Re: People who write perl, Perl and PERL

In regards to merlyns assertion about contributing back to the community. I don't think I ever will.

That is not to say that I wouldn't, but there is another thing to consider. I am a sysadmin and not a programmer. I write a little Perl code and heavily use CPAN for wheels that should not be recreated. I just don't program on a regular basis and doubt that my programming would ever be good enough to give back to CPAN at any level what I have extracted from it.

I am a monk, I sit here and (mostly) feel like I am lurking in programming discussions that I understand but don't program enough any more to actually solve. I vote and occasionally participate in discussions but being a non-programmer these days it is mostly just my opinions more than actual programming help.

The community is large and strong. I just suspect that there are many, many more people in my shoes than in the shoes of the people who actually have the skills to donate back to the community.

-Kurt

Comment on Re: People who write perl, Perl and PERL

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Re^2: People who write perl, Perl and PERL by Sandy (Curate) on Nov 21, 2005 at 21:13 UTC
I also cannot contribute to CPAN. Maybe not for the same reasons, but for my own. Although immediate supervisors agree that taking without giving is not nice, the beauracracy is such that I will never be given permission to publish anything that I do at work on any open source forum. (I've been pushing for almost a year). Since I have a home life (kids, hobbies, husband (only one)), I do not wish to spend my time ignoring my family while programming stuff for CPAN. Besides, it might be legally difficult to differentiate between this work and the work I do at work. My own moral dilema about taking and not giving back in turn is satisfied by: (a) repeatedly telling my bosses that we are using the sweat of others for our own gain, (b) providing other perl help wherever I can. Sandy	[reply]
Re^2: People who write perl, Perl and PERL by Animator (Hermit) on Nov 22, 2005 at 00:02 UTC
You are able to give back to CPAN, maybe not perl code but that's not all there is. For example, what if you find a bug in a module? Or something you believe is a bug? You can always mail the module maintainer and inform him about it. After which he can look at it and fix the bug. You could also try to create a little test-case/script and send it along with your bug report so that the maintainer can easily check if the bug is fixed and perhaps include the test in the distribution. (To make sure the bug is fixed once and for all.) Another thing you might be able to do is mail the module maintainer about a unclear statement that is too unclear in the docs. You said it yourself, you are not a programmer, perhaps the programmer who wrote it considers it to be too obvious to add a bigger explanation?. Perhaps you don't understand all the constructs used in the module's documentation, perhaps the examples need to be easier, ... If you do that then you are indeed not contributing code or modules to CPAN but you certainly are contributing to CPAN (IMHO).	[reply]
Re^2: People who write perl, Perl and PERL by merlyn (Sage) on Nov 21, 2005 at 20:29 UTC
And thus, by my definition, you're not "into" Perl, in the way that I would look for if I were hiring a Perl hacker to work for me. There's nothing wrong with that. This discussion started by trying to sort out why "PERL" is bad on a resume. It's a red flag for me, because it means you're not "into Perl". I probably wouldn't even return that guy's call. I'm not sure why people are freaking out about this. It's about respect of the culture, which I consider an essential component for being a good Perl programmer. -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.	[reply]
Re^3: People who write perl, Perl and PERL by KPeter0314 (Deacon) on Nov 21, 2005 at 22:46 UTC
I see, you are using a much narrower view of being "into" Perl than I was. I'm "into" using Perl and keeping up on the recent developments. You, on the other hand, were referring to being "INTO" Perl. :-) -Kurt	[reply]