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Postings from August 2009
Hello, There is always a better way to do things. That is what makes life interesting. I think any contributions from anybody should be appreciated. Regards Mark ----- Original Message ----- From: "Telemachus" <telemachus@arpinum.org> To: <beginners@perl.org> Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 12:40 PM Subject: A side note [was Re: Attentipn Please!! Need A Perl script to yada yada] > On Mon Aug 17 2009 @ 4:09, Uri Guttman wrote: >> >>>>> "I" == Ian <pcs305@gmail.com> writes: >> >> I> Unfortunately I'm not an expert. I just read a few books and this >> list etc. >> >> a couple of things. it is good that you are offering to help but as you >> claim not to be an expert, it can hurt more than help. there are plenty >> of experts on this list who can help and fixing up weak code offered >> from beginners makes our work even harder. > > This has come up before, as I recall, but either way, I have to disagree. > There are a LOT of us here who are far less than expert, but more than > novice users. I don't agree that we shouldn't offer our (presumably less > than expert) code. If anything, it can be a good way for us to learn as > well. > > To clarify, I think anyone (expert or otherwise) should only offer code > that they feel good about. If you have no idea how to tackle a problem, > then it would be unhelpful to spew out some random code. On the other > hand, > your response seems to go too far in the other direction (advice and > ideas, > sure, but no code except from experts). > > One other thing worth saying: Ian seems to me to display the habit that a > lot of first-time (or rare) posters do of over-apologizing for an answer. > I > do it myself here and on other forums, and I see it in my students all the > time. It's a pretty natural way to try to deflect potential criticism. > (Well, I'm not really sure, this is probably wrong, but...) I mention this > because we shouldn't let it prejudice us against the answer. Again, I > think > there's room for non-experts, even in code. > > Just my two cents, T >Thread Previous | Thread Next