Re: Please Help: How to use minivend variable like [item-code] in a SQL search string?

[Dan Busarow <dan@dpcsys.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Dan Busarow <dan@dpcsys.com>     ******

On Thu, 18 Feb 1999, Birgitt Funk wrote:
> That is interesting, as I can imagine that the minivend tag
> system originally was thought of by the author as a means of
> making it easier to set up a catalog as compared to programming.
> 
> Now, as far as I remember, Mike Heins mentioned once on the list
> here, after the tag system had evolved and changed into a quite
> voluminous and flexible system suited to be used in combination
> with embedded Perl for anything you want, that
>  
> a.) the tag system is not a programming tool

This one should be repeated, often :)

> b.) he sees often the tag system abused as being used like a 
>     programming language
> c.) urging to use Perl instead of the tag system for customization
>     needs
> d.) having become the victim of the success of his own
>     tag system (as compared to the SQL/DBIish things)
> 
> Now, not being a programmer myself, after having watched
> many questions posted here by ISPs and web site developers 
> (who are fluent in programming, I assume) my question
> is: 
> 
>     Is the tag system really difficult to understand even
>     for people who can read the source code well and can
>     program their own additions, modifications etc. ?

When I first started using MV I kept falling into the trap of
using tags as a programming tool.  When programmers see things
that look like a language, and [if ...] sure looks like a
language, they tend to try to learn and use the language.
So for me, the hardest part was ignoring this "natural" tendency.

>     1.) If the answer is yes, is it only because the source
>         code is too voluminous to be studied for a busy
>         ISP or is it really tough to dig into it.

It's not for the casual perl programmer but it's not arcane either.
I'm certainly not going to sit and read it all just to better
understand MV, but I do read it to debug specific problems I
run into.

>     2.) If the answer is no, is it difficult to learn because
>         even for professionals the documentation is not
>         clear enough ? (So far, I considered this to be the
>         case only for non-programmer).

More examples, especially examples using interpolation, would be
a big win.

How about adding a "Submit Examples" section to the website?
Then whenever we have an epiphany we can submit a new example 
which if clear enough may find its way into the documentation.

Dan
-- 
 Dan Busarow                                                  949 443 4172
 Dana Point Communications, Inc.                            dan@dpcsys.com
 Dana Point, California  83 09 EF 59 E0 11 89 B4   8D 09 DB FD E1 DD 0C 82


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