On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 10:26, Bryan R Harris
<bryan_r_har...@raytheon.com> wrote:
>
>>>>>>> "ES" == Erez Schatz <moonb...@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>>> $| is a special variable. All perl special variables are listed in
>>>> perldoc perlvar. See that document for a full explanation.
>>
>> ES> This isn't really helping, sorry.
>>
>> sorry, but pointing someone to the docs is helping more than directly
>> answering the question. this has been debated for years and teaching
>> newbies how to use the docs has always proven to be a win because it is
>> a skill they need to learn. perl's docs are among the best out there and
>> very comprehensive.
>
>
> Curiously the most helpful people on this list seem to think the perldoc
> system is great, but I've always found it to be rather hard to use. If I
> need to figure out what "$." means, how do I even start? I can't type
> "perldoc '$.'" (well, I can, but it doesn't find anything). How would I
> ever know that "perlvar" is the place to go without asking?
>
> Everybody gets pointed back to the perldoc system, and yet when they have
> more questions, they often still have to come back here to even start.
You start by saying [perldoc perl][1] which gives you an index of what
is in the docs. You then say to yourself "Self, what is $.", you
answer "Why, it is a variable, self", you then look at the index and
see that there is a whole document on variables ("Look self, there is
a whole document named [perlvar][2] that the index says contains
information about 'Perl predefined variables', maybe it is there?").
I am not saying the Perl documentation is perfect (I wouldn't be
working on [perlopref][3] if I thought that), but is usable. Many
people just aren't aware it is there.
1. http://perldoc.perl.org/perl.html
2. http://perldoc.perl.org/perlvar.html
3. http://github.com/cowens/perlopref
--
Chas. Owens
wonkden.net
The most important skill a programmer can have is the ability to read.
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