in reply to A Hashing Question

Bigjoe lamented:
I am creating a script for a company. It is going to be run on an NT server with active Perl on it. I have no access to this server to add the Storage.pm onto it.
I see statements like this over and over again. Why do people accept jobs like this, or why do bosses require jobs to be done like this?

If I were a doctor, I'd not be told "try to save this patient, using only that little medical kit over there, and I hope there's enough band-aids". If I were a car mechanic, I wouldn't be told "Please fix this 98 jeep, but you have to use only the parts from that wrecking yard right there."

Why do people put up with this sad situation?

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
RE: Why forced to do the job the hard way?
by Russ (Deacon) on Jun 17, 2000 at 02:20 UTC
    It really makes you feel for them... Makes me immensely thankful for my current situation, where there are none who would fetter us like that.

    Given enough experience in the workplace, I think no one would suffer situations like this. (When you're good enough to threaten to leave -- or good enough to choose your dream job, life would be much, much better, and suffering of fools much, much less frequent.)

    Russ

[reply]
      Given the high demand for Perl programmers, I don't see any reason why _anybody_ needs to work under poor conditions. Just tell them, "Look, this is how it's done, there are reasons the programmers need it this way, and otherwise I won't work for you." And if they don't like it, well... there ARE lots of jobs for Perl programmers right now! You don't even need experience... if you're any good, you just write some cool programs as demos, and start taking short-term contracts. 
      Paris Sinclair    |    4a75737420416e6f74686572
pariss@efn.org    |    205065726c204861636b6572
I wear my Geek Code on my finger.
[reply]
RE: Why forced to do the job the hard way?
by Aighearach (Initiate) on Jun 17, 2000 at 02:21 UTC

    I agree that if you don't stand up your rights, whatever rights they are, then you will not get the tools you need.

    What I don't understand, is how a person can be in a position where they can upload a script, but yet can't install modules in the same dir as the script?

    But, why would you want to run perl on NT anyway?

    The Book of Larry says: Perl is, in intent, a cleaned up and summarized version of that wonderful semi-natural language known as "Unix".
    -- Larry Wall in <1994Apr6.184419.3687@netlabs.com> 

    Paris Sinclair    |    4a75737420416e6f74686572
pariss@efn.org    |    205065726c204861636b6572
I wear my Geek Code on my finger.
[reply]
      In my case, our IS department doesn't trust us accessing the Web server. We have to have a working model of our scripts on sim server first. Then they test it and move the script to their server.

      I would love a job where I could program PERL on a Linux system. But I don't have the experience to get hired for it yet. So when the company that I work for asked for this I offered to get experience for my resume to get one of those great jobs.

      --BigJoe
[reply]
        But Storable works fine with ActiveState perl! We're not asking you to wait for Linux. We're just saying, use Storable even on AS.

        -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

[reply]

        If they don't trust you, why the heck did they hire you? Anyhow, they could have a policy of testing your scripts on a non-production server before moving them to the productions server. I do that even if I have root, and that method means I don't have to "trust" anybody... I can just test the script, and copy it over when I'm happy with it.

        I don't see how having access to the server and wanting to test the scripts before they go production are related things.

        Ozymandias: You are certainly correct, I only accept projects where I am in charge of IS, I wouldn't even consider working in it. But I won't work with people I'm not willing to trust.

        Paris Sinclair    |    4a75737420416e6f74686572
pariss@efn.org    |    205065726c204861636b6572
I wear my Geek Code on my finger.
[reply]

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