Re: [MacPerl] beginner perl questions pls

[Brian McNett <brianmc@telebyte.net>]

George Cingolani, <gcingo@accesscom.com> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>Does anyone object to my posing some beginner PERL questions to the group
>as long as they are not voluminous and not posted often...these are notr
>necessarily MacPerl questions although I do use it occasionally?
>
>Regards,
>
>George Cingolani

I've gone back to the original post to cut the the heart of the question.

Rather than intimidate newbies by gruffly pointing them to the correct 
resources in response to typical new-user Perl questions (as opposed to 
typical new-user MacPerl questions), the list needs to address this 
situation well *before* those questions are posed.  I would suggest the 
regular, periodic posting of a "MacPerl Mini FAQ" to the list, with 
pointers to the generic Perl and MacPerl resources, so that newbies know 
where to go instead of having to ask.  More advanced users could easily 
filter out this once-a-week message.  It could also include a breif list 
of proceedures to follow BEFORE posting:

1) Check the pod (It's under the "help" menu! (and free!)).
2) Check the Camel and Llama books (A good investment if you want to 
learn Perl).
3) Check MPPE (An even better investment if you want to learn MacPerl).
4) Read the online FAQ(s).
5) I think four items is enough, don't you?

Remember that it's been often stated that many MacPerl users use MacPerl 
to develop for Perl in other environments.  These people will often have 
problems that are generic to Perl.  Hopefully they already know where to 
look for answers, but we shouldn't be turning them away.

At the very least, we should strive to be as helpful to new users as the 
Perl community at large, and at best we should strive to be more helpful 
than average. Limiting the list to MacPerl-specific questions, is IMHO, 
somewhat akin to taking the Perl out of MacPerl.

If you WANT to throw the baby out with the bathwater, you must understand 
that you're opening yourself to accusations of child-abuse.

Unless someone more knowledgeable would like to take on the task, I'd be 
glad to draft a quick-and-dirty list of pointers for newbie MacPerl 
users, to be posted once per week (Monday morning sounds good).

--Brian

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