[Epo-members-announce] Adding Padre, the Perl IDE as and EPO project

[Chris Nehren]

On Feb 15, 2010, at 4:03 PM, Nick Perez wrote:

> I favor EPO support for Padre so long as we don't limit ourselves to
> saying it is The One True Way, instead saying it is but one tool in the
> toolbox (or even the gateway drug that leads to other preferred editors
> such as vim or emacs).


tl;dr: timtoady bicarbonate for paedogogical purposes.

There's a few audiences that we're talking about here:

1. the new programmer starting with perl--the meganewbie. They're best served by well-structured learning environments and sane defaults rather than lots of choices--emphasis on sane defaults.

2. the programmer who has some experience coming to perl--"some" being completely arbitrary. We can more or less treat them as the meganewbie, unless they're smart enough to have their own preferences already, in which case they're probably smart enough to set up their existing environment to work with perl.

3. the already-expert perl programmer. Presumably all or most people on this list are in this category. These people are as varied as category 2. I think everyone here is in this category, and can identify with the smart number 2s.

It's best to provide those who don't know what they're doing--the meganewbie--with a structured learning environment that guides them through things, gently. When new to programming in general, it's a bit like being presented with Unix for the first time. "What do all these weird-shaped things do? How do I use them? There's twelve different ways to print text to the screen? Why do there have to be twelve? HELP!". Giving direction towards simple (padre's beginner mode++) tools that hide the bewildering choice helps new folks focus on learning instead of finding a problem with their frobnitzer.

-- 
Thanks and best regards,
Chris Nehren