Where can I get good answers to my Perl-related questions? [closed]

Question

AFAIK one of the objectives of Stack Overflow is to make sure anyone can come here and find good answers to her Perl related questions. Certainly beginners would ask what is the best online source to learn Perl but others might just want to ask a question.

Probably the friendliest place is the Monastery of Perl Monks. It is a web site with a rating system similar to but more simple than Stack Overflow. You can find lots of good answers there and if you don't find an answer you can always ask.

The other big resource would be the mailing list of your local Perl Mongers group.

Where do you go when you are looking for an answer to a Perl related question?

Hands

Don't touch PerlMonks with a barge pole. The site is incredibly insecure to the point of storing passwords in plaintext in their databases. Even after a hack and the database published to the global Internet the passwords are still stored in plaintext. – Gillman

I wonder how many sites you use every day are storing passwords in plaintext in their databases. You seem to be assuming that perlmonks is the only one that makes this mistake. – Windswept

As far as I know it has been fixed a long time ago at PerlMonks. – Hands

"[Perl Monks] is a web site with a rating system similar to but more simple than Stack Overflow." If by "rating system" you mean the question/answer vote tally, then I consider your statement false. Perl Monks does not allow you to see the vote score on a question or answer until after you yourself have already voted on it. This radically changes the utility of the site. – Titustityus

Answer 1

It's worth noting that http://perlmonks.org, in addition to the fora, has the Chatterbox, where simple questions can be answered immediately in conversation with other users.

It requires setting up an account and logging in before using the Chatterbox, though.

Lampkin

Answer 2

Thus far, I've been pretty content with the quality of Perl answers I've seen here. Many of the most experienced Perl programmers I know from conferences, Perlmonks, use.perl.org, etc. seem to be present here and answering questions seriously and clearly. In cases where an answer has been wrong or simply bad in a sense of promoting bad practice, those answers have been quickly identified, voted down and/or commented-upon.

I'm a great fan of Perlmonks, but it's a different sort of site than this one. Besides being specific to Perl, it also has separate areas set aside for reviewing modules, posting code snippets, reviewing books, etc.

Ms

Answer 3

Best place: here. Each time I asked, I got correct answers, in less than 20 minutes. Faster that anywhere else.

Marymarya

Not only that, but here, I'm not seeing the "know it all" jerks that other sites seem to acquire. – Scuba

Have patience, Ovid. I'm sure they'll find us eventually. :( – Electrum

So far both of the questions I've asked, on diverse topics, have drawn answers that can only be explained as superficial attempts to build up to badges as cheaply as possible. And I lack the level/karma to demote these, so they work. So I then suspect that people actively look for questions posted by people who have not yet earned "mod points" or what-you-may-call-it, so that they can post crap answers and earn themselves points without getting modded down by the person who asked the question. – Cohort

Answer 4

I've never asked questions, but that's probably because I tend to write simple scripts rather than applications.

Have always found the Perldoc site to be a good way to work out how to do stuff - and I normally learn a bit more whilst looking.

Touchandgo

Answer 5

Sometimes, it might be worthwhile to try to get help via IRC. Quite some time ago, I found the #perl channel on the freenode network to be pretty friendly and helpful. As always it's important that you have exhausted the normal means of solving your problem: Read the documentation, search the web, etc.

However, I'll also take this opportunity to mention where you should not go asking for help: The #perl channel on MagNet aka irc.perl.org. It's a channel where people just hang out and talk about essentially anything but help requests. However, on that network, there's quite a few channels particularly about certain Perl-related projects. The people who lurk in those may well be the primary authors of the relevant piece of software. Those channel's aren't help desks either, but if you have a very challenging and interesting problem, you might be able to get them interested enough to help you. Just make sure you do your homework first and be prepared to get involved yourself.

Zeller

Answer 6

For documentation on Perl builtins and standard modules, perldoc.perl.org is an web version of the Perl docs with pretty colors and such. I use a keyword bookmark, pd for this.

For finding modules, search.cpan.org is the place to go; for this I use the keyword pm.

When you have a question that requires humans to answer, Perl Monks is my preferred place, though Stack Overflow seems to have attracted a good crowd already.

Barracks

Answer 7

Usenet is pretty good too comp.lang.perl.misc, comp.lang.perl.modules and comp.lang.perl.moderated are good places to ask questions IMHO.

Electroencephalogram

Oh, man. I learned so much from c.l.p.misc... I think that so long as there's a good group of knowledgeable Perlers the voting system here is better suited to finding -- and identifying! -- good answers. Usenet is a much better place for discussions and exploring the language. – Electrum

I used to be moderately active in comp.lang.perl.misc years ago. You learn way more answering than you ever can asking. It's good to have knowledgeable folks vet your answers and it feels great to get it just right. – Ubiquitous

Answer 8

The Official Perl 5 Wiki is another great resource with lots of info and links.

(Also see the bottom of the wiki home page for the latest headlines from the Planet Perl feed aggregator. It's useful to look at, because it sometimes suggests questions that you didn't know that you should be asking.)

Incidentally, an ambitious stackoverflow Perl fan could also add a new section to the Perl 5 wiki pointing to questions answered on stackoverflow (and perhaps vice versa).

Bitstock

Answer 9

I am surprised that no one has mentioned the Perl Beginners mailing list.

Agitator

Yup, there seems to be minimal overlap between here and there. – Almeda

Answer 10

I favor use.perl.org over perlmonks. I'm not sure why. It's a smaller community, maybe the signal to noise ratio is higher for me.

Incidentally, I get good answers there to any question, not just Perl questions. I ask Java questions, Linux questions, sometimes even cultural questions, and there's always someone there who knows. :)

Inordinate

It takes longer and the pool of answers is smaller, though. (Not to say that use.perl is a bad community – I love it. But it’s primarily focused on the “community” part rather than the “Perl” part.) – Drugstore

Answer 11

I like IRC, try #perl on irc.perl.org or irc.freenode.net, or maybe #perlhelp on irc.efnet.nl. Lots and lots of very clever, helpful people always willing to discuss perl-related issues.

Maybe I'll see you there :)

Lymphoblast

Answer 12

I don't have a specific site, but tend to just google the main keywords of what I am looking for. There are many sites out there, however, I have got the best responses here for very specific stuff.

Volatile

Answer 13

I talk to my imaginary friends on #catalyst, #perl and other channels on irc.perl.org.

[edit] Bearing in mind that due to the limitations of non face to face communication with people you don't really know, you need to be simultaneously respectful of people whom it might superficially look like are being very rude to you. It pays to be thick skinned on IRC.

Unschooled

Answer 14

Have a big AIM/Jabber list filled with knowledgeable Perl people you're friends with.

Windswept

Answer 15

I would say Stackoverflow

Ruination

Already an answer stackoverflow.com/questions/100248//100367#100367 – Localism