|There's more than one way to do things|
I think I would move points 3 and 4 up to the top of the list - I guess they are what you want anyone to do first. I'm not sure about use diagnostics; versus use warnings; I suppose it all depends on your level.
The document asks rather than demands.. which is the polite thing to do. But if the purpose is to reduce the number of posts that ask questions that have well-known answers, and to reduce the number of posts that don't provide sufficient info in the first instance - then perhaps the document should be more authoritative. Human nature being what it is - people will probably not look at all the recommended links, they will skim the document and then post. Maybe start with something along the lines of:
Before posting ask yourself the following questions
- is the question already covered in the FAQs?
- am I using strict and warnings?
- have I supplied enough code and data so that it is clear what I'm doing?
Each question would have the appropriate links - I'm sure that others more skilled in this sort of thing could improve the phrasing - the aim being to be authoritative and friendly/encouraging at the same time.
Has the idea of having an example question and answer been discussed? The question would illustrate all the good practices discussed in the main document e.g. what was trying to be done, what happened, code snippet included, use of HTML tags etc. The answer would show the sort of helpful reply that you get back!
I'm trying to count the number of times a file has a line with "foo" in it. The program looks like this:
But when I run it I get:
Use of uninitialized value in print at ./test.pl line 8, <> line 3.Can someone tell me what's going on?
For the simplest questions perhaps it would be possible to design a form that could be used?