in reply to Perl documentation

Imagine we have such a demo tool for perl/Tk!
Are you saying there isn't one? Because there is you know, its called widget. Also, wxPerl has a pretty similar demo.

 

Another example is the documentation that came with a standard installation of python, it is in one place, categorizes the modules according to their usage, searchable and indexed. Although ActivePerl came with a better presented documentation, it's still less thoughtful than that of python, and that of the perl books, IMHO.
Have you ever read
  perldoc perl
  perldoc perltoc
 Looks fairly well organized and indexed to me. As for "searchability", but I guess additions could be made to perldoc (grep works for me when I need it, or windows "File Find" thing).

 

Now the goal of this post is not to complain, so please spare me the flames. I meant to ask, is there something we, as a community, can/should do to ease the pain of the beginners, actually also those of us less talented veterans. I truely believe all documentation is already there, it's just their organization, or lack of, that makes it less helpful. This is sort of like the web before google.
I don't know what you're getting at. I do not think there is anything, we, as a community, can/should do to ease the pain of the beginners. The perl documentation is pretty well organized, and if that's painful, well, then you need some one-on-one attention, or you need one of the many products that deal with the documentation on cpan, like tkpod among others.

MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"
I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).
** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

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Re^2: Perl documentation
by ihb (Deacon) on Aug 12, 2004 at 23:11 UTC

    What we perhaps need to do is to direct people towards perltoc instead of the relevant doc itself if it's obvious where to look after reading perltoc.

    ihb

    Read argumentation in its context!

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      What? That's just stupid. Why would Pod::Master be mentioned in perltoc? Why would you say look at the index instead of perlref or perlre?

      MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"
      I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).
      ** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

[reply]

        Please read my reply again. But I'll help you out:

        ihb: ... if it's obvious where to look after reading perltoc

        This is the key sentence and answers both your questions.

        Why would Pod::Master be mentioned in perltoc?

        I never said it should. Read my quote above.

        Why would you say look at the index instead of perlref or perlre?

        Because they obviously didn't read perltoc (read my quote again) and the next time they want to know about a perl feature they'll come asking where to look instead of looking it up themselves in perltoc.

        We point people towards perlfunc when it's a question about functions. We point people towards perlref when it's a question about references. We should perhaps point people to perltoc when it's a question about documentation.

        You say that perltoc "looks fairly well organized and indexed to me." Problem is, few know to look there.

        ihb

        Read argumentation in its context!

[reply]
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