[nycbug-talk] Conference Topics Thread

[Francisco Reyes]

Peter Wright writes:

> I like that idea, although I personally would like to see specific
> situations where perl, for example, was used as a tool to solve a problem
> (including anaylsis, which modules where used etc.).

I think it highly depends on the target audience.

 
> I think for the long term it's the process an admin goes through more than
> the specifics of the lang itself.

This is why I thought of showing the basics on several, rather than one. 
Many admins may learn let's say perl and try to do everything with it. Just 
because it is the only tool they know off.

By showing, mostly new, admins the different tools they can use perhaps they 
will better able to decide what they need to use for a particular problem.

As an example:
Say an admin has some data he needs to get from a log file. If all he knows 
of is perl he may try and learn how to read a file from perl or do 
re-direction.. then will have to figure out how to parse, etc... whereas the 
'cut' utility may be all he needs. If he doesn't know it exists then he will 
be stuck trying to use the only tool he does know.

Without knowing target audience level it's kind of hard to tell which 
approach may be better. However I think covering examples in several 
approaches in a sort of recipies way,  may perhaps help more people. They 
basically can come out of the session with specific things to try.