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Re: DON'T USE THIS CODE

by ignatz (Vicar)
on Sep 16, 2002 at 15:02 UTC ( [id://198260]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to DON'T USE THIS CODE
in thread File::DumbLock

> I don't think I should need to add instructions about
> google-ing to every node I write.

So basically what you are saying is that you don't have to prove anything that you say cause all people have to do is type the right combination of words into google and browse around testing that code for a few hours to see the same thing?

()-()
 \"/
  `                                                     

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Re: Re: DON'T USE THIS CODE
by merlyn (Sage) on Sep 16, 2002 at 15:15 UTC
    So basically what you are saying is that you don't have to prove anything that you say cause all people have to do is type the right combination of words into google and browse around testing that code for a few hours to see the same thing?
    No.

    But what would you rather I do with the limited time I have here...

    • Write one detailed treatise about why the code at the head of this thread is broken and dangerous?
    • Write five warning postings, leaving others to fill in the blanks if needed?
    I'd rather do the latter, because it innoculates five different diseases instead of just one. Of course, what I'd really rather do is...
    • Write two or three good real postings moving the community forward.
    But as long as people post crap like the beginning of this thread, I don't get to do that.

    It's fundamentally unethical of me to allow bad memes to stand, so as long as I see them, it's my responsibility to point them out. Now, as long as bad memes keep getting posted in this unmoderated forum, my destiny is predetermined. So, either moderate the forum, or let me post-moderate it as I have.

    -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

      Back in my days on debate teams we had a term for an argument without proof: it didn't pull. That meant that it carried no weight. Five posts that say something sucks without showing why are five wasted posts in my book.

      People learn a lot more by being shown the why of something than from just being hit upside the head and told not to do it, no matter how experienced the person doing the hitting.

      ()-()
       \"/
        `                                                     
      
        People learn a lot more by being shown the why of something than from just being hit upside the head and told not to do it, no matter how experienced the person doing the hitting.
        No, you're missing the purpose of my "don't do this" post.

        Going back to the innoculation metaphor, I'm providing emergency-room treatment. Surely, this is not a substitute for a person going out to learn how to avoid catching communicable diseases. That happens later (or hopefully earlier).

        Getting back to the literal issue here, I'm just saying "stop, don't". And that's a first round of response. But I'm not about to quote the plenty existing literature about why the solution is broken. If there was something not well known about why the solution is broken, I'd have provided more pointers. If you review my posts, you'll see that I've done that frequently.

        But knowing that you have to do an atomic operation to provide a lock is fairly basic knowledge. And as I showed in my google reference, the first dozen hits for "perl lock" were all quite informed, so there's almost no excuse for the code that triggered my outburst, except that this is a KLB (in #perl parlance) and will likely lead others astray unless muzzled until they get a clue.

        -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

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