http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=951908

Ekimino has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello Monks, Since this is my first question and laziness is flowing through my veins which led me not to read posting instructions, I hope you understand me and my mistakes. I bought the "Llama" and I'm reading it slowly, but excercises won't do it for me, I feel like I need an actual project, which I'm having trouble to find an idea for. Since pretty much I come up with is either "Black Belt Ninja Mission" or already done, and I'm really looking forward to do something productive and useful to people. My current project idea is to make another music organizer/cleaner, the difference is that for those unrecognized/unnamed songs it should use a "Music Recognition Software" to name the song correctly and set also an album picture on every faceless song, all thanks to music recognition which i still need to find. I approached the monastery gates in look for some answers for my project, but i still accept wisdom words.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: In need of guidance
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Feb 05, 2012 at 06:41 UTC
[reply]
Re: In need of guidance
by ww (Archbishop) on Feb 05, 2012 at 14:33 UTC
    "laziness is flowing through my veins which led me not to read posting instructions"

    If you're hoping that your mode of laziness is the one recommended for Perl programmers, you're wrong.

    One aspect of true laziness is making sure you understand the instructions/requirements/syntax... so you can use them without constantly needing to resort to the reference material. So, try On asking for help, for starters.

    Another, also relevant here, is practicing the advice in the initial response. So, yes, you sorta brought that on yourself with your unabashed arrogance in assuming the Monks would so your research for you. Better, use Super Search here, as well as the search engine suggested by AnonyMonk or some alternate poison of your choice.

    BTW, if you're just "slowly reading" the Llama, it might be a bit presumptuous to expect that your first "actual project" will result in something "something productive and useful to people" when your first project is

    1. potentially, re-inventing the wheel, since you didn't JGFI,
           
    2. an endeavor of such difficulty and complexity.

    You might want to try something a little easier
          ...say, a new programming language that writes a program to DWYM from input of no greater specificity than "I wanta' find all the FASTA sequences shared by humans and chimps"...
          ...or a program that assures world peace for the rest of time.

[reply]

      Why approve something you...

      1. didn't bother to finish reading?
      2. didn't think met the standards you feel SoPWs should?
      3. weren't willing to try and correct it FIRST by sending the OP a private /msg?

      Instead you decided to continue your pastime of publicly shaming new members when their (often very first question) doesn't stack up to your standards. Is it really necessary to consistently play "Kick the Newbie" several times a week — week after week? Maybe I'm in the minority, but I really don't think it is. Yet you continue to do so when it doesn't seem to have the end result you claim to be trying to accomplish (Improving the quality of questions from new members).

      I honestly don't see a whole lot wrong with the OP's question and thought it had potential to start an interesting discussion. Is it a great question? No. But if asking great questions is favored over assisting people with their (Perl) programming problems — what's the point? There were numerous, far more helpful answers you could have given the OP. All they asked for was some help with brainstorming. If you couldn't think of ideas, didn't find the question interesting or to your standards — PLEASE IGNORE IT.


      "...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." — Don Quixote
[reply]
        1. False 2 and 3: true

        As he knows, I greatly admire much of what luis.roca has done in his brief tenure as a Monk. Hence, for him, a more detailed reply has been provided by message.

        Of course, that has the defect of restricting the positions I expressed to the addressee only (unless he decides to post the messages, of course), which would be admirable in terms of laying those out for future readers -- who may or may not agree -- but the defect of laying the writer our to public shaming for use of abbreviations, loose language, etc, to convey those ideas in a limited message box.

        The essence of my reply -- in my view -- is that it offers several constructive suggestions, in language which may be direct enough to penetrate the skull of an OP who chose to make NO visible effort on his own.

[reply]
Re: In need of guidance
by tobyink (Canon) on Feb 05, 2012 at 08:09 UTC

    For song recognition, check out libmusicbrainz. It's a C library though, so using it from Perl will really throw you in at the deep end. Your choices for integrating C and Perl code are realistically either Inline::C or XS.

[reply]

      http://musicbrainz.org/doc/libmusicbrainz

      Perl bindings for the XML based web service: WebService::MusicBrainz

      Or a finished application http://musicbrainz.org/doc/MusicBrainz_Picard

[reply]

        WebService::MusicBrainz doesn't do audio fingerprinting which means that it's not especially useful for identifying songs that you don't already have at least some metadata for.

        Picard is a great tool - I use it extensively - but given that the original poster's aim is to learn how to code in Perl, handing him an already-written Python program doesn't help him.

[reply]
Re: In need of guidance
by luis.roca (Deacon) on Feb 05, 2012 at 23:28 UTC

    Hi Ekimino,
    Off the top of my head a few successful open source projects you may want to spend time digging through and engaging with their communities are:

    I'm sure you'll even find interesting ways you can contribute which would give you great opportunities to learn.

    Good luck and keep us updated once you get going.


    "...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." — Don Quixote
[reply]
Re: In need of guidance
by Jenda (Abbot) on Feb 06, 2012 at 15:11 UTC

    Don't worry too much about the "productive and useful". The task at hand is to learn and gain experience! Whether the bit and pieces produced in the process end up used or forgotten is of secondary importance.

    Your music organizer idea looks too blackbeltish to me. Make the exercises, see if you can extend them or find another way to implement them and basically ... have fun playing with coding.

    Jenda
    Enoch was right!
    Enjoy the last years of Rome.

[reply]
Re: In need of guidance
by Anonymous Monk on Feb 05, 2012 at 06:18 UTC

    Hello Monks, Since this is my first question and laziness is flowing through my veins which led me not to read posting instructions, I hope you understand me and my mistakes.

    No thanks, JFGI

[reply]
      I am only asking for wisdom for a starting perl programmer, i don't think i deserve that reply, but maybe then I'm doing something wrong.
[reply]

        I am only asking for wisdom for a starting perl programmer, i don't think i deserve that reply, but maybe then I'm doing something wrong.

        I'm an experienced perl programmer. The first thing I do is JFGI. It should be an instinct. You can't be an expert on every single field of computing, but then you don't have to be, you just have to search.

[reply]

      JFGW?

      Jenda
      Enoch was right!
      Enjoy the last years of Rome.

[reply]
Re: In need of guidance
by Ekimino (Novice) on Feb 10, 2012 at 00:44 UTC
    Sorry guys for my post, I didn't in any way expect you to do the job for me, sorry. I still appreciate your time, and hope my next question is better suited. Thank you.
[reply]

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