Subject: RE: Perl question


> And yet here I suggest that you use the great perl modules.  Well, I
> would tell any perl programmer that before they use a module they should
> be able to write their own (and that's about where I am as I am in the
> transition to oo perl).


i've been doing OOPerl for a couple years, and i agree that it's a good
idea at least to look at the existing modules before starting a new one
from scratch.   for one thing, it's immensely instructive for a
programmer to read someone else's code and documentation.   coders have
a history of working in isolation, each inventing their own world of
tools & techniques.   that's not a good thing.   

i suggest that anyone interested in programming learn enough basic
grammar & syntax to get one or two steps past "hello, world.", then
start reading the source files for library code.   it's a free tour of
other (experienced) programmers bags of tricks.   for more advanced
programmers, reading related code is one of the most efficient ways to
see how other people have dealt with the same design problem.   there's
no faster or cheaper way of learning what issues need to be addressed in
a program than looking at someone else's design.

besides, in the words of Mark Twain:

    One isn't a printer ten years without setting up acres of good
    and bad literature, and learning--unconsciously at first,
    consciously later--to discriminate between the two, within his
    mental limitations; and meantime he is unconsciously acquiring
    what is called a "style."

and the same is, if anything, more true of programming.   the fact that
the words translate to actions makes it all the more apparent which
techniques are good, and which ones suck.


one of the especially attractive, but less mentioned, features of perl
is that the standard installation contains a whole directory full of
code libraries.   they're tried-and-tested solutions to well-known
problems, and there are enough of them to keep a normal person reading
for months.   if & when you get done with those, there's the entire
archive at CPAN to browse through, and by the time you finish with
what's there now, half of it will have been upgraded or replaced.

the whole open source movement is making huge volumes of code available
in every language, and on every subject.   with a moderate amount of
reading and tinkering, a programmer can become fluent in what are
literally the cutting-edge techniques on the market.. and all for free.