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Re: Why do nodes with minimal value get upvoted most?

by Fletch (Bishop)
on Dec 23, 2004 at 15:08 UTC ( [id://417111]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Why do nodes with minimal value get upvoted most?

Most of the time I paste a one line "perldoc -f foo" reply it's because the entirety of the answer is in that part of TFM. A large part of getting really productive in Perl is to learn how to use perldoc effectively and where to look for what kinds of information (so that eventually they too can completely answer questions with a succinct two word perldoc perlzorch).

In fact I almost commented as much on the "Hey, let's rewrite perldoc" Discussion the other day. It's not that the documentation is lacking, it's that people don't know where to come in because it's so complete. If you're dissatisfied with Perl's documentation, take a look at what comes with Ruby (disclaimer: I \N{HEART} Ruby; I just think that the current state of the documentation is miles behind Perl's (due in part to it's relative immaturity I'm sure)).

Update: Just to clarify: this is why I specifically said relative immaturity, and that statement was in regards to the Ruby documentation. The second edition Camel from which most of the core of perldoc is descended came out in 1996; the first major English Ruby documentation (in the form of the Pickaxe book) wasn't out until 2001. And while I also \N{HEART} Smalltalk and its class browser that Rdoc is modeled after, there are times and workflow patterns when perldoc -f foo beats the pants off start-browser-clickety-clickety-bring-up-find-pane-clickety-clickety.

Another Update: In the process of mucking with Ruby On Rails (which is pretty spiffy, by the way) I've become aware of the ri command which comes with recent (1.8+, I believe) Ruby which functions like perldoc -f for Ruby classes and methods. They're definitely catching up (and Ruby's really growing on me, which maybe means I need to see a dermatologist (or a geologist)).

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Re^2: Why do nodes with minimal value get upvoted most?
by Anonymous Monk on Dec 23, 2004 at 16:37 UTC
    The second edition Camel from which most of the core of perldoc is descended came out in 1996.
    That sounds like most of the core docs were copied from the Camel. That's not true. First of all, the authors of the various editions of the Camel also wrote large portions of the documentation. And a lot of what's in the Camel, be it the Camel II and the Camel III, appeared in the docs first.

      *feh*

      Yes Tom Christensen was largely responsible for both huge chunks of the Perl 5 perldoc as well as the various Camels. Much of what got expanded upon and written for the 2nd edition Camel got merged back into the perldoc after its publication (and has subsequently been further honed and improved by countless others). I was using the copyright dates of the two reference tomes five years apart to clarify what I meant by relative immaturity, not to produce further quibbles about the genealogy of perldoc.

Re^2: Why do nodes with minimal value get upvoted most?
by Anonymous Monk on Dec 23, 2004 at 15:41 UTC
    Immature? Ruby? From the Ruby website we can learn that Ruby was born in early 1993, and first released to the internet in 1995. To be more precise, Ruby was born 20 days after the release of perl4.036. That's right. Before the first alpha release of perl5. Ruby hit the internet around the time the first betas of perl5.002 were released. 1995 was also the year Java was announced.

    How long do languages stay "immature" and "new"?

      Ruby was born 20 days after the release of perl4.036.

      Yes, I think you've just proved Fletch's point quite nicely. The point was Ruby's relative immaturity - relative to Perl, of course. The fact that Ruby was born when Perl was already in it's 4th incarnation means that Ruby is immature relative to Perl.

      --
      edan

      I have no personal opinion on the maturity of Ruby but maturity is not only relative to age. There are many potential indicators of maturity; some may matter to you and some may not.
      • Stability
      • Number of bugs in the stable release
      • Number of installations
      • Size of its community
      • Number of releases
      • Does it follow a formalized release process?
      • Does it follow a formalized change control process?
      • Does it make backwards compatability a priority?
      • Age
      • Insert whatever matters to you here...
      • etc...

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