allow me to suggest that when looking for assistance with Perl,
posting to a Usenet newgroup be something you do only after
searching the std docs and a Usenet archive.
That is a paraphrasing of a Perl Problem Resolution Checklist
that I post from time to time.
<... time passes ...>
Golly! It looks like I haven't posted it since 2001,
so here it is again:
----------------------------------
Perl problem resolution checklist:
----------------------------------
1) check the Perl FAQs
(word search with "perldoc -q". Or better, find where the
*.pod's are on your system, and word search (grep) the
entire contents of the files)
2) expand the above to _all_ of the standard *.pod files.
3) check a Usenet archive such as:
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
4) check books and websites (this step is optional)
5) write a Usenet article, but don't post it yet!
5a) make a small and complete (including data) program that
people can execute that shows your problem.
5b) state how the program's output is not what you want. Describe
what you want.
5c) repeat steps 1-4 using search terms taken from your description
of the problem or your Subject header (try some synonyms for
the terms also)
6) Give up on a quick answer. Post to Usenet for a slow answer.
7) wait hours/days/forever for followups with answers rather than
than the 5 or 10 minutes it would have taken if steps 1-3
had worked.
8) Wonder at the quality of the answers given, rather than know
it is a peer-reviewed, validated answer if steps 1-2 had worked.
9) Repeat steps 1-3 many times for many problems. You will seldom
get past step 3, and even less often get past step 5a.
10) Now that you know so much, go *answer* some questions on Usenet :-)
-----
To help with 1 and 2 above, I make "headlines" files to grep in,
because sometimes there is Too Much Information when grepping
the entire bodies:
cd /an/INC/dir/pod/
grep '^=' perlfaq[1-9].pod >faq.heads
grep '^=' *.pod >all.heads
I think most people on the
newsgroup wouldn't call it a last resort.
It is certainly a resort that comes after "search Google" though.
--
Tad McClellan SGML consulting
tadmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Perl programming
Fort Worth, Texas
.
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