I agree with skipping AUTOLOAD and the Schwartzian Transform, and adding something on Data::Dumper and perhaps the debugger. Using ptkdb results in the fastest learning. I asked instructors at a conference BOF meeting why they didn't use ptkdb for teaching, and the only reason cited was the difficulty of installing ptkdb on the local machines before the class.

A debugger gives you a chance to step through a program and quickly hover over variables to show how they have changed. They are good for learning and reading code, even if your own day-to-day coding challenges don't benefit from using them.

For objects, I would just teach how to create a hash and bless a reference to it. Then show how to use references as hash values to make a more complex object. I struggled with teaching various automatic-object-creation modules until I found that the hash explanation works better.

I also like to explain common design antipatterns to intermediate programmers, since they tend to be familiar with them! 'The Big Ball of Mud' is a good story to go along with the learning about object-from-hash-reference.

It should work perfectly the first time! - toma

In reply to Re: Creating an Intermediate Perl Programming Curriculum by toma
in thread Creating an Intermediate Perl Programming Curriculum by Steve_p

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