Lately I've seen many posts asking questions how to do certain things that have already been done in modules available on CPAN.
If the poster of that question simply has a normal problem to solve, it is usually best to redirect their question to the corresponding modules, like all questions that have been asked about 'how to fetch the input in a CGI-script' (look at CGI.pm of course).

But one thing that bothers me a bit is that some people just want to learn how things work. Of course you can always look at existing code in these modules (I've done that a lot myself and learned lots of it), but sometimes that code is just too advanced for the stage the programmer is in, and the module looks just like an application for the obfuscation contest...even though it may be 'normal' Perl...

These posters still get responses like: "look at this module", "don't re-invent the wheel", "I'm not going to answer this because it's already been done". Of course it's been done, but if the poster explicitly asks for help and doesn't want to just use existing code to learn how to do it, what's wrong with that?

I'll probably get voted down for this and starting some flamewar...oh, well....

Jouke

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
RE: re-inventing wheels
by Jouke (Curate) on Oct 12, 2000 at 11:04 UTC
    It seems like my cookie was lost...it was MY posting, not from some anonymous monk...if you want to vote it down...vote ME down...

    Jouke Visser, Perl 'Adept'
      I'm confused... I thought our voting was supposed to be based on the post made, not on the person doing the posting?

      As such, if I felt that your post was deserving of a --, yet you posted it (accidentally) as an anonymous monk, then the post, not you, deserves the --. Sure, you escape the "punishment" for posting a bad post, but you also escape the "reward" for posting a good post.

      Or did you want up to vote you up if we were going to vote ++ as well?

        Don't be confused my son...voting also has its effects on a persons' ranking as far as I know...so if you thought it was a really bad thought of mine, it's better to punish me ;-)

        Jouke Visser, Perl 'Adept'
RE: re-inventing wheels
by nop (Hermit) on Oct 13, 2000 at 18:27 UTC
    I think folks get annoyed when someone asks a question that could have been answered by the most cursory investigation of perl docs, perl monks, or CPAN:

    "Hey, is there anything in perl to help me write HTML pages?"

    sort of questions.

    As to the issue of wanting to avoid canned modules to learn the nitty gritty, the poster just needs to make it clear that s/he has already done the basic homework:

    "I want to redirect a page, but I don't want to use the CGI.pm shortcuts... can someone explain how?"

    sort of thing. Putting a hyperlink in the text (1) shows you've done some homework, and (2) makes it visually stand out and be noticed, so the whole crowd doesn't shout back "RFM!".