[31600] in Perl-Users-Digest
Perl-Users Digest, Issue: 2859 Volume: 11
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Tue Mar 9 09:09:25 2010
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 06:09:09 -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, 9 Mar 2010 Volume: 11 Number: 2859
Today's topics:
Re: Can you compile a perl executable? <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim>
Re: convert BMP 256col to raw image data ? <dam-kat-jensen@gmail-kat-.com>
Re: convert BMP 256col to raw image data ? <ben@morrow.me.uk>
Re: FAQ 8.21 Where do I get the include files to do ioc <Phred@example.invalid>
Re: FAQ 8.21 Where do I get the include files to do ioc <ben@morrow.me.uk>
Help on String to array ! <jismagic@gmail.com>
Re: Help on String to array ! <spamtrap@piven.net>
Re: Help on String to array ! <someone@example.com>
Re: Help on String to array ! <someone@example.com>
Re: Help on String to array ! <ben@morrow.me.uk>
Re: how to deliver a GUI app to an end user <john1949@yahoo.com>
Re: how to deliver a GUI app to an end user <derykus@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, 09 Mar 2010 09:19:55 +0000
From: bugbear <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim>
Subject: Re: Can you compile a perl executable?
Message-Id: <Y4ednc98iekmjwvWnZ2dnUVZ8kdi4p2d@brightview.co.uk>
Peter J. Holzer wrote:
> On 2010-03-03 09:00, bugbear <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim> wrote:
>> Jürgen Exner wrote:
>>> Steve <steve@staticg.com> wrote:
>>>> If I made an application, and wanted to make it portable, is it
>>>> possible to compile it into a single binary?
>>> See "perldoc -q compile":
>>> "How can I compile my Perl program into byte code or C?"
>>>
>>> jue
>> I note that this perldoc appears to be happy
>> that B::Bytecode is the way to do this,
>
> Not in the current version. That paragraph vanished sometime between
> 5.8.8 and 5.10.0
You mean the perldoc recommending B::Bytecode has
changed, or the warning in B::Bytecode?
BugBear
------------------------------
Date: 09 Mar 2010 06:10:43 GMT
From: Torben <dam-kat-jensen@gmail-kat-.com>
Subject: Re: convert BMP 256col to raw image data ?
Message-Id: <Xns9D364904763F8myicqgmxnet@130.225.254.104>
"jl_post@hotmail.com" <jl_post@hotmail.com> wrote in news:3eddc08d-12db-
469d-bb65-28d75a8d8ad0@u5g2000prd.googlegroups.com:
> Unfortunately, there a several variables for BMP files (such as
> compressed/non-compressed, different number of bits per pixel), so to
> do this correctly you'd have to handle them all.
>
> Are you familiar with *.ppm files (specifically, of type "P6")?
Yes, but I need only the 8-bit, as described in the page I linked to.
I have the palette, and just need the "raw" image data in 8 bit.
In this way, the pixel color is directly coded in the file, one byte per
pixel. The total file size in byte is exactly equal to height x width,
example would 320x200 pixel be 64,000 bytes.
Maybe it's just a matter of stripping n bytes from the file, but not sure.
The application btw is an embedded controller run by a Xilinx FPGA. So no
operating system, images are directly output by memory copy. That's why I
need the raw format.
Hope this helps.
Torben
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 11:02:33 +0000
From: Ben Morrow <ben@morrow.me.uk>
Subject: Re: convert BMP 256col to raw image data ?
Message-Id: <9fmh67-p2f.ln1@osiris.mauzo.dyndns.org>
Quoth Torben <dam-kat-jensen@gmail-kat-.com>:
> Is there a perl-ish way to strip the header off a BMP image and get only
> the raw image data ?
>
> My BMP input is 256 color, and I need to have only the image data, like
> explained in
>
> http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic11179.html
>
> The forum speaks of BMP2RAW which I can call for the file from Perl, but I
> would like to do it natively.
>
> Is pack() / unpack () the solution ?
Yes (specifically unpack). You will also need
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd183391%28VS.85%29.aspx, and
some understanding of C structures.
An alternative would be to use one of the many image-handling libraries
on CPAN, for example Imager, which will let you get the raw bits out in
any format you like.
Ben
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:37:10 -0700
From: Phred Phungus <Phred@example.invalid>
Subject: Re: FAQ 8.21 Where do I get the include files to do ioctl() or syscall()?
Message-Id: <7vm8koFd7iU1@mid.individual.net>
Jean-Rene David wrote:
> * PerlFAQ Server [2010.03.08 05:00]:
>> 8.21: Where do I get the include files to do ioctl() or syscall()?
> [...]
>> doesn't work perfectly, but it usually gets most of the job done. Simple
>> files like errno.h, syscall.h, and socket.h were fine, but the hard ones
>
> Shouldn't this be:
>
> "Simple files like errno.h, syscan.h, and socket.h *work*
> fine, ..."?
>
I think so, but you snip a little too closely to make your case.
Simple files like errno.h, syscall.h, and socket.h were fine, but the
hard ones like ioctl.h nearly always need to hand-edited.
This probably wants to be:
Simple files like errno.h, syscall.h, and socket.h work fine, but the
hard ones like ioctl.h nearly always need to be hand-edited.
My question is how syscall is different from C's
int status;
status = system("ls *");
or
FILE *fp;
fp = popen ("ls *", "r");
If I'm to rely on my own eyes reading syscall in _Programming Perl_, I
would say they were completely disparate notions.
--
fred
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 11:06:41 +0000
From: Ben Morrow <ben@morrow.me.uk>
Subject: Re: FAQ 8.21 Where do I get the include files to do ioctl() or syscall()?
Message-Id: <1nmh67-p2f.ln1@osiris.mauzo.dyndns.org>
Quoth Phred Phungus <Phred@example.invalid>:
> Jean-Rene David wrote:
> > * PerlFAQ Server [2010.03.08 05:00]:
> >> 8.21: Where do I get the include files to do ioctl() or syscall()?
> > [...]
> >> doesn't work perfectly, but it usually gets most of the job done. Simple
> >> files like errno.h, syscall.h, and socket.h were fine, but the hard ones
> >
> > Shouldn't this be:
> >
> > "Simple files like errno.h, syscan.h, and socket.h *work*
> > fine, ..."?
> >
>
> I think so, but you snip a little too closely to make your case.
>
> Simple files like errno.h, syscall.h, and socket.h were fine, but the
> hard ones like ioctl.h nearly always need to hand-edited.
>
> This probably wants to be:
>
> Simple files like errno.h, syscall.h, and socket.h work fine, but the
> hard ones like ioctl.h nearly always need to be hand-edited.
No, I think someone has just incorrectly changed the tense of that
sentence at some point in the past. I suspect what was meant is
Simple files like errno.h, syscall.h and socket.h are fine, but the
hard ones like ioctl.h nearly always need to be hand-edited.
> My question is how syscall is different from C's
>
> int status;
> status = system("ls *");
>
> or
>
> FILE *fp;
> fp = popen ("ls *", "r");
>
> If I'm to rely on my own eyes reading syscall in _Programming Perl_, I
> would say they were completely disparate notions.
I don't understand the question. syscall is completely different from
either system or popen (or ls, for that matter).
Ben
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 03:34:48 -0800 (PST)
From: jis <jismagic@gmail.com>
Subject: Help on String to array !
Message-Id: <290186f2-ac7a-45bb-8176-975dfa362132@d2g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>
Guys,
I have a string $hex which has lets assume "0012345689abcd"
How can I split them into to an array so that
arr[0]=00 ,arr[1] =12..etc
it works with split command like this to some extent
foreach (split(//, $hex){
$arr[$i]=$_;
$i++;
}
Unfortunately when i read big files of 4MB size it takes
like 10mins before it completes execution. No good.
(i couldnt split it like 00,12 but only like 0,0,1,2)
Then I thought unpack wud be a better idea.
@arr = unpack("H2",$data); or
@arr = unpack("H2*",$data);
But only first element got transferred. ie 00.
$arr[0]=00 and arr[1] undefined.
Any one can help me on this?
thanks,
jis
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:38:26 -0600
From: Don Piven <spamtrap@piven.net>
Subject: Re: Help on String to array !
Message-Id: <0oGdnXq1v5re3AvWnZ2dnUVZ_jednZ2d@speakeasy.net>
jis wrote:
> Guys,
>
> I have a string $hex which has lets assume "0012345689abcd"
>
> How can I split them into to an array so that
> arr[0]=00 ,arr[1] =12..etc
while ( $hex =~ /[[:xdigit:]]{2}/g ) { push @arr, $1 }
The "g" flag on the regex tells Perl to do its search from where the
previous search left off, so this will just walk through your string two
characters at a time and relieve you from having to keep track of where
you are in the string and in your array.
The "o" flag may also be useful; check "Regexp Quote-Like Operators" in
perlop for more info.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:00:34 -0800
From: "John W. Krahn" <someone@example.com>
Subject: Re: Help on String to array !
Message-Id: <TDrln.22827$wr5.6844@newsfe22.iad>
Don Piven wrote:
> jis wrote:
>> Guys,
>>
>> I have a string $hex which has lets assume "0012345689abcd"
>>
>> How can I split them into to an array so that
>> arr[0]=00 ,arr[1] =12..etc
>
> while ( $hex =~ /[[:xdigit:]]{2}/g ) { push @arr, $1 }
No need for a loop:
my @arr = $hex =~ /[[:xdigit:]]{2}/g;
Also, you don't use capturing parentheses in your regular expression so
$1 will always be empty.
> The "g" flag on the regex tells Perl to do its search from where the
> previous search left off, so this will just walk through your string two
> characters at a time and relieve you from having to keep track of where
> you are in the string and in your array.
>
> The "o" flag may also be useful; check "Regexp Quote-Like Operators" in
> perlop for more info.
The /o option would not be useful in this case as there are no variables
in the regular expression to interpolate and in any case modern versions
of perl would not re-interpolate a variable that doesn't change.
perldoc -q /o
John
--
The programmer is fighting against the two most
destructive forces in the universe: entropy and
human stupidity. -- Damian Conway
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:03:02 -0800
From: "John W. Krahn" <someone@example.com>
Subject: Re: Help on String to array !
Message-Id: <bGrln.22828$wr5.7596@newsfe22.iad>
jis wrote:
> Guys,
>
> I have a string $hex which has lets assume "0012345689abcd"
>
> How can I split them into to an array so that
> arr[0]=00 ,arr[1] =12..etc
my @arr = unpack '(a2)*', $hex;
John
--
The programmer is fighting against the two most
destructive forces in the universe: entropy and
human stupidity. -- Damian Conway
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 13:08:56 +0000
From: Ben Morrow <ben@morrow.me.uk>
Subject: Re: Help on String to array !
Message-Id: <8sth67-6bg.ln1@osiris.mauzo.dyndns.org>
Quoth Don Piven <spamtrap@piven.net>:
>
> The "o" flag may also be useful; check "Regexp Quote-Like Operators" in
> perlop for more info.
The /o flag is rarely useful. Any meaningful use of it is better
replaced with qr//, and if compilation-speed is really a concern it's
best to build the regex as a string and pass it through qr// only once.
Ben
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 09:40:45 -0000
From: "John" <john1949@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: how to deliver a GUI app to an end user
Message-Id: <hn552q$27m$1@news.albasani.net>
"Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> wrote in message
news:slrnhpb2or.5f9.hjp-usenet2@hrunkner.hjp.at...
> On 2010-03-08 23:17, ccc31807 <cartercc@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Here's the problem: the employee charged with the contracting process
> hp
Are you the same Peter Holzer who was at the IHS in 1975?
Regards
John
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 05:22:07 -0800 (PST)
From: "C.DeRykus" <derykus@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: how to deliver a GUI app to an end user
Message-Id: <6ac34596-1b67-45a9-b027-1291f991b158@m27g2000prl.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 8, 3:17=A0pm, ccc31807 <carte...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
> I had written (several years ago) three Perl scripts running on the
> CLI, the first querying the database and munging the data, the second
> preparing the individual contracts as PDFs, and the third delivering
> the contracts to the vendors. Only the first script was used, since
> the people responsible used a point and click application to prepare
> and email the contracts. (Alpha 5 was the software used.)
>
> As a result of the changes mentioned, I dusted off the scripts I had
> written, revised them to meet the new requirements, and they work
> flawlessly, meeting the new requirements to perfection, and (being
> automated) do the job in a fraction of a second without error
> (previously took a couple of days and was error prone.) It's ready to
> roll.
>
> Here's the problem: the employee charged with the contracting process
> is not capable of running scripts from the CLI, but can only point and
> click, and besides, cannot (due to IA policy) install Perl on her
> machine. Due to policy, I'm not allowed to run end user processes,
> such as the preparation of the contracts.
>
> I've toyed with the idea of rewriting the app in Java, or perhaps
> using .NET to build a graphical interface to the Perl scripts, but
> this isn't my area and I really don't want to do this. I also toyed
> with the idea of putting the whole thing on a web server and giving
> her access through a browser, but that's probably a violation of IA
> policy as well (never mind the fact that it will be on the intranet.)
Could you dodge IA's minefields by installing PuTTY on the end user's
PC..(if it's not already)? The scripts' permissions could be altered
to be runnable only by a particular acct/pw accessible to the end
user.
This'd eliminate the need to transport/install Perl locally and access
would at least occur over a secure channel.
--
Charles DeRykus
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:13:53 -0600
From: tadmc@seesig.invalid
Subject: Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.9 $)
Message-Id: <oLmdnapjcJfcngvWnZ2dnUVZ_sydnZ2d@giganews.com>
Outline
Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Must
- Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
Really Really Should
- Lurk for a while before posting
- Search a Usenet archive
If You Like
- Check Other Resources
Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Is there a better place to ask your question?
- Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
- Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
- Use an effective followup style
- Speak Perl rather than English, when possible
- Ask perl to help you
- Do not re-type Perl code
- Provide enough information
- Do not provide too much information
- Do not post binaries, HTML, or MIME
Social faux pas to avoid
- Asking a Frequently Asked Question
- Asking a question easily answered by a cursory doc search
- Asking for emailed answers
- Beware of saying "doesn't work"
- Sending a "stealth" Cc copy
Be extra cautious when you get upset
- Count to ten before composing a followup when you are upset
- Count to ten after composing and before posting when you are upset
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.9 $)
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_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
quote a .signature (unless that is what you are commenting on).
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.liamg\100cm.j.dat/"
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.
------------------------------
Date: 6 Apr 2001 21:33:47 GMT (Last modified)
From: Perl-Users-Request@ruby.oce.orst.edu (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
Subject: Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01)
Message-Id: <null>
Administrivia:
To submit articles to comp.lang.perl.announce, send your article to
clpa@perl.com.
Back issues are available via anonymous ftp from
ftp://cil-www.oce.orst.edu/pub/perl/old-digests.
#For other requests pertaining to the digest, send mail to
#perl-users-request@ruby.oce.orst.edu. Do not waste your time or mine
#sending perl questions to the -request address, I don't have time to
#answer them even if I did know the answer.
------------------------------
End of Perl-Users Digest V11 Issue 2859
***************************************
