Re: learn.perl.org

On Sun, 5 Oct 2003, Iain Truskett wrote:

> > The fact is I can go to mysql.org or php.net and
> > effectively learn those tools online to a fair degree of
> > proficiency.
>
> Please, produce a list of good, contem****ary, online
> tutorials.

I think what he meant is that it is saddening that this is not the case
for Perl (if it's not the case for Perl). And if it's not - it should be.

If people have an easy time learning PHP/MySQL/Apache/Python/whatever from
online resources, while they are required to grab a book for Perl, then it
follows that more people will learn these technologies than they would
learn Perl.

I did my best to remedy this situation by writing the "Perl for Perl
Newbies" lecture series. I got happy re****ts from people who have learned
Perl through it or used the slides to teach others. Obviously it's not
enough according to Iain's picky taste. (which I'm not sure that the Camel
book, the Llama book or whatever will meet if he took a closer look at
them).

Generally it is my opinion, that we should all care about this situation
enough to remedy it.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

> I took a look at Shlomi's somewhat hideously
> designed site and the list there. There's not one tutorial
> there that I could happily endorse.
>
> Check that the tutorial uses good, modern style. 3-arg open
> (or at least whitespace between action and filename). Should
> be advocating 'use strict' and 'use warnings' (which will
> show it's at least 5.6 or later). Should introduce perldoc
> very early on. Lexical filehandles. No ampersands when
> calling functions in the ordinary case. /x both mentioned
> and advocated for regex. POD. Other stuff. And most
> im****tantly, security, including common sense and tainting.
>
> Probably a bit much to expect, but they're usually good
> signs.
>
>
> cheers,
>



----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish        shlomif@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Page:         http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/

An apple a day will keep a doctor away. Two apples a day will keep two
doctors away.

	Falk Fish