One of the other links that google found with that piece of code in it was a pdf document (I think it is in Italian).

I suppose you could send him a nice email (in Italian of course;-) thanking him for including your code, but suggesting a more specific reference, i.e. instead of just www.perlmonks.org to use www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=423988. It's up to you, of course, but I probably wouldn't bother. OTOH, it might work out well and you might make a new friend or even persuade him to join the monastery...

Ciao!
/-\

But this raises another question: Typically, to give credit to someone, you first ask if it's ok and then list name and email (if the individual approves). But how to give credit to a perlmonk?

Thanks to monk_id won't mean anything to anyone not familiar with perlmonks.com.

In case you know the monk's real name, Thanks to Joe Schmoe will actually reveal the monk's identity if someone correlates the code with a posting on perlmonks.com -- something the helping monk probably won't like to happen.

Recommendations on proper credits to perlmonks personnel?

You credit the identity and correlate it to the site where the identity exists, unless further identification was given in the node itself.

In case you know the monk's real name, Thanks to Joe Schmoe will actually reveal the monk's identity if someone correlates the code with a posting on perlmonks.com -- something the helping monk probably won't like to happen.

Just curious, but are most monks afraid of someone correlating their perlmonks alias with their real name?

---

-- All code is 100% tested and functional unless otherwise noted.

Personally, I'm terrified. To think that my real name would be:

1) Linked to my username. Egads!
2) My code would be linked to me. Everything I post is unintentionally wrong and could detonate at any moment.

All jocular of course - I really don't care except that I have a very, hmm... unique name, and people might try to track me down and sell me magazines or something. Blech.
--------------
It's sad that a family can be torn apart by such a such a simple thing as a pack of wild dogs

It could suck if you were posting contrary to corporate intranet policy when you were supposed to be working ... q.v. Professional Employees and Works for Hire

Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing.
Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

What can you do? You can't even be sure that the person who claimed to write the snippet was actually the first to post it. Thing how Abigail or Merlyn must feel, seeing bastardized clones of their code all over the place, with someone else's name on it. All you can do is take satisfaction that your code has caught "public attention" and is being used....and that is what it's all about isn't it?

The alternative is to copywrite everything, and spend all your time and money trying to pull "SCO jobs" sueing everyone for using their idea. Remember...God knows what you created, and what you copied. :-)

As far as perlmonks snippets go, I have taken to saving the nodeid of useful snippets, I just refer to the perlmonks site when I want to show the code to someone else.

To me it's not about money and personal agrandizement, it's about helping to increase the human race's computing abilities, for the benefit of the whole world. ( Of course, I'm about as poor as you can get in America, but that has it's benefits too :-))

Thing how Abigail or Merlyn must feel, seeing bastardized clones of their code all over the place, with someone else's name on it.

No biggy to me. I get freaked when someone steals my copyrighted text, but I consider programs and snippets to be reusable building blocks. Take away!

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

Hey Zack,
   Are you a regular member on the perlmonks.com site?  I saw some
code in one of your teaching papers that is referenced from
perlmonks.com.  If so, what is your monk_id?  Hope to chat with you
soon, your stuff seems interesting.

-Kevin

--Feeble attempt to translate this into Italian in case you don't
really speak english--

Hey Zack, siete un membro normale sul luogo di perlmonks.com? Ho visto
un certo codice in una delle vostre carte d'istruzione che si
riferisce da perlmonks.com. In caso affermativo, che cosa è il vostro
monk_id? Speri di chiacchierare con voi presto, il vostro roba sembra
interessante.

- Kevin

In the interest of this ongoing saga, it would be nice (if appropriate) to add a note in this thread if you ever hear back ... also it would be nice to know how well your babelfished translation went over! ^_^ ... there have been some funny stories out there about such things

I was definitely planning to update if I heard anything back!

-Kevin

> Per eyepopslikeamosquito suggestion, I just dropped him a friendly note




Hi all, I'm the guy to blame for the code theft :-)

I'm sorry, I did not intend to steal code from anyone. I am currently teaching a class of a master dedicated to free software and open source technologies which includes a small module on perl.

In order to show something funny to the students I skimmed a bit thru perl monks and found the code of K_M_McMahon. Initially I put the address of the code on the slide, but since it did not fill the line I cut away the node_id. I'm changing the slide so that the address of the page is fully included. I hope it is enough. If K_M_McMahon don't want his code on the slide I will of course remove it.

I know I should have asked in advance, I simply thought that people willing to share his code on the web have no problem in having it on a slide (available on the web as well). Sorry again.

I never replied before since I never received the mail reported here by K_M_McMahon (perhaps it was caught by my SPAM filter? don't know). I was pointed to this discussion a minute ago by a friend.

BTW the italian version of your mail generated by babelfish is terrible :)

Cheers

Thanks for replying, Zack. Since you seem to like Python as much as Perl, you might be interested in The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part III): Obfu -- which provoked an anonymous Pythoneer into responding with *gasp* an ascii art Python obfu.

Oh, and here's a Perl obfu with an Italian theme: spaghetti obfu. Luckily for me, I doubt that obfu will fit on a slide because, after all this, if you wound up replacing K_M_McMahon's master-work with the spaghetti one, I'd have to run and duck for cover from K_M_McMahon, who I admire greatly. :-)

Ciao!
/-\

No need to apologize, no harm done. It s certainly enough with me that you just have the full perlmonks page reference attached. I am really honored that you found my code interesting enough to use for your class. I hope the class is going well.

On a side note, since you are teaching a class in perl, you should check into the site more often, and maybe even get a username!

Sorry to hear the Italian translation was so bad, Apparently you are pretty fluent in English though, so everything works out.....Feel free to continue to use the code snippet for as long as you like.



-Kevin

my $a='62696c6c77667269656e6440676d61696c2e636f6d';
while ($a=~m/(^.{2})/s)
{print unpack('A',pack('H*',"$1"));$a=~s/^.{2}//s;}
[download]

Me, I've been offered three (four? I can't remember ...) jobs as a result of maintaining PDF::Template and Excel::Template. I'm pretty sure merlyn has received consulting contracts for similar reasons. I can't imagine what brian_d_foy or Elian or TheDamian could ask for if they wanted a position in the OpenSource world.

I know Zack and I will ask him to add a reference to your home node, is this enough? :)