PerlMonks Commandments (was: Seven Deadly Sins)

[Fastolfe]

Update: OK, OK, so these sound more like commandments than sins. I just figure given the religious undertones of the site we could use a hard point of reference when people do Bad Things.

1. Thou shalt not post a Frequently Asked Question, nor shalt thou post what can be found through a trivial search.
2. Thou shalt not post homework and attempt to pass it off as a legitimate "problem". Homework shall be labeled as such and help shall flow.
3. Thou shalt not re-invent the wheel. Your Gods have blessed upon thee their Modules, and have declared these Modules fair and complete.
4. Thou shalt not post without rich and accurate descriptions. Vague problems will result in, at best, vague answers.
5. Thou shalt always use strict and warnings.
6. Thou shalt always check for errors. All significant functions will report to thyself a success or failure, and error messages will appear in $! (or $@).
7. Thou shalt not post SOPW questions in inappropriate places. Chatterbox solutions do not benefit the community.
8. ...?

2006-06-16 Retitled by GrandFather, as per Monastery guidelines
Original title: 'Commandments'

[decnartne]

actually, those would be more like seven commandments...

consider if you will:

Proverbs 6:16-19 "These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren."

if i may be so bold, perhaps the following would suffice?

These six things doth perl saints hate: yea, seven are an abomination to them: a FAQ post, posting homework, re-inventing the wheel, vague problem descriptions, forsaking strict and warnings, wandering from checking errors, and acolytes that paraphrase pontiffs' work ;)

decnartne ~ entranced

[Fastolfe]

I like this also. :)

[Hrunting]

I disagree with number 3

Thou shalt not re-invent the wheel. Your Gods have blessed upon thee their Modules, and have declared these Modules fair and complete.

While it's important to recognize the use of modules and point out their availability, there should not be a set-in-stone rule to have to use modules. I've personally written my own modules because either a) the given module loaded too many damned dependencies or b) the given module's implementation was too inefficient and the author was a prick, not wanting to recognize that his implementation was faulty.

Frankly, I'd rather see a requirement that if you're re-inventing the wheel, you explicitly state it and give the reason ("module requires dependency module X which doesn't run on my perl 5.003 system") and then go on with the question.

Actually, what I'd really rather see is not such an elitist requirment in the first place. Not all modules are great implementations. The one thing about the real Commandments is that while the may codify the (then) existing social standards, they never came off as sounding elitist or snooty.

But that's just me.

[Fastolfe]

A few of these should not be considered cut-and-dry rules. Perhaps that too makes them counter to the whole "commandments" idea. You wouldn't use strict, for example, with one-liners. Naturally poorly written modules or modules that don't do what you need them to do.

[Adam]

0. Thou shalt not post SOPW questions in the chatter box.

[coreolyn]

Me thinks these commandments should be in the Perl Monks Site FAQ or at least linked to in the perl monks Guide to the Monastery, as that's one of the places a new user is most likely to check out.

coreolyn

[dmitri]

TIMTOWTDI

[repson]

But TACWWTDI (there are countless wrong ways to do it)