> > I got this problem from a friend and was wondering if anyone could help
> > out.
>
> And quick, because it's due in soon.
>
> PS. I'll be posting this every day until someone answers it for me^Hy
> friend.
>
> ;-)
Thanks Paul for stating the obvious :) Commonly accepted list etiquette
suggests:
1. You ask on topic questions, don't ask how to house train a mule on a Perl
list. If it were a Camel, and it resulted because a thread went off-topic,
then start a new thread with the letters "OT" in the subject line... usually
quoting the previous subject line like this example:
OT: House training camels (was: managing an in-house deployment of Perl)
2. "Homework" style questions should be avoided, nobody ever bothers to
answer them (well, the usually don't deserve an answer anyway!). This means
any question that is out of context, and goes along the lines of:
What do the following regular expressions match?
1. /irregular/
2. /camel|fleas/
3. /camel{4}/
3. Never ask on behalf of a friend... let them ask under their own name if
they really want the information. Otherwise make it known that you care
about the answer as well, and understand the problem. E.g.
Yesterday my co-worker was trying to implement a Camel, and asked me how to
make it inherit not just from Animal but from Flea and Skunk. I told him I
didn't know, but I think this would be useful to understand. Anyone willing
to help?
4. Try to indicate how much you already know, and how you have tackled a
problem. You are far more likely to attract a good reply, asking:
What does '$result = 1 + 2 * 3' mean?
Should really be answered as:
1, 2, 3 are numbers from the set of greek numerical set which includes
only the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. The system of numbers
is base 10, meaning that the number after 9 is 10, the number after 99
is 100 etc.
Imagine the stars are people, count the number of stars to the right
of the number to see what the numbers represent:
0
1 *
2 **
3 ***
4 ****
5 *****
6 ******
7 *******
8 ********
9 *********
10 **********
+ means addition, and has lower procedence than the * symbol. This
basically means to combine two sets of stars, for example:
3 + 5 means to combine:
3 *** and
5 ***** into
8 ********
so the result is 8 - obviously representing 8 stars in this example.
The * means multiplication, where you make a square of the first number
of stars high, and the second number of stars wide. E.g.
3 * 5 means to count:
***
***
***
***
***
which is the same as ***************, or 15.
Now, because the multiplication is done with higher priority, you need
to add "parenthesis". So:
$result = 1 + 2 * 3
becomes:
$result = 1 + (2 * 3)
and you do the bits in () first. Hence we get:
$result = 1 + 6
and then:
$result = 7
So, we now need to know what the rest of it means. The
= symbol means "assign to", and the "$result" means
"variable". We read that in a special way, which is:
assign 7 to $result
---
Whilst that's obviously an overdemonstration of the point, however
some questions are so badly asked you don't know where to start.
Typically it is of the form:
"I want to make a ReallyWizardyThingy with CGI. I am a Perl and CGI
beginner, please help"
Apologies (I really shouldn't!) to the person that asked that one
recently. Demonstrate you aren't some lazy lowlife sucking benefits
money from the rest of us (Mental note: Tread lightly... I am a
student ;-)
If at some point you were installed with a brain, and proved it by
showing your attempt at the problem, then you demonstrate you care
enough about the solution to perhaps deserve a good response. Perhaps
then someone will take pity and give you some help/the answer.
Jonathan Paton <-- wondering if the list FAQ should have these snippets
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