in reply to Study Perl with somebuddy ?

In my opinion, the best way to learn a language like perl is by using it to solve a problem. The easiest way is if there is a real problem to solve, but you can solve made-up problems/exercises if you have the motivation and will-power to do it. Finding a problem can be hard, but good CS books (e.g. SICP) are full of them. Even if the book uses a different language, you'll find that a lot of the problems transfer well to perl. The hard part would be filtering out the ones which don't translate well. Does anyone know of a resource of good programming exercises in perl?

Then, when you are working on your solution to the problem, you can ask here for comments, advice and help. That's quite a good way of learning.

This leads me to speculate - would there be any value in a section of perlmonks for this kind of activity? The main difference to Seekers of Perl Wisdom would be the presumption of inexperience on the part of the person asking the question and perhaps also a different tenor of reply - focussed around education rather than solving the problem. (Perlmonks is already amazingly good at this but I wonder if a section with a different emphasis might be of value).

(I'll answer my own speculation with a "probably not", but I think it's interesting to consider).

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Re^2: Study Perl with somebuddy ?
by tobox (Novice) on Nov 06, 2006 at 11:03 UTC
    Hmm as I live in area near Esbjerg in Denmark there seems to be no groups - the idea about education is very much what I want when I only grow a little older and get thru a lot of other stuff, as I got a braindamage some years ago, therefor I am seeking somebody I can maybe get to study with thru mail until I can get to a education, believe the education is the goal (no wait, a job is the goal the education is just a very very important step on the staircase), so could I find somebody in here perhaps ? Greetings Tobias
[reply]

      Hi Tobias,

      While you wait for a study buddy to learn Perl with, I suggest you do the following:

      1. Get a good introductory book about Perl. To help you with that, you can have a look at the recommendations in learn.perl.org. In particular, you might be interested in checking the perl.org online library
      2. Solve the exercises in the book you are reading
      3. You might want to join the perl.beginners mailing list. For instructions on how to do it, you can check here
      4. If you cannot solve/understand an exercise from the book you are reading, you might want to ask in the perl.beginners mailing list or here at PerlMonks. However, I recommend you to always try do a search first. In that sense, you could try this site for a list of Google searches for the Perl Beginners Mailing List. Or you could try to do a Super Search to help you find information in the PerlMonks site
      5. Search for a real-life problem you want to solve using Perl. It has to be something that interest you, so you can spend the required time to learn about Perl while solving your problem.
      6. Keep participating here in the Monastery. Here, there are many people just like you: searching for the light. Let's walk together to find it

      Cheers!

      lin0
[reply]
      you're welcome to join #cph.pm at irc.perl.org
[reply]
Re^2: Study Perl with somebuddy ?
by Anonymous Monk on Nov 06, 2006 at 11:08 UTC

    Perl is a language that can be learned by use. This is by design: http://www.wall.org/~larry/natural.html

    There is every reason to expect you can learn a little, try it, improve it, learn more, learn better, and repeat ad infinitum. Being part of a small "study group" helps, as does studying how other, more experienced, programmers do things (the CPAN is a free treasure trove in this regard).

    Start a discussion group somewhere like groups.google.com and let me know, I'll be happy to join in.

    Michael
    http://www.perlcircus.org/

[reply]

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