[30014] in Perl-Users-Digest
Perl-Users Digest, Issue: 1257 Volume: 11
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Tue Feb 5 14:09:48 2008
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:09:06 -0800 (PST)
From: Perl-Users Digest <Perl-Users-Request@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU>
To: Perl-Users@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Perl-Users Digest Tue, 5 Feb 2008 Volume: 11 Number: 1257
Today's topics:
add match condition <mikael.petterson@ericsson.com>
Re: add match condition <josef.moellers@fujitsu-siemens.com>
Re: add match condition <ben@morrow.me.uk>
Re: add match condition <abigail@abigail.be>
Re: add match condition <jurgenex@hotmail.com>
CGI::Carp die with status <bernd.web@gmail.com>
Re: CGI::Carp die with status <smallpond@juno.com>
Re: CGI::Carp die with status <glex_no-spam@qwest-spam-no.invalid>
Re: CGI::Carp die with status <bernd.web@gmail.com>
Re: CGI::Carp die with status xhoster@gmail.com
Re: exec (or system()) <joe@inwap.com>
Newbie: Non-interactive status displays - HOWTO? <chimpdad99_NoSpam@yahoo.com>
Re: PDF API for password encryption? <finster@gmail.com>
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: tadmc@seesig.invalid
Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01) (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:48:19 +0100
From: Mikael Petterson <mikael.petterson@ericsson.com>
Subject: add match condition
Message-Id: <fo9pf3$ouk$1@news.al.sw.ericsson.se>
Hi,
In my perl script I have the following match:
if ($_ =~ m/$featureId/)
But I also want to add a condition saying:
not matching the string 'disable' in $_
How can I do that?
cheers,
//mikael
--
Mikael Petterson
Software Designer
Ericsson AB, Stockholm, Sweden
Visiting address: Isafjordsgatan 15, Kista
Phone: +46 70 2673044
E-mail: mikael.petterson@ericsson.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:09:16 +0100
From: Josef Moellers <josef.moellers@fujitsu-siemens.com>
Subject: Re: add match condition
Message-Id: <fo9qlt$6nk$2@nntp.fujitsu-siemens.com>
Mikael Petterson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In my perl script I have the following match:
>
>
> if ($_ =~ m/$featureId/)
>
> But I also want to add a condition saying:
>
> not matching the string 'disable' in $_
>
> How can I do that?
$_ !~ /disable/
--
These are my personal views and not those of Fujitsu Siemens Computers!
Josef Möllers (Pinguinpfleger bei FSC)
If failure had no penalty success would not be a prize (T. Pratchett)
Company Details: http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/imprint.html
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 14:32:40 +0000
From: Ben Morrow <ben@morrow.me.uk>
Subject: Re: add match condition
Message-Id: <8l8m75-1gb.ln1@osiris.mauzo.dyndns.org>
Quoth noname@mydomain.se:
>
> In my perl script I have the following match:
>
>
> if ($_ =~ m/$featureId/)
>
> But I also want to add a condition saying:
>
> not matching the string 'disable' in $_
>
> How can I do that?
Err... did you try
if ($_ =~ m/$featureId/ and not $_ =~ m/disable/) {
? Note that unless $featureId contains a regular expression, the first
match should be written
m/\Q$featureId/
which will ensure any special characters that find their way in there
are *not* treated specially.
You may feel it is clearer to explicitly include the '$_ =~' and 'm'
parts of the match, and if you are writing your code for yourself or
others unfamiliar with Perl that's OK. However, if you are planning to
become reasonably proficient, it's well worth getting used to Perl's
defaults. Putting in redundant information can be confusing: I had to
read that line twice and then translated it to 'if (/$featureId/)' in my
head, just because there's so much extra garbage around the important
bit of the test.
Ben
------------------------------
Date: 05 Feb 2008 15:24:37 GMT
From: Abigail <abigail@abigail.be>
Subject: Re: add match condition
Message-Id: <slrnfqgvtl.ci7.abigail@alexandra.abigail.be>
_
Mikael Petterson (mikael.petterson@ericsson.com) wrote on VCCLXXI
September MCMXCIII in <URL:news:fo9pf3$ouk$1@news.al.sw.ericsson.se>:
[] Hi,
[]
[] In my perl script I have the following match:
[]
[]
[] if ($_ =~ m/$featureId/)
[]
[] But I also want to add a condition saying:
[]
[] not matching the string 'disable' in $_
You'd use the && operator:
if (EXPRESSION1 && EXPRESSION2) {
... Excuted only if both EXPRESSION1 and EXPRESSION 2
are true ...
}
So, in your case:
if (/$featureId/ && !/disable/) {
...
}
Abigail
--
sub f{sprintf'%c%s',$_[0],$_[1]}print f(74,f(117,f(115,f(116,f(32,f(97,
f(110,f(111,f(116,f(104,f(0x65,f(114,f(32,f(80,f(101,f(114,f(0x6c,f(32,
f(0x48,f(97,f(99,f(107,f(101,f(114,f(10,q ff)))))))))))))))))))))))))
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:21:35 GMT
From: Jürgen Exner <jurgenex@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: add match condition
Message-Id: <th6hq39mdkmngedse0lmrv0hsnr49u4g3n@4ax.com>
Mikael Petterson <mikael.petterson@ericsson.com> wrote:
>In my perl script I have the following match:
>
> if ($_ =~ m/$featureId/)
>
>But I also want to add a condition saying:
>
>not matching the string 'disable' in $_
if (m/$featureId/ and index($_, 'disable') == -1)
This is assuming that $featureId actually does contain a regex. Otherwise it
would be better to replace the match with an index() call, too.
jue
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 07:44:38 -0800 (PST)
From: bernd <bernd.web@gmail.com>
Subject: CGI::Carp die with status
Message-Id: <35f650e4-7d3f-4067-ad4f-edb4926fc80e@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com>
Hi,
Has anyone experience with dying from CGI::Carp with a status?
Using LWP one can catch status with:
$response = $ua->request($req);
$content = $response->content;
if ($response->is_success) {
print $content;
} else {
print $response->status_line;
}
However, when the script "dies" with CGI::Carp the exit status is "200
OK".
I'd rather have a status that is not "OK" and not scan the returned
$content for "Software error".
Has someone been able to do this?
Bernd
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 08:52:32 -0800 (PST)
From: smallpond <smallpond@juno.com>
Subject: Re: CGI::Carp die with status
Message-Id: <5f94d042-a6a6-4d00-b9d6-d7e152d54328@v4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>
On Feb 5, 10:44 am, bernd <bernd....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Has anyone experience with dying from CGI::Carp with a status?
> Using LWP one can catch status with:
>
> $response = $ua->request($req);
> $content = $response->content;
> if ($response->is_success) {
> print $content;} else {
>
> print $response->status_line;
>
> }
>
> However, when the script "dies" with CGI::Carp the exit status is "200
> OK".
> I'd rather have a status that is not "OK" and not scan the returned
> $content for "Software error".
>
> Has someone been able to do this?
>
> Bernd
HTTP status is set by the -status value in the header. If the cgi is
not checking for errors and exits without setting status you will get
the default. Sounds like it is doing fatalsToBrowser if the error
is showing up in the content. It will also be in the httpd error log
on the server.
You need to post the cgi if you want help fixing it.
--S
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:53:54 -0600
From: "J. Gleixner" <glex_no-spam@qwest-spam-no.invalid>
Subject: Re: CGI::Carp die with status
Message-Id: <47a894a2$0$510$815e3792@news.qwest.net>
bernd wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Has anyone experience with dying from CGI::Carp with a status?
> Using LWP one can catch status with:
>
> $response = $ua->request($req);
> $content = $response->content;
> if ($response->is_success) {
> print $content;
> } else {
> print $response->status_line;
> }
>
> However, when the script "dies" with CGI::Carp the exit status is "200
> OK".
> I'd rather have a status that is not "OK" and not scan the returned
> $content for "Software error".
>
> Has someone been able to do this?
Where is "CGI::Carp" being used in your example code? How the
heck is anyone going to be able to help if you don't show exactly
what you're trying?
Show a short example that uses CGI::Carp and produces the error.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 09:22:11 -0800 (PST)
From: bernd <bernd.web@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: CGI::Carp die with status
Message-Id: <3c441429-2165-4639-822b-29be4346a052@e10g2000prf.googlegroups.com>
Hi,
Sorry for not being clear.
A simple CGI example script is:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
die "Some error occured...\n";
I would like the status header not to print 200 OK, but e.g.
status 500, server error.
Usually one can set the status, but I do not know how to set the
status header when the script dies with fatalsToBrowser as above.
Bernd
------------------------------
Date: 05 Feb 2008 18:29:15 GMT
From: xhoster@gmail.com
Subject: Re: CGI::Carp die with status
Message-Id: <20080205132917.502$Bz@newsreader.com>
bernd <bernd.web@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Sorry for not being clear.
> A simple CGI example script is:
>
> #!/usr/bin/perl
> use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
> die "Some error occured...\n";
>
> I would like the status header not to print 200 OK, but e.g.
> status 500, server error.
>
> Usually one can set the status, but I do not know how to set the
> status header when the script dies with fatalsToBrowser as above.
Use set_die_handler instead. That is why it is there--to give you more
control than fatalsToBrowser does.
Xho
--
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the
payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked
advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate
this fact.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:34:12 -0800
From: Joe Smith <joe@inwap.com>
Subject: Re: exec (or system())
Message-Id: <GLKdnW6MeKQfgjXanZ2dnUVZ_qqgnZ2d@comcast.com>
Floor wrote:
> With a 'cat' command I read out the contents of the e-mail adresses of the
> subscribers and put it in one viewable textfile.
> I now run that job in a crontab job that runs every 15 minutes.
> It would be great if I can run that job at the start of the Perl script of
> the mailinglist software. I allready tried to put the system line in it, but
> as I am a complete nono on Perl,
I don't know "nono"; I assume you mean "am a complete newbie when it comes to Perl".
That's OK, we all were at one time.
> it didn't run (it did, but didn't make an update to the online output file).
Did your other script check for errors? (In particular: "permission denied".)
I hope you're aware that when the web server runs your CGI script, it runs
as "nobody" (or some other unprivileged user-ID) and not as "floor".
That is, if the output file has the usual file permissions, so that it can
only be written to by a process logged in as you, then the file cannot
be written to by the CGI script when run by the web server.
>> You can certainly execute a Unix shell script from a Perl program. Use
>> the system function or backtics (``) or the qx() operator, depending
>> upon if you wish to capture the standard output of the command you are
>> running.
>
> I think there might be allway a security issue on this, but in this case it
> will be the only alternative I am afraid.
Using
system "./my-script" == 0 or warn "Problem running ./my-script: $? ($!)";
or
my $results = `./my-script`; warn "Problem running ./my-script: $? ($!)" if $?;
has some of the same sort of security issues as
open my $fh,'>',$filename or warn "Cannot write to $filename: $!";
in regards to: Output files need to be writable by the web server process.
> I am not an experienced Perl users, but as with Cobol, you have to put these
> kins of commands in a certain part of the source code or else the command
> wouldn't be executed.
Perl does not have those sorts of silly restrictions. Any executable statement
that is not inside a subroutine definition is considered to be part of the
main program. It will be executed if the flow of control reaches that far.
On another topic, I recommend you look into the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup;
it has a lot more traffic than the alt.perl newsgroup.
-Joe
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:43:55 -0600
From: Chris <chimpdad99_NoSpam@yahoo.com>
Subject: Newbie: Non-interactive status displays - HOWTO?
Message-Id: <P_ednQAwxbrGPTXanZ2dnUVZ_v-hnZ2d@comcast.com>
I'm a perl Tk newbie trying to create a pgm to display the status of
several servers by a green/red indicator light. After going over some
howto's & examples, I'm still stumped.
All of the examples I can find are geared towards dealing with some user
interaction (clicking buttons, typing text, etc.), but I'm looking for a
non-interactive update of status lights, say when a server goes down,
stops listening on a port, etc.
Basically I'd like to know how to update a widget color based on results
from a monitoring subroutine - ie how to pass info back into the Tk
window. I tried setting a text widget to a global variable that gets
manipulated in a routine forked prior to MainLoop, but no luck.
Sooooo....can anybody provide guidance as how to pass values back into a
Tk window? Examples greatly appreciated..
TIA
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 09:20:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Finster <finster@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: PDF API for password encryption?
Message-Id: <4812abd3-6964-45c1-b9fb-03072754243c@s37g2000prg.googlegroups.com>
On Feb 4, 8:57 am, AlainS <asa...@xs4all.nl> wrote:
> Selling an e-book inpdf-format, I want to secure thepdfwith a
> password encryption. In Adobe you can do that by hand through "Secure-
> PasswordEncrypt", but I want to do this automatically by writing aperl-script. I discovered aPDF::API2 module, but I can't discover if
> that module also offers a passwordencrypt-functionality.
>
> Is there anybody having experience with this module or having an
> alternative forPDF::API2 that can do the job?
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> Alain
There is CAM::PDF, unfortunately this module has the mind-numbing
security hole that the owner password and user password must be
identical in order to correctly output an encrypted PDF. So, someone
with the user password could completely remove the encryption just by
loading up the PDF in Adobe Acrobat.
If there is a secure implementation that allows the the passwords to
be different, I'd sure like to know about it.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:14:57 GMT
From: tadmc@seesig.invalid
Subject: Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.8 $)
Message-Id: <5WUpj.7230$Rg1.1550@nlpi068.nbdc.sbc.com>
Outline
Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Must
- Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
Really Really Should
- Lurk for a while before posting
- Search a Usenet archive
If You Like
- Check Other Resources
Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Is there a better place to ask your question?
- Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
- Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
- Use an effective followup style
- Speak Perl rather than English, when possible
- Ask perl to help you
- Do not re-type Perl code
- Provide enough information
- Do not provide too much information
- Do not post binaries, HTML, or MIME
Social faux pas to avoid
- Asking a Frequently Asked Question
- Asking a question easily answered by a cursory doc search
- Asking for emailed answers
- Beware of saying "doesn't work"
- Sending a "stealth" Cc copy
Be extra cautious when you get upset
- Count to ten before composing a followup when you are upset
- Count to ten after composing and before posting when you are upset
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.8 $)
This newsgroup, commonly called clpmisc, is a technical newsgroup
intended to be used for discussion of Perl related issues (except job
postings), whether it be comments or questions.
As you would expect, clpmisc discussions are usually very technical in
nature and there are conventions for conduct in technical newsgroups
going somewhat beyond those in non-technical newsgroups.
The article at:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
describes how to get answers from technical people in general.
This article describes things that you should, and should not, do to
increase your chances of getting an answer to your Perl question. It is
available in POD, HTML and plain text formats at:
http://www.rehabitation.com/clpmisc.shtml
For more information about netiquette in general, see the "Netiquette
Guidelines" at:
http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc1855.html
A note to newsgroup "regulars":
Do not use these guidelines as a "license to flame" or other
meanness. It is possible that a poster is unaware of things
discussed here. Give them the benefit of the doubt, and just
help them learn how to post, rather than assume that they do
know and are being the "bad kind" of Lazy.
A note about technical terms used here:
In this document, we use words like "must" and "should" as
they're used in technical conversation (such as you will
encounter in this newsgroup). When we say that you *must* do
something, we mean that if you don't do that something, then
it's unlikely that you will benefit much from this group.
We're not bossing you around; we're making the point without
lots of words.
Do *NOT* send email to the maintainer of these guidelines. It will be
discarded unread. The guidelines belong to the newsgroup so all
discussion should appear in the newsgroup. I am just the secretary that
writes down the consensus of the group.
Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Must
This section describes things that you *must* do before posting to
clpmisc, in order to maximize your chances of getting meaningful replies
to your inquiry and to avoid getting flamed for being lazy and trying to
have others do your work.
The perl distribution includes documentation that is copied to your hard
drive when you install perl. Also installed is a program for looking
things up in that (and other) documentation named 'perldoc'.
You should either find out where the docs got installed on your system,
or use perldoc to find them for you. Type "perldoc perldoc" to learn how
to use perldoc itself. Type "perldoc perl" to start reading Perl's
standard documentation.
Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Checking the FAQ before posting is required in Big 8 newsgroups in
general, there is nothing clpmisc-specific about this requirement.
You are expected to do this in nearly all newsgroups.
You can use the "-q" switch with perldoc to do a word search of the
questions in the Perl FAQs.
Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
The perl distribution comes with much more documentation than is
available for most other newsgroups, so in clpmisc you should also
see if you can find an answer in the other (non-FAQ) standard docs
before posting.
It is *not* required, or even expected, that you actually *read* all of
Perl's standard docs, only that you spend a few minutes searching them
before posting.
Try doing a word-search in the standard docs for some words/phrases
taken from your problem statement or from your very carefully worded
"Subject:" header.
Really Really Should
This section describes things that you *really should* do before posting
to clpmisc.
Lurk for a while before posting
This is very important and expected in all newsgroups. Lurking means
to monitor a newsgroup for a period to become familiar with local
customs. Each newsgroup has specific customs and rituals. Knowing
these before you participate will help avoid embarrassing social
situations. Consider yourself to be a foreigner at first!
Search a Usenet archive
There are tens of thousands of Perl programmers. It is very likely
that your question has already been asked (and answered). See if you
can find where it has already been answered.
One such searchable archive is:
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
If You Like
This section describes things that you *can* do before posting to
clpmisc.
Check Other Resources
You may want to check in books or on web sites to see if you can
find the answer to your question.
But you need to consider the source of such information: there are a
lot of very poor Perl books and web sites, and several good ones
too, of course.
Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
There can be 200 messages in clpmisc in a single day. Nobody is going to
read every article. They must decide somehow which articles they are
going to read, and which they will skip.
Your post is in competition with 199 other posts. You need to "win"
before a person who can help you will even read your question.
These sections describe how you can help keep your article from being
one of the "skipped" ones.
Is there a better place to ask your question?
Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
It can be difficult to separate out where your problem really is,
but you should make a conscious effort to post to the most
applicable newsgroup. That is, after all, where you are the most
likely to find the people who know how to answer your question.
Being able to "partition" a problem is an essential skill for
effectively troubleshooting programming problems. If you don't get
that right, you end up looking for answers in the wrong places.
It should be understood that you may not know that the root of your
problem is not Perl-related (the two most frequent ones are CGI and
Operating System related), so off-topic postings will happen from
time to time. Be gracious when someone helps you find a better place
to ask your question by pointing you to a more applicable newsgroup.
How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
You have 40 precious characters of Subject to win out and be one of
the posts that gets read. Don't waste them. Take care while
composing them, they are the key that opens the door to getting an
answer.
Spend them indicating what aspect of Perl others will find if they
should decide to read your article.
Do not spend them indicating "experience level" (guru, newbie...).
Do not spend them pleading (please read, urgent, help!...).
Do not spend them on non-Subjects (Perl question, one-word
Subject...)
For more information on choosing a Subject see "Choosing Good
Subject Lines":
http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/D/DM/DMR/subjects.post
Part of the beauty of newsgroup dynamics, is that you can contribute
to the community with your very first post! If your choice of
Subject leads a fellow Perler to find the thread you are starting,
then even asking a question helps us all.
Use an effective followup style
When composing a followup, quote only enough text to establish the
context for the comments that you will add. Always indicate who
wrote the quoted material. Never quote an entire article. Never
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Intersperse your comments *following* each section of quoted text to
which they relate. Unappreciated followup styles are referred to as
"top-posting", "Jeopardy" (because the answer comes before the
question), or "TOFU" (Text Over, Fullquote Under).
Reversing the chronology of the dialog makes it much harder to
understand (some folks won't even read it if written in that style).
For more information on quoting style, see:
http://web.presby.edu/~nnqadmin/nnq/nquote.html
Speak Perl rather than English, when possible
Perl is much more precise than natural language. Saying it in Perl
instead will avoid misunderstanding your question or problem.
Do not say: I have variable with "foo\tbar" in it.
Instead say: I have $var = "foo\tbar", or I have $var = 'foo\tbar',
or I have $var = <DATA> (and show the data line).
Ask perl to help you
You can ask perl itself to help you find common programming mistakes
by doing two things: enable warnings (perldoc warnings) and enable
"strict"ures (perldoc strict).
You should not bother the hundreds/thousands of readers of the
newsgroup without first seeing if a machine can help you find your
problem. It is demeaning to be asked to do the work of a machine. It
will annoy the readers of your article.
You can look up any of the messages that perl might issue to find
out what the message means and how to resolve the potential mistake
(perldoc perldiag). If you would like perl to look them up for you,
you can put "use diagnostics;" near the top of your program.
Do not re-type Perl code
Use copy/paste or your editor's "import" function rather than
attempting to type in your code. If you make a typo you will get
followups about your typos instead of about the question you are
trying to get answered.
Provide enough information
If you do the things in this item, you will have an Extremely Good
chance of getting people to try and help you with your problem!
These features are a really big bonus toward your question winning
out over all of the other posts that you are competing with.
First make a short (less than 20-30 lines) and *complete* program
that illustrates the problem you are having. People should be able
to run your program by copy/pasting the code from your article. (You
will find that doing this step very often reveals your problem
directly. Leading to an answer much more quickly and reliably than
posting to Usenet.)
Describe *precisely* the input to your program. Also provide example
input data for your program. If you need to show file input, use the
__DATA__ token (perldata.pod) to provide the file contents inside of
your Perl program.
Show the output (including the verbatim text of any messages) of
your program.
Describe how you want the output to be different from what you are
getting.
If you have no idea at all of how to code up your situation, be sure
to at least describe the 2 things that you *do* know: input and
desired output.
Do not provide too much information
Do not just post your entire program for debugging. Most especially
do not post someone *else's* entire program.
Do not post binaries, HTML, or MIME
clpmisc is a text only newsgroup. If you have images or binaries
that explain your question, put them in a publically accessible
place (like a Web server) and provide a pointer to that location. If
you include code, cut and paste it directly in the message body.
Don't attach anything to the message. Don't post vcards or HTML.
Many people (and even some Usenet servers) will automatically filter
out such messages. Many people will not be able to easily read your
post. Plain text is something everyone can read.
Social faux pas to avoid
The first two below are symptoms of lots of FAQ asking here in clpmisc.
It happens so often that folks will assume that it is happening yet
again. If you have looked but not found, or found but didn't understand
the docs, say so in your article.
Asking a Frequently Asked Question
It should be understood that you may have missed the applicable FAQ
when you checked, which is not a big deal. But if the Frequently
Asked Question is worded similar to your question, folks will assume
that you did not look at all. Don't become indignant at pointers to
the FAQ, particularly if it solves your problem.
Asking a question easily answered by a cursory doc search
If folks think you have not even tried the obvious step of reading
the docs applicable to your problem, they are likely to become
annoyed.
If you are flamed for not checking when you *did* check, then just
shrug it off (and take the answer that you got).
Asking for emailed answers
Emailed answers benefit one person. Posted answers benefit the
entire community. If folks can take the time to answer your
question, then you can take the time to go get the answer in the
same place where you asked the question.
It is OK to ask for a *copy* of the answer to be emailed, but many
will ignore such requests anyway. If you munge your address, you
should never expect (or ask) to get email in response to a Usenet
post.
Ask the question here, get the answer here (maybe).
Beware of saying "doesn't work"
This is a "red flag" phrase. If you find yourself writing that,
pause and see if you can't describe what is not working without
saying "doesn't work". That is, describe how it is not what you
want.
Sending a "stealth" Cc copy
A "stealth Cc" is when you both email and post a reply without
indicating *in the body* that you are doing so.
Be extra cautious when you get upset
Count to ten before composing a followup when you are upset
This is recommended in all Usenet newsgroups. Here in clpmisc, most
flaming sub-threads are not about any feature of Perl at all! They
are most often for what was seen as a breach of netiquette. If you
have lurked for a bit, then you will know what is expected and won't
make such posts in the first place.
But if you get upset, wait a while before writing your followup. I
recommend waiting at least 30 minutes.
Count to ten after composing and before posting when you are upset
After you have written your followup, wait *another* 30 minutes
before committing yourself by posting it. You cannot take it back
once it has been said.
AUTHOR
Tad McClellan and many others on the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup.
--
Tad McClellan
email: perl -le "print scalar reverse qq/moc.noitatibaher\100cmdat/"
------------------------------
Date: 6 Apr 2001 21:33:47 GMT (Last modified)
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Subject: Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01)
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End of Perl-Users Digest V11 Issue 1257
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