Re^4: Help in manipulating values from two arrays

WOAH!
Great example, but that seems a bit out of the scope of the OP I think. What he was looking to do (and really, much of what those of us new to Perl are trying to do) didn't look to be too hard without the module.

I understand that modules certainly have their place. No doubt in my mind, but isn't it also fair (when doing something like this that is fairly simple) to try and figure it out on one's own? I think there is just as much learning value in that and was only trying to make that point in my OP.

Of course, I'm just sitting down to read through Learning Perl for the 2nd time and in no way consider myself a programmer. Anyhow, this is starting to get way OT from the OP and for that I apologize.

Comment on Re^4: Help in manipulating values from two arrays

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Re^5: Help in manipulating values from two arrays by chromatic (Archbishop) on Mar 25, 2007 at 20:28 UTC
What he was looking to do (and really, much of what those of us new to Perl are trying to do) didn't look to be too hard without the module. If you were soliciting estimates to build a house, would you trust the estimate of someone who's never built a house before over the estimate of someone with ten years of experience? I understand that modules certainly have their place. No doubt in my mind, but isn't it also fair (when doing something like this that is fairly simple) to try and figure it out on one's own? That depends on a lot of factors. If you want to solve a simple problem, is it better to learn how to solve that problem, or how your operating system works, how a programming language works, the ins and outs of the XML specification, and everything that other people have already built for you? It's definitely good to know all those other things and it's important to learn them, but is it really the best use of your time to rebuild and discover everything when you have the least amount of experience and knowledge and, likely, the greatest practical desire just to get something working? Take the lesson of Matt's Script Archive; the programs there exhibit absolutely the least amount of knowledge necessary to build their own components, and they've lead to countless security holes. I've never met a beginning programmer who studied RFCs and specifications in detail before starting to code an already-solved problem, and I never expect to. (More often, I find that people who say "I learn better coding it myself!" severely resist learning, especially from the experience of others. I don't mean to imply that you're in this group, but merely that this group exists.)	[reply]

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Re^5: Help in manipulating values from two arrays
by chromatic (Archbishop) on Mar 25, 2007 at 20:28 UTC

What he was looking to do (and really, much of what those of us new to Perl are trying to do) didn't look to be too hard without the module.

If you were soliciting estimates to build a house, would you trust the estimate of someone who's never built a house before over the estimate of someone with ten years of experience?

I understand that modules certainly have their place. No doubt in my mind, but isn't it also fair (when doing something like this that is fairly simple) to try and figure it out on one's own?

That depends on a lot of factors. If you want to solve a simple problem, is it better to learn how to solve that problem, or how your operating system works, how a programming language works, the ins and outs of the XML specification, and everything that other people have already built for you?

It's definitely good to know all those other things and it's important to learn them, but is it really the best use of your time to rebuild and discover everything when you have the least amount of experience and knowledge and, likely, the greatest practical desire just to get something working?

Take the lesson of Matt's Script Archive; the programs there exhibit absolutely the least amount of knowledge necessary to build their own components, and they've lead to countless security holes. I've never met a beginning programmer who studied RFCs and specifications in detail before starting to code an already-solved problem, and I never expect to. (More often, I find that people who say "I learn better coding it myself!" severely resist learning, especially from the experience of others. I don't mean to imply that you're in this group, but merely that this group exists.)

[reply]