Re: Five Common Misconceptions While Learning Perl

Agreed, great post.

Having said that, I'll take some issue with point #3. I really do think Perl documentation (O'Reilly books, CPAN docs, the lot of them) is not geared towards non-programmers. By "non-programmers" I mean folks who are don't have years of experience, a degree, or are full-time.

Of course, it might be me. Maybe I'm still running a 4.77 mhz chip here, but I find that I really have to work at understanding a lot of the methods and concepts by just reading the books. I learn by example and there are so view real-world code samples that show how things work. That's why I like PMs--there is a lot of practical stuff here (you might have to dig it out).

I'm not complaining, I'd just love to find working examples and tutorials for things like CPAN modules.

As I master them, I plan to add to the Tutorials, but not until I know it's solid. Otherwise I'm guilty of #2 above.

—Brad
"The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men." George Eliot

Comment on Re: Five Common Misconceptions While Learning Perl

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Re^2: Five Common Misconceptions While Learning Perl
by QM (Parson) on Dec 02, 2005 at 04:58 UTC

I learn by example...

learning style

The better materials tend to have some of each where practical, and allow the victim to choose a not-quite-linear path: highlighted summaries for the readers, simple diagrams for the viewers, and examples and puzzles for the practical folk.

When the Camel Book comes out in a 10 box DVD set, complete with lightning talks for footnotes, and behind the scenes shots of Larry on a Segway talking to a simulation of Carl Sagan, everyone should be covered.

-QM
--
Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of

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Re^3: Five Common Misconceptions While Learning Perl

by bradcathey (Prior) on Dec 02, 2005 at 12:38 UTC

...Granted, it would be strange to have 4 versions of "It's OK to slice in Perl"...

That's one nice thing about PM's Q&A--often there will be several examples.

...When the Camel Book comes out in a 10 box DVD set...

Can I queue that up in Netflix?

—Brad
"The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men." George Eliot

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Re^4: Five Common Misconceptions While Learning Perl

by QM (Parson) on Dec 02, 2005 at 20:01 UTC

Can I queue that up in Netflix?

-QM
--
Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of

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Re^2: Five Common Misconceptions While Learning Perl
by apotheon (Deacon) on Dec 31, 2005 at 12:33 UTC

"As I master them, I plan to add to the Tutorials, but not until I know it's solid. Otherwise I'm guilty of #2 above.": I think that's not an optimal approach. I find that learning is often helped immensely by trying to teach the same concepts to others. Try writing tutorials, preferably in places where they can be vetted by others that know more than you.

Perlmonks is actually a very good place for such a thing. Choose a subject you know a lot about, but maybe not everything, and write a tutorial about it. When people start responding to you, I guarantee you'll get the tutorial fixed in short order so that any mistakes you made start clearing up very quickly. As a bonus, you learn.

print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);
- apotheon
CopyWrite Chad Perrin

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