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Could somebody help me?

What does "trolling around" mean in the sentence "Avoiding trolling around the guts of Entity Framework"?

P.S. Entity Framework is the name of a framework for programming

P.P.S. Source of quote: "Programming Entity Framework: DbContext" (by Julia Lerman) (page 6)

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Please edit question and add a link to source of quote. Also, one question mark is enough. – jwpat7 Nov 5 '12 at 19:55
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See the definition of troll ("carefully and systematically search an area for something"). – Zairja Nov 5 '12 at 20:17
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Are you just trolling around Stackexchange? ;) – asymptotically Nov 6 '12 at 2:08

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

In this case, Trolling is used in the fishing sense:

Trolling (fishing)

Trolling is a method of fishing where one or more fishing lines, baited with lures or bait fish, are drawn through the water. This may be behind a moving boat, or by slowly winding the line in when fishing from a static position, or even sweeping the line from side-to-side, e.g. when fishing from a jetty.

The original author is attempting to convey that they are trying to avoid going over all of the details of the entire framework, including details that are trivial to most people.

FYI, some people will also use Trawling in the same manner and context.

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I venture to suggest that in OP's specific context, most people would use trawling, rather than trolling. – FumbleFingers Nov 5 '12 at 21:50
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I can vouch for "trolling" and related terms such as "trolling motor" all over the US Midwest. Google [ trolling motor ]. "Trawling" on the other hand is fishing with a net, not with baited lines. – MετάEd Nov 5 '12 at 23:29
"In this case, trolling is used in the fishing sense." Do you mean there are cases in which it isn't used in that sense? – MετάEd Nov 5 '12 at 23:31
@MετάEd I'm not sure if you're kidding or not, so here's a link to a definition of Internet Trolling : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet) – Zoot Nov 6 '12 at 14:19
@Zoot And if you read that article, you know it points out that it's the same term being used figuratively. There really is no trolling other than either (real) or (figurative) fishing for a bite. – MετάEd Nov 6 '12 at 14:35
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up vote 2 down vote

Trolling is a method of fishing from a moving boat by dragging a lure or bait of some sort. It is a somewhat random method of fishing. Even if you know your lure can catch the fish you are after, and you know the fish you are trying to catch are actually present somewhere in the water your boat is moving through, you do not know exactly where the fish are.

In this context, the author does not want anyone changing code in the entity framework in hope of fixing some problem unless that person knows exactly what code to change.

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