Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!inc
From: inc@tc.fluke.COM (Gary Benson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: "MOST COMMON NOVICE BUG" contest
Message-ID: <1990Mar16.010322.18464@tc.fluke.COM>
Date: 16 Mar 90 01:03:22 GMT
References: <15230@bfmny0.UU.NET> <15232@bfmny0.UU.NET> <1118@etnibsd.UUCP>
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 71


In article <1118@etnibsd.UUCP> vsh@etnibsd.UUCP (Steve Harris) writes:

# So, what are the "TEN MOST COMMON NOVICE BUGS" in perl?  I nominate:
# 
#     Placing a comma after a filehandle in a print statement.
# 
# Anybody care to add more?  Novices, SPEAK UP!!
# Experts, try to remember when you weren't!
# 
# print STDOUT "Just another Perl novice\n";
# -- 
# Steve Harris - Eaton Corp. - Beverly, MA - uunet!etnibsd!vsh


Having just finished my first 500 lines of perl script qualifies me as a
novice, I'd say. I'm not sure what a novice bug is, but the two things I
do wrong most frequently are:

    1. Leaving off ; at the end of a statement;

       This is usually the first thing I look for on the line just before
       the one perl reports is responsible for stopping compilation.

    2. Losing track of my pairs of {  }

       This is always reported as an EOF problem, so I know right away what
       I did wrong. I used to always look at the bottom of the file (or the
       line reported), but now I know to look in the last place I was
       working.

I was the person who posted a list of novice questions a month or so ago,
and I have come up with a few "journeyman novice" questions:

    1. It seems that perl scripts are compiled just prior to execution.
       Would there be any benefit to a perl compiler that, like C, would
       JUST do the compilation and create a file (a.out might be a cool name
       or maybe p.out). This way, I could store the executable somewhere and
       not have to recompile each and every time. Why is perl NOT like that
       right now? I realize that compilation doesn't take long for my little
       100-liners, but for a SUPER MACHO HACKER program, it might be
       significant...

    2. I am studying C right now, too, and have just learned about
       multi-dimensional arrays. Are these possible in perl? Do you set them
       up similarly to the way C does it? If they are possible, does anyone
       have a (well-commented) example showing how to set up and access,
       e.g., a 3-D array? If they are not possible, why not? Is similar
       functionality provided some other way? I think they'd be really
       useful, espcially in database applications.

    3. I have not been able to sort the output of a perl script yet. I
       always have the script just create a "raw" file, then go out to unix
       to do the sort. Can someone show me the best way to do those kinds of
       things inside perl? What other unix-y things are easier, faster,
       prettier, handier, or more elegant done inside the script than
       outside?

Thanks to all for this wonderful newsgroup - I am saving upwards of 10
postings a day. Now I've got to write a perl script to extract the lines of
perl! Before I subscribed to this, I sent email to Larry asking for help.
Wow. His auto-mail-answerer informed me he's booked till the turn of the
century, so I am especially grateful that he is active in this group.


open (WOW, "# wowmon$$"); print WOW "Hack another just perl";
-- 
Gary Benson    -=[ S M I L E R ]=-   -_-_-_-inc@fluke.tc.com_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

There are very few personal problems which cannot be solved
by a suitable application of high explosives.    -Anonymous