I will never consider myself a programmer in any shape or form. My previous experience some years ago had been some very baby steps in Visual Basic. To accompany a report into the issues holding back the progress in automatic summarisation systems I started to build a basic summarisation program.
I had some basic ideas on what I wanted to do but really no idea how to implement them. Looking around the Web I found some perl sites and forums that I thought would be of help to a newbie.
I found perlmonks with the first “google” but passed it as being too high brow for me – Big Mistake Number One
I subsequently wasted valuable time joining and asking questions then waiting and waiting in other forums for an answer. Mistake Two.
I finally plucked up courage and came back to perlmonks and asked my question quite prepared for a rebuff for asking such basic stuff.
Within a matter minutes I received answers detailing how best to achieve my goal.

To any Newbie putting off joining and posing a questions don’t waste time elsewhere jump in Monks don’t bite.
The spirit of the community is to help others to help themselves this has been reflected by all that I have had the pleasure of communicating with.
Thank you brethren for you help and kindness to help a starter on the pilgrims road to perl wisdom.

Kind Regards

Gavin

2006-04-17 Retitled by planetscape, as per Monastery guidelines
Original title: 'A Cautionary tale for Newbies “Monks don’t bite”'

In reply to A Cautionary tale for Newbies "Monks don't bite" by Gavin

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