SPUG: New TPJ Issue: DANGER!

SPUG-list-owner tim at consultix-inc.com
Sat Jan 4 04:24:55 CST 2003


SPUGsters (including Stick-Riddlers),

Well, I must say I'm embarrassed for having encouraged you all
to check out the new Perl Journal issue. I did, about 10pm,
and I've been up until now (2:10 am) giving the editor a piece
of my mind.

My big mistake was in glancing at an article about "Building
your own Perl Modules", while looking for my display ad.
I spent the next several hours documentating all the stylistic,
technical, and grammatical flaws exhibited by the programs it
contained, and making it clear to the editorial staff that yes,
even at $1 per issue, we deserve better than this!

On the other hand, I liked the article by Simon Cozens on Ruby,
which was well written, educational, and entertaining, with
only one error (a '=>' that should have been a '->'). But TPJ
gets no credit for the quality of this piece, because Simon
would have submitted it that way in the first place!

I'm afraid to look at any of the other articles, because I'd
really prefer to stop typing and go to sleep, so I'll just leave
you with this warning that the Modules article is pretty nasty.
All you can learn from it is how NOT to conceive of, implement,
and document a module. 8-{

Maybe the copy editor is just on vacation, and the next issue
will be better?  Frankly, this is the first TPJ from the
"downloading era" I've looked at this closely; I hope they
haven't all been this dodgy!

-Tim
P.S. I've often said that Jon Orwant is the best technical editor of our
generation; too bad he has nothing to do with TPJ any more.
*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
| Tim Maher, CEO, CONSULTIX  (206) 781-UNIX; (866) DOC-PERL; (866) DOC-LINUX |
|  Ph.D. & JAWCAR ("Just Another White Camel Award Recipient")               |
|  tim at consultix-inc.com  teachmeunix.com  teachmeperl.com  teachmelinux.net |
*-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+*
| MAHER  CLASSES: Minimal Perl: 1/27; UNIX: 1/28; Perl: 2/10; Modules: 2/13; |
| DAMIAN CLASSES: Munging: 1/13; Regexes: 1/15; BioInfo: 1/15; OOP: 1/17;    |
*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*

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