[MacPerl] We're all Macperlers on this bus...

[Vicki Brown <vlb@cfcl.com>]

At 15:09 -0500 98/06/13, Chris Nandor wrote:
> At 08.37 -0500 1998.06.13, Len wrote:
> >I am using the CRYPT function in PERL to set up a password file on a UNIX
> >server. The script seems to set up the file fine, but everytime I try to
>
> I am not sure what this has to do with MacPerl.  Try checking the errors
>on
> whatever functions are failing (open, opendir, whatever you are using;
> i.e., open(FILE,'file') or die $!).
>
> Unless this has MacPerl significance, please keep this to e-mail OFF the
> list, or check a newsgroup or alternate mailing list.

The only newsgroup I know of is not, to my mind, an alternative, so let's
try out the "alternate mailing list" scenario... Having recently set up
majordomo on our home system, I can finally ask this question:

Would anyone on this list be interested in joining a second Perl/MacPerl
mailing list where "Mac-specific-only" would _not_ be a ground rule? The
ground rules I propose would be: We use Macs && we use Perl. Traffic must
pertain to the preceeding statement. (See end of note for alternative)*

I don't know about you'all but as for me:

  1) newgrsoups are not my thing; I want information to come _to me_.
     It's mid 1998, we have the technology, we don't have the time.

  2) signal to noise ratio on Usenet is poor; on this list it's generally
     been quite satisfactory

  3) light to heat ratio on comp.lang.perl.misc is abyssmal; people on the
     macperl list are generally polite and on-topic.

  4) I have no pressing interest in being flamed in public :-)

  *5*) one of the great things about the MacPerl list community is we all
     have Macs, we all use Macs, we all use MacPerl.  Sometimes that
     means we have Perl questions.  Sometimes (yeek) we run our code under
     Unix.

I like this group; you're good people.  I dislike c.l.p.m. I'll probably
join the moderated version if it EVER gets off the ground, but mailing list
format is still my preference. I often find myself stretching a question to
make it fit the "Mac-specific" rule, because I don't have anywhere else to
go (even if I were willing to ask on Usenet, I wouldn't be there for the
answer).

If it were up to me, the rules for the macperl list would be "We're all Mac
users on this bus, and sometimes we ask less Mac-specific questions; but
we're a MacPerl community and that's what counts."  I'd rather not  have
much discussion of topics beginning "after I get the code up under Unix I
have this problem"...; it's certainly not a Unix-specific list. But the
only non-Mac-specific question I'd adamantly disagree with would be the one
prefaced with "I don't have a Mac but..."  So if Len's got a Unix server
and a MacPerl script, I'd allow his question :-) at least until such time
as he happens to mention that he hasn't isn't using MacPerl for the script!

However, it's not up to me.  What is up to me is the question I asked at
the top of the note.

*Alternatively, maybe it's time to reconsider broadening the
Mac-specific-only ground rules.  A little :-)

- Vicki
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