Introduction to Perl for non-programming Mac folk

[David Cantrell]

On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 12:25:55PM +0000, Paul Makepeace wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 12:16 PM, Peter Corlett <abuse at cabal.org.uk> wrote:
> > A big lump of clue-by-four to reiterate that last point, applied repeatedly
> > until it registers, or until they stop pestering you to give the answers on
> > a plate.
> "Spoonfeeding" people at the beginning is a very powerful teaching
> technique, primarily as it builds confidence and familiarity. The volume of
> information required at the beginning of learning a subject can be totally
> overwhelming, and oral transmission of that knowledge is for many people
> orders of magnitude more effective than reading docs.

I'm in the position at work right now of having to learn a complex set
of libraries etc that, even thought they're written in perl, might as
well be written in an alien language as far as me Just Understanding
them goes.  Thankfully I have a colleague who does understand them.  And
he hasn't told me to RTFM even when I ask the same thing more than once.
That's good, it means I'm very slowly becoming productive in this
hideous alien monstrosity.

> Besides, getting the response "RTFM!" is a total turn-off, even for a
> seasoned pro.

Damn right.  If RingTFM worked in this case, of course I'd do it.

-- 
David Cantrell | Enforcer, South London Linguistic Massive

         Nuke a disabled unborn gay baby whale for JESUS!