in reply to (crazyinsomniac) Re: Explaining a Perl project to a VB-bound audience
in thread Explaining a Perl project to a VB-bound audience

Wow, I didn't expect to raise that much interest on this topic... Thanks all for your help!

One fact you maybe missed is that the presentation is not really geared towards "forcing" them to use Perl; it is just meant to show them *how* this stuff works, _not_ why it's better than some of what they actually do ;-)

I guess I'll just take a mixed approach, probably introducing general concepts about CGI, CPAN and modules, and also giving them some stuff to read (maybe before actually giving the speech, i.e. XML-RPC, MySQL information, maybe also some perldocs). However, if I happened to get negative feedback, I could get to establish comparisions to VB using your advice. I agree that it could be dangerous, but still, if Perl is good at things that VB isn't at. they should face it: that's just the way it is. (and viceversa -GUI generation in Perl (using Glade) was rather a headache, as some of you pointed out ;P)

Oh well, nobody said this world had to be fair for anyone ;-)

Apart from that, I didn't really mean to relate so directly Perl to VB, just find analogies that could let them understand better why I used it as well as some of the stuff it can actually do.

Anyway, I'll take all of this info into account. Again, thanks a bunch!! :-))

  • Comment on Re: Re: Explaining a Perl project to a VB-bound audience

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re3: Explaining a Perl project to a VB-bound audience
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Jan 21, 2002 at 19:32 UTC
    This may be a silly comment, but if you're trying to explain to someone how something works, aren't you necessarily going to teach this some of how the language works?

    Or, are you just going to work with the high-level design? In which case, the language they do and don't know is irrelevant. Languages are implementation details. Designs are language-independent (for the most part).

    I mean, they're not going to maintain a Perl application without knowing Perl, right?

    ------
    We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

    Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

[reply]

      Right :-)

      I have to explain them both, the high-level thing and the gory details. However, I consider that, for the sake of understanding, it would be appropiate to give an approach to the project keeping in mind that these guys have only programmed with VB (the "who" factor). And, furthermore, I can't trust them to know some of the details I otherwise would risk to leave unknown.

      Okay, they are programmers and stuff, but I just don't have enough *time* to give them an introductory course to Perl, and, then, show the project. I have to make them understand how it works, keeping in mind that they know nearly nothing of this (and yes, I've already talked to them and given them some docs ;P). Therefore, comparing some concepts to VB is the only way I can think of to do it shortly... hope it works.

      Thanks for the interest!

[reply]

In Section Meditations