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Re: Perl "expert"

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From:
Peter Scott
Date:
August 20, 2009 19:45
Subject:
Re: Perl "expert"
Message ID:
20090821024455.29847.qmail@lists.develooper.com
I respect the desire for this thread to die and won't post any more.  
Since you cc'ed me I don't want to ignore this one though.

On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:11:29 +0900, Raymond Wan wrote:
> We're merging two points that I never had an intention of merging. 
> Randal, Uri, and yourself are experts in Perl.  I never disputed that
> and agree wholeheartedly.  Both your knowledges in the area and that you
> stake your reputation on it.

Not the point I was making.  People like myself who have a stake in the 
public perception of Perl being accurate want to make sure that when 
people who *don't know who the experts are* receive help, they can find in 
that help some idea of how much faith they should place in it.  If I were 
lurking on, say, a JavaScript group and saw a question that I thought I 
knew the answer to, I'd plaster my reply with comments like, "I barely 
know what I'm talking about here, but this seems to do what you want and 
it may help if you don't get something from someone who knows better."  
I'm not kidding.  And I'm not a beginner at JavaScript.

It's *not* just about whether the code meets the stated requirements for 
results, either, because we care about Perl being readable and 
maintainable.  I cannot tell you how often someone says to me, "Hey, I've 
been using this Perl script I got from someone else for a while, but it 
doesn't make sense to me, either Perl is stupid or I am" and I look at it 
and find pages of horrible dreck that can be replaced with a dozen lines 
that are clear to this person.  There is more at stake than results.

-- 
Peter Scott
http://www.perlmedic.com/
http://www.perldebugged.com/
http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0137001274

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