Re: (Fwd) DBI's method for reading [row x,field y]

Yes, you are right. Sorry.

[Posted by email Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:12:15 -0800 (PST), but failed to
hit the newsserver.]


Yesterday I was frustrated by sending messages for days in a few
threads but have nobody come around. As I mentioned a few times, I am
porting an application from Pg to DBI, while struggling to find my way
through what I consider poor documentation. I am then writing a cut-
trough "how to" while posting it in this list. The trick -
getvalues($r,$f) => ->[$r][$f] looks trivial when you see it, but I
spent two days reading the docs without success. Yes, the docs mention
fetchall_arrayref, but if one searches by keyword, guided by the
problem and not by the unknown solution, one fails to find the answer.
I must say that, even now that I know the answer, the docs fail to
show the ->[$r][$f] notation. Yesterday I collected a few other
notations for the same operation, showing that there is no single
approach. In my very first message I asked to be kind and help me out.
Frustration kept growing as I had no feedback. I started mailing Tim,
then he bounched to the list, and then I bursted. The messages that I
received from the list followed Tim's post, but none of my former
ones. When I said that the list is dead, I was referring to this
problem. The google statistics also says "Activity: Low" for this
list:

http://groups.google.it/group/perl.dbi.users/about?hl=en

Anyway, I am glad that things are going forward. This discussion is
useful, because everyone with the same problem will be able to solve
it by reading this thread, and in particular the final list of
recommendations, and Tim will eventually contribute by adding the "how
to" in the perldocs for DBI.

As the document makes progress as I go along, please stick around.

Bob


On Feb 27, 10:40 pm, j...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jeff Zucker) wrote:
Bob Hunter wrote:
The list is dead. Forwarding the message to the list
is like dropping it in the bin. If you do not care
meeting user's problems, then why should I care using
DBI in the first place? I have your book, it is
verbose, but it does not answer to key questions.
Either you write a better book, or start changing
attitude with mails. After all, you do get royalties
from the book, don't you? So, you are paid, in a
sense, to answer to questions about the book itself.

Bob

Bob, please simmer down and give some credit to both Tim and this list.
The list is not dead, it is very active and includes hundreds of DBI
users and developers. Your reasoning about Tim's pay is quite faulty,
he has put in literally years of unpaid work on DBI. (Also, do you
expect Bob Woodward to answer your questions about Watergate simply
because he got royalties from writing a book about it?) Tim regularly
forwards mail to the list when others on the list can answer, that is
how the list has always worked and it has worked well. Another reason
to keep questions on the list rather than in personal mail is that an
issue that impacts one impacts all and the only way for all to know
about it is to see it on the list.

The DBI documentation is very clear:

"The /dbi-users/ mailing list is the primary means of communication
among users of the DBI and its related modules"

So don't take Tim's forwarding your message personally, have some
patience, and someone on the list will answer your question.

--
Jeff


.

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