Re: Perl best practices fanatism

in reply to Perl best practices fanatism

In my "PBP" talk, I have a number of slides that include the keywords "Damian says:" followed by "HOWEVER...".

I think PBP is a great starting point if you don't want to do any thinking. I would hope that you want to do some thinking when designing your own style guide and practices, however.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

Comment on Re: Perl best practices fanatism

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Re^2: Perl best practices fanatism by tinita (Parson) on Dec 09, 2007 at 15:07 UTC
I think PBP is a great starting point if you don't want to do any thinking. actually this book made me think. it says clearly that the "rules" are just suggestions but that you should think about them and whether you follow them or not, you should think about why.	[reply]
Re^3: Perl best practices fanatism by sh1tn (Priest) on Dec 09, 2007 at 17:56 UTC
The book looks like the most prominent Java books - do this, do that. The main question IMHO is why and not how.	[reply]
Re^4: Perl best practices fanatism by polettix (Vicar) on Dec 09, 2007 at 19:11 UTC
I'm wondering if we actually read the same book. While there are many points where I decided not to follow PBP advices (e.g. Contextual::Return seems too clever dark magic IMHO), I always found that TheDamian clearly explained the why under the suggestion. Otherwise, I think that his 256 suggestions would have fit into some 20 pages, more or less. Flavio perl -ple'$_=reverse' <<<ti.xittelop@oivalf Io ho capito... ma tu che hai detto?	[reply]
Re^5: Perl best practices fanatism by Fletch (Bishop) on Dec 12, 2007 at 17:17 UTC
Re^5: Perl best practices fanatism by sh1tn (Priest) on Dec 11, 2007 at 01:53 UTC
Re^6: Perl best practices fanatism by tinita (Parson) on Dec 12, 2007 at 16:55 UTC
Re^4: Perl best practices fanatism by amarquis (Curate) on Dec 10, 2007 at 15:38 UTC
That's why I originally avoided the book, my opinion based only on the title. I later picked it up based on monk recommendations, and it turned out to be much better than I expected. It wasn't do this, do that; It was "most do this, here's why. This is contentious, and some people do that, it's important to make a choice and be consistent." I don't follow everything in PBP, but I learned a fair amount from it and it make me examine my own practices.	[reply]
Re^4: Perl best practices fanatism by Anonymous Monk on Dec 07, 2011 at 16:53 UTC
But isn't that a lot of the actual value of this book? That it does indeed present the arguments why something should be done in a particular way? And that these arguments allow you to check if they do apply to your own problems.	[reply]
Re^2: Perl best practices fanatism by webfiend (Vicar) on Dec 11, 2007 at 22:12 UTC
I think PBP is a great starting point if you don't want to do any thinking. There's so much to chew on in one little sentence. I think the odds are slim that a person would even glance at a book like PBP if they don't want to do any thinking. It's not one of those pocket guides that give you a summarized list without so much as a "how do you do." There is no starting point for a person who doesn't want to do any thinking. Well, there is: not thinking. That's also the stopping point. Of course PBP is not the final word. It does give a lot of guidelines along with a lengthy explanation of why Damian likes each one. I don't follow all of those guidelines. Heck, I don't even think I follow half of them. I chose not to take it as a list of commandments, though. It's just a collection of what Damian likes best. The book did make me think a lot about why I follow the practices I do and how I could improve on them, though. It seems to me that the book was a good starting point for somebody who wants to do a lot of thinking. That reminds me. Is there any hope for a second edition of "Effective Perl Programming"? That was a pretty handy book.	[reply]

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