I very much agree with you. While the site's main focus is (and should remain) Perl, the truth is that good effective programming requires more than syntactical mastery of the language you're using.

We've discussed various things that could be considered off-topic, such as Unix file systems, Apache configuration, database design, and even the Windows API. All of which I've personally found educational, interesting, and (more importantly) useful.

Now, I know some disagree--and that's fine--however, I personally believe that good programming requires a lot of seemingly random knowledge, not all of which can be found in the POD.

Personally, I'd like to see people think about sharing more of these fiddly-bits and focus less on "pure" topicality.

As far as your specific tutorial goes, I think it's useful and would like to see it more broadly available (even if we only link to it). Why? Because it contains a lot of good information useful for those learning to use Perl to write CGI scripts. (I know I could have used such a resource when I was starting.) Perhaps we need a "Related Topics" (or perhaps "Prerequisites") section in the Tutorials?

--f

In reply to Re: When is OT really OT? by footpad
in thread When is OT really OT? by tachyon

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