in reply to Re: Perl is dying
in thread Perl is dying

Perl Programmers are snobby?!?!?!?! Say it isn't so! The problem with that claim is that you should drop Perl and simply say that programmers can be snobby

Alas, I think Perl programmers are snobbier. How many times in this site have you seen posters go apolpletic because some poor sod wrote "PERL" instead of "Perl", or a n00b got blasted with RTFM because they haven't learnt perldoc yet

I remember an experienced Perl programmer saying on the Krang list that he would be more gentle on Perlmonks posters after he received a lot of patient answers to his Krang questions. The fact is that not everyone is a guru programer, and some people will struggle because Perl programming is not their forte, but they still have to get the job done.

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Re^3: Perl is dying
by Fletch (Bishop) on Jul 14, 2006 at 21:00 UTC

    Yeah, how dare you people point out that they're wrong. How dare you people point out their ignorance and where to remedy it.

    We should coddle them and inculcate their incorrect notions and ignorance. Perish the thought that they should be pointed to the ample documentation where they can help themselves and improve in the process. Everyone should be spoon fed whatever they need immediately regardless of the effort they've exhibited. Otherwise it might mortally wound their fragile self esteem. Or they might get the idea that programming is an intellectual endeavor with certain inherent rigors. Perish the thought.

    Shame on you all.

    What? . . . Oh, sorry. Sarcasmometer was set to 11. Let's just dial that back a bit, shan't we?

    I've never seen anyone go apoplectic over "PERL". This is apoplectic:

    GOOD FRELLING GRIEF, WHAT KIND OF FRAKING MORON ARE YOU! EVERYONE AND THEIR SISTER'S DOG KNOWS THAT "PERL" IS NOT AN ACRONYM YOU VACUOUS, TOFFEE-NOSED, MALODOROUS PERVERT! IT'S "perl" OR "Perl" YOU SECOND HAND ELECTRIC DONKEY BOTTOM BITER!

    This is what usually happens:

    "Perl" is the language, "perl" is the implementation; "PERL" is just wrong.

    See the difference?

    As to being told to RTFM, most of the time that's probably because:

    • the querent asked an extremely trivial question
    • the querent showed no effort on their part to begin with
    • it's an extremely simple question to begin with
    • TFM answers said question rather succinctly to begin with (that, you know, kinda being the purpose of having good documentation)

    The few times I've gotten RTFM'd on a couple of the Ruby IRC channels it's shown me where to find TFM that I wasn't aware of (things like ri or the standard library docs online). An RTFM is also a form of teaching you how to fish for yourself.

[reply]
      *Sigh* - I was using "apoplectic" as a rhetorical device, I didn't mean it to be taken 100% literally. Kind of like your use of sarcasm, until you went and undid all of you good work by saying "Oh, sorry. Sarcasmometer was set to 11." Do you explain punchlines too in case people don't know when you're joking?
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