Re: [MacPerl] learning UNIX concepts

[Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com>]

At 01.19 -0500 1998.11.12, Jeff at MacTech wrote:
>In article <mac-perl.01J41XRZJ5FQ9D779M@corp.qgraph.com>, w e b s l a v e
><PPRODOEHL@qgraph.com> wrote:
>
>>>Perl is certainly a good starting point for learning about UNIX
>>>concepts.
>>
>>Oddly enough, I stumbled on this today:
>>
>>   http://www.wdvl.com/Internet/UNIX/Intro/
>>
>>It's by the fellow know as Selena Sol, might also be useful for
>>Unix learning newbies... (Mr. Sol has lotsa Perl cgi scripts too!)
>
>This is a cool web site. As a side note, I think Selena is a "Ms."

Actually, I've been told that Selena Sol really is a guy by the name of Eric.

And while I am on the subject of putting down people I've never met, Selena
Sol's reputation in my eyes is not much better than Matt Wright's.  Sol put
out a large set of scripts for dealing with .htaccess files over the web.
Something that could have been done in one simple script, and s/he puts out
this suite of scripts to clutter up your drive and annoy you.  :)

I have no problem with people like Sol and Wright writing such things.  I
just have a problem with them distributing them, because it makes Perl look
bad, and it makes Perl programmers who learn from them look bad (unless
what they are learning is what not to do).

And now I see s/he has an Introduction to Perl 5 out.  I took a quick
glance, and it did not take me long to find errors.  Sol says the scope has
to do with what is enclosed in braces, when that is only a part of the
story, and is likely to mislead.  Sol also conflates things further by
using the term localization.

Sol mentions => without discussing its autoquoting feature.

Sol mentions qw() without mentioning any of the pitfalls involved, or even
defining what it is actually doing.

Sol calls a reference a new data type, and it is not.  Sol says you
reference an object, when an object IS a reference.  An object is not
referenced.

Basically, this is my problem with Sol's work.  It is not quite right.
There are lots of little things wrong with it.  I can't speak to her Unix
intro, but I would stay away from her Perl intros.

--
Chris Nandor          mailto:pudge@pobox.com         http://pudge.net/
%PGPKey = ('B76E72AD', [1024, '0824090B CE73CA10  1FF77F13 8180B6B6'])

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