poll ideas quest 2021

[pollsters]

First, read How do I create a Poll?. Then suggest your poll here. Complete ideas are more likely to be used.

Note that links may be used in choices but not in the title.

[thomas895]

Am I really the first this year? Ok then, here goes:

My favorite kind of desktop background/wallpaper is:

• A photo of people (family, friends, myself, ...)
• A photo of my pet(s)
• A photo of something man-made (cars, machines, etc.)
• A photo of nature, space, or something else not man-made
• An abstract pattern
• Artwork, digital or photographed
• A solid color
• Whatever my desktop environment has set for me by default
• I haven't seen my background in weeks, too many windows covering it!

And if you have one you really like, feel free to share in the comments!

[Tux]

Not that I use it, but I miss a gallery option: something where the background changes every X period.

[thomas895]

I thought about that, but since only a single choice is possible, better to just restrict to one (pick your favorite ;-).

At least on my PC, the rotating gallery is all of the same type of picture

[eyepopslikeamosquito]

My primary motivation for participating at Perl Monks is:

• Anticipated reciprocity - I'm motivated to contribute valuable information in the expectation that I'll receive useful help and information in return.
• Recognition - I want to receive recognition for my contributions, aka Egoboo, and so become an Internet celebrity (like the LanX :).
• Sense of efficacy - I contribute valuable information because this results in a sense of efficacy, that is, a sense that I'm capable of achieving my desired outcome.
• Sense of community - I am a social being, motivated by receiving direct responses to my contributions.
• Self-discovery - I want to develop new perspectives on myself.
• Personal influence - I want to become more powerful by influencing others, and so become a member of a perceived global upper-class.
• Enjoyment - It entertains and amuses me to play with and interact with other monks.

See also these two previous polls:

• I visit PM primarily to... (2005)
• I joined PerlMonks because I wanted to learn about Perl, but now I stay because... (2008)

[Tux]

May this falls into what 1nickt proposed, but I joined PM (and am still here mainly because of that) to find out what problems people have with my modules and address them accordingly and give feedback here. I think, next to being a plain help-forum, PM is a great way to exchange ideas and feedback on existing modules and module-ideas.

The chat is nice as a semi-social non-archived channel of communicating with like-minded people.

[eyepopslikeamosquito]

I think, next to being a plain help-forum, PM is a great way to exchange ideas and feedback on existing modules and module-ideas

True. Though I come here mainly to relax and have fun. So what attracts me to this site is its quirky history and culture, as noted by PM legend Erudil:

Perlmonks is a strange beast.
It's largely a newbie-help site,
but also contains a handful of
Things of Terrifying Beauty

-- Erudil quoting robin cited at Terrifying Beauty

This is in stark contrast to SO -- though I've posted a question or two there, I never felt the urge to hang out once it was answered. To me, the SO culture felt cold and disconnected: stay on topic, don't waste time socializing, just deliver the facts.

[1nickt]

• I have a "compulsion to be helpful" (davido here)

[eyepopslikeamosquito]

Oh, I agree the davido's replies are mindbogglingly helpful! I often find myself pointing directly to one of his replies because, despite my anal retentiveness and nit-picking OCD tendencies, I simply cannot find any improvements, or caveats, or gotchas ... at all. Two recent examples spring to mind:

• Re: What do I use to release a module to CPAN for the first time? by davido (pointed to from Writing Solid CPAN Modules)
• Re^2: Unable to Understand grep and hash use for prime no. by davido (found while reflexively creating yet another list)

[haj]

Related to "anticipated reciprocity": I guess a usual course of action is that new monks start with asking questions, or just monitoring the site, and at some point decide they've collected enough experience that they can contribute back. Or they find an opportunity to help someone who helped them before. That's also reciprocity, but not "anticipated".

[eyepopslikeamosquito]

If you had a time machine, which Perl language mis-feature would you expunge from existence?

• Barewords (no Sharon poetry mode :)
• Bareword file handles.
• Two-argument open
• Indirect object notation (see effective perler)
• Formats (see effective perler)
• Old-style subroutine prototypes (see effective perler)
• Postfix if
• unless
• until
• do blocks
• String eval (see Re^3: Create sort function from a text file (string eval vs block eval))
• Change spelling of block eval to try (see last para of Re^3: Create sort function from a text file (string eval vs block eval))
• Lvalue substr
• <...> (i.e. just use the glob function)
• select filehandles (e.g. select((select($fh), $|=1)[0]) vs $fh->autoflush() - see On Interfaces and APIs)
• Calling subroutines with a leading &
• Symbolic references
• Pseudohashes
• C-style for statements
• Make use strict and use warnings the default

There are surely others I've not thought of. Suggestions welcome.

This poll was provoked by two spookily similar replies I happened to make today: Re^2: Organizational Culture (Part VI): Sociology and Re^3: Create sort function from a text file (string eval vs block eval).

Update (much later):

• The impossibility of performing a sound static parse of Perl (BTW this has been fixed in Raku)

See also:

• PPI
• PPR
• Guacamole
• Re: Perl script compressor by haukex

[haukex]

• Smartmatch (as much as I want a switch, this feature unfortunately caused too much confusion)
• The inability to perform a static parse of Perl (which affects prototypes, indirect object notation, any other heuristics like map{..., etc.).

Several things on the list I wouldn't call misfeatures at all (e.g. I love postfix if).

[eyepopslikeamosquito]

Yes, strongly agree with your point about the impossibility of performing a static parse of Perl. Very annoying. Thankfully, this has been fixed in Raku.

Years ago, I remember being in awe of adamk's tenacity in developing PPI after attending a few early talks at Sydney.pm -- sadly, that heroic effort may have burnt him out, at least he appears to have vanished from the Perl universe. And I almost fell off my chair when I first read about TheDamian's astonishing PPR regex wizardry. :)

See also: Re: Perl script compressor by haukex - which mentions Guacamole.

[haj]

Too late ! ;)

In June this year, Neil Bowers initiated a collection of Perl quirks, or: "Perl: the WTF bits" on the P5P mailing list. The document is locked down while the Perl Steering Council are wading through the first round, but perhaps some entries in the list above have a chance to be deprecated, and eventually (read: before the end of this century) be eradicated from Perl. Or you might want to add them, once the collection reopens.

[eyepopslikeamosquito]

Thanks. I'll keep my eye on Neil's Perl Quirks locked down document and update this node when it's finally made public. Meanwhile, please feel free to add your suggestions to my initial list.

Note to pollsters: please hold off creating a poll on this topic until Neil's document is made public.

Update Oct 2022: The Perl Quirks document appears to be stalled. p5p mailing list refs:

• June 25 2021 by Neil Bowers
• July 29 2021 by Joel Roth
• July 10 2021 by Neil Bowers
• August 4 2021 by Neil Bowers

Looks like it won't make poll ideas quest 2022. Perhaps resurrect in 2023.

[Discipulus]

Perl has misfeatures? Really? Ok it has some fun bit..

By other hand I hope for it a Miss Future ;)

L*

[duelafn]

First memorable perl project
• webpage
• scientific
• system administration
• game
• "toy" utility (task manager, chatbot)
• "real" application
• other

[Tux]

• Database integration/conversion
• Data conversion/migration/encoding/decoding/analysis
• Implementing a (new) protocol
• Be the (new) maintainer of a CPAN project

Or do all of these classify as "real" application in your list?

[duelafn]

Hm, not sure. I definitely forgot data munging. "CPAN project" can be dereferenced to the project's purpose, so isn't something I would put on the list. I was mostly aiming for typical beginniner projects so new protocol would probably be an "other" (who jumps in and implements a new protocol in a language they don't know? and if they do, "other" and bragging in the comments is appropriate :-). Perhaps "real user application" and "real infrastructural application" should be split?

Perhaps:

First memorable perl project
 - webpage
 - scientific
 - system/database administration
 - game
 - data munging
 - "toy" utility (task manager, chatbot)
 - "real" user application
 - "real" infrastructural application
 - other

[cavac]

My most important Perl project is:

• running important Perl services (CPAN, PM, etc)
• a website
• a gluelogic script
• data analytics
• a desktop application
• something to do with biology
• home automation
• automating my super-secret supervillain lair
• nothing, look away, there is No Such Agency
• none of the above

[choroba]

• whatever pays my bills
• whatever the ticketing system at work assigns to me
• a research/scientific project

[Tux]

• Reporting
• data conversion
• A combination of (some of) the above

e.g. A script/program/projects that connects to several databases (of different types to increase complexity) (gluelogic_ at the same time, analyzing the data (data analytics) and converting them (data conversion) to something useful (reporting) (Plain text, Excel, CSV, another database, e-mail, PDF, …).

[hippo]

Perl 7 will be out

• by Christmas
• Next year
• 15 years from now by which time it will be a completely different language
• It's just a number, so who cares?

Update: replaced "This year" with the suggested far superior "by Christmas".

[haukex]

• by Christmas

[Bod]

I note that you didn't specify which Christmas...

[hippo]

What does the "s" stand for in perls?

Our eminent brother kcott cannot remember what the "s" stands for in perls. What do you suppose is its real meaning?

• Sum
• Short
• Shell
• Swift
• Super
• Speedy
• Simple
• Subliminal
• Stupendous
• Slam-dunk
• Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Update: Added "Sum" for 1nickt.

Update 2: De-linkified title for pollsters.

[1nickt]

"Sum" (but I vote for Mary Poppins).

[LanX]

• sexisgood

[thomas895]

Secure

[tomasz]

Let's find out if people have any preference for letters. This might shed some grim light on polls listing choices using letter indices, as they may affect respondents' responses. Here we go then.

What's you favourite latin letter?
• a
• b
• c
• d
• e
• f
• g
• h
• i
• j
• k
• l
• m
• n
• o
• p
• q
• r
• s
• t
• u
• v
• w
• x
• y
• z

[jdporter]

I chose 'c'. Not because it's my favorite letter, but because the third choice listed is always my preferred.

[tomasz]

That's a fair point. But what do you choose when there are only two possibilities?

[kschwab]

Reminds me of the "abacab" approach to multiple-choice exams that you failed to study for. Just keep picking answers in that order. Also an 80's album from Genesis.

[Tux]

• The first available not-yet-used single letter variable. (starting with $c as $a and $b are magic)
• The first letter of today, whatever it happens to be
• The first letter of the data type. If it is already in use, use a capital letter
• I have a random letter picker program for that (shurtcut key available in my IDE)
• I pick a Unicode character, just to make it hard for others

[tomasz]

Do you like polls?
• Yes, because they rhyme with trolls.
• Yes, but only if there is one answer.
• I used to like them, but nowadays I'm into cooking. They were much better in the middle ages.
• My friend Mery-Cool says they're healthier than chestnuts.
• Don't waste my sophisticated time.
• All the above answers have the same meaning.
• I like creating polls, yes.
• All the below answers are the same.
• Knife and fork.
• Count me in.
• Bob Marley

[Discipulus]

I prefere
• The Beatles
• Rolling Stones

  L*

[LanX]

What about bands which are on-topic?

Poll idea: Monk's Main Theme?

;-)

[soonix]

• Queen
and, not to forget, the famous
• Unknown Artist

[Discipulus]

No, please: the nth holy war has only 2 options ;)

L*

[bliako]

I would prefer the beatles if they did not contain that pita and also the rolling stones, again if they did not contain that other pita. the chance of hitting a pita grows with the group size.

[tomasz]

Do you like this poll?
• YES