Well, maybe it's the way packages are documented, or maybe because Perl is an organic effort, or maybe the official Java API documentation feels easier on my eyes. Or perhaps I feel this way because I have more experience with Java packages than Perl modules.

In the example above, for instance, there is no method specifically declared "add_to_cds()" in package Artist. I wondered if someone wrote a package so ingenious that just relating Artists to CDs in a certain way would automatically generate methods like these; with Perl, you never know, I mean I don't see why it can't be done. But of course I doubt that this is the case -- but I knew right then that there was stuff implied in the examples that wouldn't be immediately obvious to me. I felt like I was left dangling a bit.

And then I had to make the leap from seeing a method I know nothing about (add_to_cds()) do something that's not documented (it actually creates and returns a new CD). My assumptions are probably right (rule of least surprise meets DWIM and TMTOWTDI, right?), but I'm not completely positive -- the DWIM to TMTOWTDI ratio is low. Of course, a few lines later the example code shows that those assumptions are probably 100% correct, because of the reference to $cd passed back, and later manipulated. Nevertheless, I had to decipher the documentation. In other words, I needed documentation on the documentation, I needed more commentary. Actually, in-line comments would have been perfectly fine.

In reply to Re^4: Perl Entity Bean by rje
in thread Perl Entity Bean by rje

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