Responses provided inline. On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 10:04 PM, G. Wade Johnson <[email protected]>wrote:
> One of the goals listed on our "About Houston.pm" > (http://houston.pm.org/about.html) page is "Provide help and mentoring > to local Perl programmers." > > After talking with a few of the more inexperienced Perl programmers in > our group, I think we are falling down in this area. > > For this reason, I'm going to be starting a regular session for > answering basic Perl and programming questions. I'd like to get some > input from those who need this help. > > 1. Would you be willing to get together for another monthly meeting for > mentoring and question answering? yes > > 2. Would you be willing to do a monthly remote session through > something like Google Hangouts, where you could get help? yes, however, > when concepts are to be explained because we just don't get it, the > mentor/helper may get frustrated because the student doesn't respond as > expected. In my mind, mentoring is a face to face experience where > information is exchanged quickly, illustrations are thought of on the fly > based on the students level of understanding, etc. In other words, a very > dynamic exchange. Online approach would be a challange for me. But > willing to try it. > > 3. Would you be more inclined to talk to a single person, or one of a > few experts? It depends, when struggling with concepts if the mentor is > gifted with patience and ability to instruct/share/illustrate in more than > one way a single individual is plenty. When working with extremely bright > but not too patient, multiple instructors can help while not exhausting > their patience. To learn to fly the jet, one person. To learn manuvers > multiple persons would be great. > > 4. Would you use this session regularly? yes, the more the better. In my > case, I forget information quickly. Therefore, the need to stay on top of > it regularly. > > 5. Would you use this session only when you run into a specific problem? > No. Whenever it's available. Problems where Perl can be used are > abundant, but getting to the point where one can see how to use Perl is > very challenging. > > I really appreciate your time and input on this. Having mentored people > before and taught programming classes, I'm confident that we can make > this work. > I appreciate your willingness to help. Just developing the questions is an effort. In my view, Perl is very powerful, very, very cryptic, extremely exacting. Sorry, I don't agree Perl is easy. In other words, this is not like learning to drive a car...Perl is a state of the art fighter jet... you better pay attention when you climb in the cockpit because it ain't for amateurs. Indeed, it is very tough to master. And like a fighter jet you have to fly it every day or close to every day. Tough to do for those who don't make a living programming in Perl. Sorry, this would be a superb, frankly invaluable, tool for me; but not a way to make a living...don't have the talent nor the inclination to program. Thanks for your willingness to share your talent and experience. > > Thanks for your time and help. > G. Wade > -- > Understanding is a three-edged sword. -- Kosh in "Deathwalker" > _______________________________________________ > Houston mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/houston > Website: http://houston.pm.org/ > -- Abraham Baez 281.821.0101 Cellular "Abraham Baez" < [email protected] >
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