Re: Teaching Perl

I'm a one-man computer science department at a small liberal arts college, and teach perl regularly.

In addition to the other sources mentioned, I've found Simon Cozen's online book Beginning Perl particularly helpful, including the short pieces on CGI, debugging, and the various helpful appendices.

And while I appreciate the many good things about merlyn's Learning Perl text, I think the choice of leaving out how to invoke an object method fairly problematic, especially since most CPAN modules rely on this syntax. In my opinion, some discussion of object oriented methods are a necessary part of an intro programming course these days; they aren't just an "advanced" feature.

- barrachois

Comment on Re: Teaching Perl

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Re^2: Teaching Perl by merlyn (Sage) on Jul 15, 2005 at 16:28 UTC
I think the choice of leaving out how to invoke an object method fairly problematic, especially since most CPAN modules rely on this syntax. Maybe you've not seen the third edition. We do indeed cover this, albeit lightly. -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.	[reply]
Re^3: Teaching Perl by barrachois (Pilgrim) on Jul 16, 2005 at 18:04 UTC
Very lightly. I have a copy of the third edition (July 2001) in front of me now, and am checking ... The five page table of contents doesn't mention the word "object" that I can find, nor "CPAN" - though I see pack, unpack, grep, fork, and three chapters on regular expressions. The index does contain "object oriented programming" and takes me to two paragraphs on page 297 which point me towards perlobj and perlboot in the manpages. Appendix B, which perhaps you're refering to, does describe several CPAN modules. Within the paragraph describing File::Spec on pg 285 the Class->method() syntax is mentioned. Arthur Dent's phrase comes to mind : "It was in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'." Please don't get me wrong - the llama is part of what I used to learn perl back in the days of yore, and is still a strong resource. But I think this flaw is serious enough that I don't use it as a primary text. - barrachois	[reply]