I've been reading perl (and linux) related help forums a bit more actively lately and I have to say I found something that surprised me, even though it probably shouldn't.

It seems to me that a lot of the questions being asked on technical web forums these days are the result of users refusing to learn the basics of a given topic. I am posting this here because I have noticed it more in the perl community than in other communities. Perhaps this is a result of perl being so widespread and diverse as a 'glue' language (amongst other things). Perhaps its just the result of more student/users getting addicted to the 'google it' mindset (not that there is anything wrong with googling it).

Nonetheless, it seems to me that if users would take some time to do some research on the basics of a topic, perhaps by compiling a good set of learning resources, or perhaps by observing a particular tech. community a little bit before diving straight into it, they could save themselves lots of headaches. I have seen numerous posts here on perl monks over the past month or so that are answered very explicitly in Simon Cozens freebook "Beginning Perl." Most of them are even answered (though not always as explicitly) in the camel book.

This isn't supposed to be a gripe, its more just a curious happening I've noticed. Folks these days seem more prone to throw a question into the wild (on whatever forum they can find), looking for a quick answer rather than taking the time to understand the answer and the content of the question. This is sad to me. A good amount of the beauty I find in perl is how elaborate some of the basic data structures and commands can be, yet how simple and intuitive they are to implement and use. Perhaps I just like understanding 'everything' about a subject more than others. Still though, I hope people don't do themselves the injustice of performing a perl hack job that just gets it right without understanding how wonderful that hack job is/can be in the first place.

Of course these musings are not meant to scare anyone away from posting any kind of question. I think the open, welcoming arms of (some)? internet communities are a resource that should be used to the fullest extent. Still, I hope people don't abuse those welcoming arms in such a way that they are cheated out of seeing the depth and wonder that truly is perl (or any other tech. for that matter).

I'd be interested to hear anyone else's thoughts on this.

In reply to Musings on the Basics.... by BJ_Covert_Action

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