Re^2: Tao Perl Ching - The Scripture of the Way of Perl

[jryan]

There's a lot in its source that makes me think Mr Stein never really bothered to learn (modern) Perl, but the easiest to find and refer to weirdness is "/gso"

Which, conveniently, occurs right next to my favorite line in CGI.pm, 2124:

# hack to work around  earlier hacks

That said, my first reaction to the root node was: "Great. Another Soccer-Mom Node." Honestly, I've been a regular at this site for almost 3 and a half years, and really-syrupy-sermony still bothers me. From the "COME BROTHERS, LETS BASK IN THE GLORIOUS LIGHT THAT IS PERL!" style nodes to the "HUGE PEDANTIC NODE WITH A CONTROVERSIAL TITLE THAT IS ACTUALLY ABOUT AN ISSUE THAT IS OBVIOUS AND YOU PROBABLY KNOW ABOUT ANYWAY" style, I still can't keep myself from rolling my eyes and Crl-W-ing my browser tab about a paragraph into the node. The node might even have some sort of topic I might have been interested in reading otherwise, but the tone completely drives me off before I even get that far. I wonder: is it because this website has "Monastery" in the name? Would these same nodes have been written if we were http://www.perlclub.com, The Perl Clubhouse? Anyways, I needed to get that off my chest.

At any rate, who uses CGI these days anyway? ;)

[radiantmatrix]

I decided to post this node for a few reasons. Firstly, there have been a number of nodes talking about how Perl relates to other pursuits -- many of which are considered noble or philosophical. Throughout my life and career, I have found that far too much emphasis is placed on "this new, insightful way of thinking". So, my first intent was to illustrate that very old ideas can still apply to very modern pursuits.

Secondly, I've studied the Tao Te Ching for a good chunk of my life; I've applied my own interpretation of it to my system designs -- and while I still have much to learn about software design (and Perl), I feel that applying it has made me a better developer.

Thirdly, part of my job is training others. The day will come when I will have to train a department on solid coding practices. Having "gimmicks" like this that help teach and help students retain is useful. I hope to refine the analogy through discussion.

And, finally, I find it fun and useful to put my ideas onto a forum to have them picked apart. Maybe it doesn't teach me Perl, but since a node like this contains bias resulting from my personal outlook, I have found that I am able to find flaws in my outlook through discussing it.

As for the last line, I use CGI on a regular basis, and a lot of people still use it for simple web applications. It hasn't outlived its usefulness, yet. ;-)

[tilly]

OK, I'll try to make this less opaque than my other response.

When I read the root node, it smelled like karma whoring. I'm not saying that it was, but it came across that way. You wrapped up non-controversial statements and a good dose of congratulatory back-patting with a thin veneer of pseudo-Eastern philosophy. I neither found useful information about that philosophy or Perl. Indeed the attempts to derive a moral about Perl in a very literal way from each sentence detracted from my appreciation of the philosophy.

Furthermore upon seeing the philosophy quotes I saw that they could have been taken somewhere very interesting. For instance from the insights I tried to express in What you refuse to see, is your worst trap I can see how acting in accord with those principles would result in your being very effective in interpersonal relationships. That is something that could be very insightful and helpful.

Hence my attempt to express this feeling in a somewhat poetic matter.