One method that has brought me some sucess in the initial "kick-start" phases of getting co-workers to use different tools (and languages) is to provide them with a base functionality tool, and tell them to keep modifying it to suit thier needs (ie: a script that does substitution with hard coded variables to substitute, show them which hard coded parts to change for each new file or substitution they want to do). It is my experience that if the tool is useful to them they will start to tweak it, the day they come to your desk and say "Why didn't you just use @ARGV to read the substitution vars from the command line?" is the day you have tham hooked :)

This approach doesn't work for all, it usually works on the more inquisitive, the ones who are apt to think "I can make this easier...there has to be something he was missing".

Disclaimer: the example is exactly that, an example, and should in no way be construed as a good real life scenario suggestion.

"Nothing is sure but death and taxes" I say combine the two and its death to all taxes!

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.