Re: [MacPerl] asking maybe-MacPerl-specific questions

["Sean M. Burke" <sean@misinc.net>]

Jefferson R. Lowrey wrote:
> Where is the *RIGHT* place to ask Perl specific questions
>that might have nothing to do with MacPerl?

I'll add to what's already been said:  If it's a problem where /you
aren't sure/ if it's MacPerl-specific (say, because you think some
feature specific to MacPerl or MacOS could be the culprit in some code
that just doesn't seem to want to work), then what you should say is:

"This scrap of code [which should ideally be very very short, as you
should already have tried to isolate whatever tiny bit of code is being
uncooperative] just doesn't do what I want; I expect it should do X, but
it does Y..." -- and so far this is just standard etiquette for
explaining any coding problem -- "...and in this particular case I
suspect, but am unsure, that the error relates to the fact I'm running
this code under MacPerl."

Provided you phrase your question this way, and provided you do not even
let slip that your question is CGI-related, then I've found the folks in
EFNet #perl quite helpful.
For example, by asking questions in just that format (altho without the
MacPerl coda, as it wasn't relevant), in the past month I've learned not
one, but TWO scary and obscure things about the functionality of
split().

Of course, check /first/ in #macperl, and if noone's awake in there (as
is often the case), then go to #perl.


And, incidentally:
>[...]"Don't use a Mac.  Use
> a REAL system, i.e. Unix".  And that from Tom Christiansen.

When I am in a particular mood, I find Tom C.'s musings amusing (usually
thru the dependable laff-value of unanticipated rage -- I fondly recall
once when he practically had to be sedated because I, while speaking
English, used "agenda" as a singular noun (whereas "agenda" is a plural
in Classical Latin, you see)) -- but I /do/ have to be in a particular
mood for such things.

And, even then, if ever his musings are actually useful or relevant to
the question that provoked them (and I do mean "provoked"), then I do
view that as entirely a windfall.

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