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The subject of the image above is an early Mercedes Benz 300SL. It was sourced from Wikipedia's 300SL article. This, in my opinion, is one of those truly rare pieces of functional art.
If you have read nothing else, read these:
- Perl is my cast iron pan Well said.
- The tact filter. Understanding of this concept will ease communication issues greatly for everyone.
- How do I post a question effectively? Thanks to the SiteDocClan for an excellent "How to I write a post" node.
- Use strict and warnings This is touched on in the above, but expands on it. Thanks to runrig for the excellent commentary.
- Writeup Formatting Tips Exceptionally handy.
- XY Problem. This is an excellent collection of quotes that may help you understand how better to ask questions. Sometimes the way you think something needs to be done is not ideal. If you're going to ask, state the whole problem. It may get you to think about your problem in a wildly different method than you are now. Thanks to jdporter for collecting these.
When your toolbox is limited to "hammer", you try to refactor all problems into "nails". This is the wrong approach. Don't be afraid to look for new tools for the box. The flip side of this is sometimes the fine hammer is the best tool. Wisdom is being able to discern between the two. The quicker you get to that point, the better off you and those who work with you will be.
These are some useful external links I use pretty regularly, because I'm terrible at memorizing things.
- Grep CPAN modules for specific things... like error messages that appear that don't say where they're from.
- Most useful hash reference I've found
- a useful CSS reference
- Writing unicode text docs with perl
- TKX basics and documentation
- XMLTwig.org reference by author mirod
- I use YAML for as much machine to machine communication as is practical. Here's why.
- Whenever I think I'm having a bad day, I think of the poor sod that left the footprints in this photo.
Modules I use on a regular basis:
- Log::Log4perl. Quit your homebrew logging. It probably isn't as good as Log4perl.
- YAML::AppConfig. Standardize your data serialization, even in your program configuration files.
- WWW::Mechanize. Browse the web, headless.
- Test::More. Start putting tests in your work. Get started with Test::Simple.
- Net::FTP::File. Fill the gaps in Net::FTP.
- XML::Twig. I haven't found a need for any other XML processor. Exceptionally powerful and usable.
- GetOpt::Long. Make passing switches and data into your scripts easy.
- File::Spec. Never worry about how paths are built again.
- Pod::Usage. Use POD for documentation. Get it somewhere your users will see it.
Monks I've met in real life: