Which topic is most controversial within the halls of our sanctimonious Monastery:

[davido]

Emacs vs. vim

 88/30%

Windows vs. Linux

 56/19%

Perl vs. Java

 50/17%

Cats vs. Dogs

 11/4%

Camels vs. Llamas

 20/7%

Cowboy Niel vs. Paco

 35/12%

Darth Vader vs. the Borg

 34/12%

294 total votes

[Zaxo]

None of the above.

(ExtUtils::MakeMaker, CPAN) vs. (Module::Builder, CPANPLUS).

Though most of the controversy I've seen recently is just objections to each other's language.

[Happy-the-monk]

Though most of the controversy I've seen recently is just objections to each other's language.

I second this idea.

Cheers, Sören

[castaway]

Definitely this one!

C.

[exussum0]

What about the "use strict" arguments that passed a while back? :)

I'm all for developers using the tools that make them work best, though I rather use strict. (Use strict! No! Yes! No!)

[grinder]

It's not vim, it's vi. The former has a large number of useless features for which Real Programmers have no need. There's nothing like typing :X (uppercase X) by accident to save the file and quit, and accidently encrypting your file with a key you can't reproduce, because you used the system's typeahead to prepare the next command to be run.

Other than that, there's:

• Should the Chatterbox be logged?
• Polls with tyops
• Cowboy Neal spelt incorrectly

[gellyfish]

I don't think the 'X' thing is a uniquely vim feature - I recall a colleague doing this on ICL DRS/NX before vim was born, DRS/NX was a near bog-standard SVR4 and the only open source software installed on this machine was Perl 4.

/J\

[ambrus]

Also "is" is misspelt to "it".

[ysth]

Fixed. Niel I'm not touching.

[itub]

Perhaps this is too obvious, but where's "any two alternatives related to voting/XP"? (public vs secret; gain XP when downvoting vs lose XP when downvoting; must reply when downvoting vs need not reply when downvoting; unconditionally downvote all nodes related to XP vs don't downvote them; etc.) :-)

[gellyfish]

B******s, I clicked the wrong radio button and upvoted this by mistake ;-)

/J\

[jonadab]

I would have said it was DateTime versus Date::Calc versus Date::Manip versus Time::Piece, and so on.

[marto]

And where is the option for:
• Kirk vs Picard
• The Matrix vs Tron
• Cowboy Niel Neal vs dyslexia


Martin

[admiral_grinder]

You forgot one more: StarFleet vs Galactic Empire

[Akhasha]

Or: Total Annihilation vs StarCraft

[Steve_p]

You heartless %#*&#$*&^*! Masters of Orion rules them all!

[gregor42]

Well if you're going down that road

• Kirk vs. Neo - Kirk only had to TALK to a computer to kill it
• Spock vs. Rambo
• 2001 Space Odyssey vs Space 1999
• Vorlons vs. The Dominion
• Aliens vs. Predator vs. Klandathu vs. THEM
• Gort vs. Cylons vs. Robotech vs. Replicators vs. Westworld
• The Borg vs. Marvin the Paranoid Android - "Existence Is Futile..."
• Spaceballs vs. Red Dwarf
• Enterprise vs. Argo vs. Galactica - (cigartube&bic-shavers vs. sunken-battleship-blueprints vs. big-hunk-O-plastic)
• Riker vs. Buck Rogers

and of course...

• Star Trek vs. Dating

[greenFox]

Nailing my colours to the mast- Vim, Linux, Perl (well doh!), Cats, Camels, Paco & Darth Vader.

For some real controversy see tabs vs spaces which is still going on, it's spaces of course :-)

The mandatory blessing for this thread... May you be touched by his noodly appendage.

[BerntB]

Vim, Linux, Perl (well doh!), Cats, Camels, Paco & Darth Vader.

... tabs vs spaces ... spaces

I took the Cowboy Neal option here -- and voted you up. The only thing we got in common is Perl and Camels! (I'd go with MacOS X, I think.)

We should work together; if we don't murder each other, we should complement very well. :-)

(-: Just have to modify the CVS to (de)tabify when checking in/out. :-)

[ambrus]

I voted on Perl vs Java because there are large disputes about using Perl for everyting versus using the right tool for the right task.

[ww]

perhaps not as high on the contentiousness list, but often addressed (even if OT) in the CB:
• css positioning vs tables
• use of js vs 'your mama wears combat boots' or any other unperlish topic

(:<}))

[demerphq]

Er, the definition of 'sanctimonious' is 'excessively or hypocritically pious' which I don't really think describes us that well.

[Tanktalus]

Whether we're sanctimonious or not somewhat depends on your perspective, I suppose. From the perspective of certain individuals who have endured massive onslaughts of downvotes, we may indeed be sanctimonious. Of course, it's rare the person who admits to their own sanctimoniousness. The word being in the self-description is actually kind of humourous in that light. :-)

"I don't think that word means what you think it does." Heheheheh :-)

[DrWhy]

I believe the 'sanctimonious' reference is to the previous poll and the response it received, not to PerlMonks in general.

[samizdat]

Choice X: "governments are supposed to babysit people" vs. "governments are supposed to protect peoples' rights".

Choice Y: G*d?

Choice Z: Perl is perfection incarnate?!?

[wolfger]

bug vs. feature
TIMTOWTDI vs. "best practices"
OO vs. structured

[BrowserUk]

V v VI

[tbone1]

How about French Roast vs. Sumatran?

[ww]

or maybe French Toast vs pancakes?

[demerphq]

I cant believe that there is any debate over this. The answer is so obvious.... ;-)

[Ven'Tatsu]

I can't believe there can be any debate over this. French Roast reffers to the darkness of a roasted bean. Sumatran is any bean from the region of Sumatra. It would be entirely posible to have a Sumatran French Roast, though in my opinion Sumatran beans have quite a bit of natural body that would be eclipsed by a darker roast.

[InfiniteSilence]

"French Roast" is a roast type. "Sumatran" is a coffee origin.

[gam3]

I don't understand Windows vs Linux. Doesn't Linux have windows?

[gloryhack]

Yes, it does -- but windoze doesn't have Linux, and therein lies the rub.

[gellyfish]

Yes it does http://www.colinux.org Wahay!

/J\

[Steve_p]

I remember a few more in the Chatterbox or the various polls or meditions here:

• Pop vs. Soda
• Boxers vs. Briefs
• use strict; vs. no strict;

[gloryhack]

The poll needs at least one more bucket: "Things totally unrelated to any programming language or practice."

[trammell]

VOTE FOR PACO

[Anonymous Monk]

• Perl vs. PHP
• MySQL vs. PostgreSQL
• bare DBI vs. Class::DBI
• HTML::Template vs. Template::Toolkit vs. Mason
• Smart polls vs. idiotic ones

[bart]

None of the above... It's the previous poll.

[Roy Johnson]

Downvoting.

[gellyfish]

HE MADE ME DO IT

[Steve_p]

ME TOO!

[Anonymous Monk]

Actually, it's missing poll options that tend to raise the most controversy! Why wasn't there a poll option for that, huh?!?

[Knom]

All Your Base Are Belong To Us Vs. It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

[fraktalisman]

Cats vs. Dogs: they are worst when it starts raining both of them ...

[monarch]

What about the sig vs no-sig argument on individual's postings? I know I abhor people that attach a sig to every post they make, but the people who do this (like cigarette smokers) think it's their right to pollute the space around them..

[tye]

It's my node!

[wfsp]

"It's my node!"

Hmmm. Perhaps not :-)

[Anonymous Monk]

...but the people who do this (like cigarette smokers) think it's their right to pollute the space around them..

Ok... so it's mostly cigarette smokers who have sigs? I understand. ;P

[Moriarty]

I don't see anything here that is controversial.

[Moriarty]

Actually, although I don't believe that any of the conflicts listed here are overly controversial, I have thought of a controversial topic that I have seen here.

Evolution vs Creation

The Evolutionists seem to be much more vocal than the Creationists. It kinda makes me wonder who they're trying to convince ...

[runrig]

I think it's often hard to judge who is more vocal out of any two groups...the most vocal are usually the most annoying and make the the non-vocal look bad by association (and it's hard to judge how non-vocal the non-vocals are (or how many there are) because, well, they're not as noticeable).