From my own experience, both formats have their advantages. Perldoc (and other online doc formats) is great when you just want the facts (Does this make me sound like Dragnet?) but I find printed copy much better for getting to the real guts of a subject.

As an example, while I was at uni I tried learning OO programming in perl from perltoot in the perldocs. It never sank in until I printed the whole file out and took it home with me to read over the weekend (This was when I didn't have a computer at home, too). It turned out so useful that I still had that document in a paper binder 2 years later, and occasionally referred to it too!

Put simply, I do not find electronic documents condusive to meditation and quiet contemplation. And we, as monks, should be right behind that, right? ;)

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