Re: How do you master Perl?

About the safety net...

You raise the topics of source control and tests. Both are safety nets, but they are from different worlds.

Tests is a coding safety net. Its cousin is designing code for testability / debuggability, using assertions (even contracts are here but this is way too much for beginners).

Source control is coding tools safety net. Its relative is keeping track of bugs/features, for example.

Also, I'm not sure that learning other languages is the best advice for beginners. For once, most Perl beginners probably come from other languages, either from work/self study or from University. Learning other languages (the well known one of each of the 4 paradigms) can be left for later, intermediate stages.

Comment on Re: How do you master Perl?

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Re^2: How do you master Perl? by adrianh (Chancellor) on Apr 11, 2005 at 13:57 UTC
Tests is a coding safety net. Its cousin is designing code for testability / debuggability, using assertions (even contracts are here but this is way too much for beginners). Source control is coding tools safety net. Its relative is keeping track of bugs/features, for example. Depends on how you look at them. I see testing and source control gain extra utility when you look at them together. Tests demonstrate bugs and features. Source control track them over time. For example if you're doing TDD you're writing a failing test before each bug fix or feature. If you do a commit each time your code goes from a failing test to a passing test then you will track each new feature / bug fix as it is completed.	[reply]

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Re^2: How do you master Perl?
by adrianh (Chancellor) on Apr 11, 2005 at 13:57 UTC

Tests is a coding safety net. Its cousin is designing code for testability / debuggability, using assertions (even contracts are here but this is way too much for beginners).

Source control is coding tools safety net. Its relative is keeping track of bugs/features, for example.

Depends on how you look at them. I see testing and source control gain extra utility when you look at them together. Tests demonstrate bugs and features. Source control track them over time.

For example if you're doing TDD you're writing a failing test before each bug fix or feature. If you do a commit each time your code goes from a failing test to a passing test then you will track each new feature / bug fix as it is completed.

[reply]