perlmeditation
jacques
As yet another Perl monger meeting unfolded, I saw her sitting alone in the corner. I strolled over.<p>
"Hi, are you here for the meeting?," I said.
<br>"Yes, my name's <a href=http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/>Ruby</a>," she replied, looking up at me with bright eyes.
<br>"<a href=http://www.haskell.org/>Haskell</a>."
<br>"So, how long have you been programming <a href=http://www.perl.org>Perl</a>?"
<br>"As long as I can remember. I use nothing else." I smiled and sat down.
<br>"Um, I am having trouble installing this PPM," she said, glancing down at her laptop.
<br>"What's a PPM?"
<br>"<a href=http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Downloads/ActivePerl/PPM/>PPM files are Perl libraries</a>."
<br>"You mean, modules? I get those from <a href=http://www.cpan.org>CPAN</a>."
<br>"What's <a href=http://search.cpan.org>CPAN</a>?" she asked.
<br>"<a href=http://kobesearch.cpan.org/>CPAN</a> is this cool site created by Randy Kobes in Japan. It has all the Perl stuff you will ever need."
<br>"Well, I get everything from <a href=http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/>ActiveState</a>, the creators of Perl."
<br>"You mean, O'Reilly. <a href=http://use.perl.org/~KM/journal/6720>They're the ones in charge.</a> Have you seen, <a href=http://www.perl.com>Perl.com</a>? It's the official homepage."
<br>"Well. I never knew that."
<br>"Perl's a big language. There's always something new to learn. Right now, I trying to figure out whether I should use <a href=http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Module::Build >Module::Build</a> instead of <a href=http://search.cpan.org/~ni-s/Make-1.00/Make.pm>make</a>."
<br>"You mean <a href=http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vcug98/html/_asug_overview.3a_.nmake_reference.asp>nmake</a>."
<br>"Same thing."
<br>"Oh. I got nmake off of Microsoft's ftp site. It's nice to see <a href=http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/default.asp>Microsoft</a> helping us out. But I never have a need for it, with PPM and everything. What's Module::Build?"
<br>"It's a module for building and installing Perl modules, but I still like using <a href=http://search.cpan.org/~jhi/perl-5.8.0/lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm>MakeMaker</a>. It seems that most people are using both these days."
<br>"Neat. It's good to see the Perl community agreeing on another issue."
<br>"Anyway, I remember hearing that <a href=http://ppm.activestate.com/PPMPackages/>the ActiveState repository</a> is limited and often out-of-date. Have you ever used another repository like <a href=http://crazyinsomniac.perlmonk.org/perl/ppm/5.8/>the one on PerlMonks run by PodMaster</a>?"
<br>"<a href=http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node=podmaster>PodMaster</a>?"
<br>"Yeah, he's this nice guy, very helpful."
<br>"PodMaster reminds me of the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083630/">BeastMaster</a>, this corny movie that the <a href=http://www.tnt.tv/>Turner channel</a> always played on Sunday afternoons."
<br>"Do you think Ted Turner has anything to do with Perl?"
<br>"Who knows? But he also calls himself '<a href=http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node=crazyinsomniac>crazyinsomniac</a>'."
<br>"Who? Ted Turner?"
<br>"No, PodMaster! And he has an account on <a href=http://www.javajunkies.org>Java Junkies</a>. Speaking of Java, did you know that <a href=http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/features/mars.html>Java powers the Mars rover</a>?"
<br>"<a href=http://www.nasa.gov>Those idiots</a>! When will they see that using Perl is so much simpler!!"