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Postings from March 2011
On Fri, Mar 04, 2011 at 10:17:48PM +0100, Leon Timmermans wrote: > On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 6:11 PM, Dave Rolsky <autarch@urth.org> wrote: > > Because people are used to reading docs on the web for almost everything. > > Heck, even for Perl modules, I often go to search.cpan.org because it > > provides a better interface for reading the docs. > > Me too. `perldoc -f` is the only perldoc functionality I use, anything > longer I'll open a tab for in my browser. > > > Just because you (and other people on this list) are very comfortable with > > the status quo does not mean that it's good for everyone. I think we need to > > spend a lot more effort thinking about what's best for new users. What does > > a college kid getting into programming need to get started with Perl? > > Part of it is a generation gap. I can't noticing the man-users are > primarily people who (AFAIK) started using perl in the early 90s. > I'd think they are the people who've actually have the experience of debugging a problem on a box in the server room, with just a dumb terminal and no easy access to the big bad outside world. Now, *I*'m Perl savvy enough I know there's perldoc. But not everyone who needs to do debugging at 3 AM will realize that. Unix system adminstrators know man. They expect man to work. And they'll consider anything that doesn't come with man pages broken (and resist having such applications installed). Now, I don't care what people do with perldoc. Make it use <blink> and play podcasts of someone reading the documentation. Just leave the man pages. AbigailThread Previous | Thread Next