Swalif has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear Monks,
We all know that screencasts and video tutorials are the easiest way for learning, especially for new comers (like me ;) ) .. Books are the definitive resources as well as the documentations. The problem is that there is no book available for each subject such as game development or using module X ..etc. And the documentations aren’t always comprehensive and maybe more difficult to pick up by newcomers.
Screencasts on the other hand are very easy to follow and provide better motivation to commit and learn. Now, for perl I don’t know other video tutorial than http://www.scriptsocket.com/videos.php which indeed is very good and covers a lot of topics in short timed videos (By the way I’ve translated some of these videos to my native language.). The other resource is YAPC which is a very good resource too, but it is not intended to provide complete in depth tutorials and a lot of the lectures aren’t in English or suffer from bad sound quality. Unfortunately, the universities on youtube don’t offer complete courses for Perl unlike some other languages. Now, I think most of us know this free course
http://eclipsetutorial.sourceforge.net/totalbeginner.html :
Eclipse and Java for Total Beginners
Using the Eclipse Workbench
Eclipse and Java: Introducing Persistence
Eclipse and Java: Using the Debugger
In addition to the four courses the author tries to familiarize the viewers with test driven development. You can read the visitors comments to know how successful and useful these videos are.
Now imagine that we have Perl for total beginners, Using Padre, TDD in perl, Using web frameworks, GUI with wxPerl.. I think this will promote Perl and encourage everyone who is interested in programming to use perl.
With all perl experts we have I don’t think this is hard to achieve but I wonder why?
Regards

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: -:: The state of Perl ScreenCasts ::-
by moritz (Cardinal) on Sep 01, 2010 at 09:05 UTC
    I know of some scattered Perl Screen casts, like Tim Bunce on DBDI or Gabor Szabo on Perl 6 - just of no central place where they are collected.

    This is where you can help: Establish a wiki page (or something similar) where links to the screencasts are collected, sort by topic, maintain it, and tell people about it.

    Perl 6 - links to (nearly) everything that is Perl 6.
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Re: -:: The state of Perl ScreenCasts ::-
by Anonymous Monk on Aug 31, 2010 at 21:00 UTC
    We all know that screencasts and video tutorials are the easiest way for learning

    Watch where you point those assumptions. Not everybody is exactly like you, and there are quite a few different easiest ways, depending on the person (eg: watching, vs reading, vs doing)

[reply]
      You missed the point, it isn’t about what is the easiest way. It is about improving and enriching one existing way. Most of us can’t write a dedicated book and get it published but a lot of us can make screencasts , and help with what we have..
[reply]
        once you learn how to get around your computer (how to open close windows, start a shell, browser, editor ....) screencasts are just a waste of bandwidth; programming is not like CAD/3d-modeling
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Re: -:: The state of Perl ScreenCasts ::-
by MidLifeXis (Monsignor) on Aug 31, 2010 at 21:39 UTC

    You are being awfully caviler with other monk's time. It has to do with priorities, scratching itches, appropriately shaped tuits, and a myriad of other considerations. If this is an area where you feel you could contribute, learn about the topic, generate a screencast, and publish it.

    --MidLifeXis

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Re: -:: The state of Perl ScreenCasts ::-
by wwe (Friar) on Sep 01, 2010 at 09:51 UTC
    Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PerlTutorials#g/u. I didn't attended all this videos but it looks like a complete Perl course which has a pretty good quality and covers all important topics. Maybe you want promote this video collection and add some content there.
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Re: -:: The state of Perl ScreenCasts ::-
by aquarium (Curate) on Sep 01, 2010 at 00:34 UTC
    i think it's more about a certain mental shift than watching a screencast. a similar "mental shift" to getting comfortable with unix, regular expressions (not just perl), and such. that sort of unix'ish freedom is how i get things done. i don't think you get that with a screencast spoonfeeding what characters to type, and it would most likely miss the point. yes it takes time to stay interested and keep up with new (and old) technologies, by reading lots of internet and book resources. i like to learn about all different technologies, and sometimes it all comes together in a project. i try not to bias towards perl or javascript or anything else. once an idea of something comes to mind, i try to imagine how things work, regardless of implementation. then once the interactions/functions are clear, the parts come together using particular technologies for the client/server etc. anyway, getting to philosophical
    each of us take their own path. i personally don't think it's necessary to have a whole heap of screencasts for perl. Those interested/hooked will learn in any way they can. There's enough free help out there for perl, including this great resource, to help those that want it.
    the hardest line to type correctly is: stty erase ^H
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Re: -:: The state of Perl ScreenCasts ::-
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 01, 2010 at 00:54 UTC
    With all perl experts we have I don’t think this is hard to achieve but I wonder why?

    medium shift is hard

[reply]
      answering a post takes only a short while, to contribute to helping someone in perl. producing a good screencast is a whole new ballgame, and probably beyond the capability and time opportunity for most of us. hence, not many exist.
      there's a plethora of freely available screencasts on things like javascript and css...because these help to drive the screencast originators business, for sexy looking web2.0 stuff. even though css and javascript stuff has a lot to do with visual/web stuff, i'd say it's mostly about the marketing more than anything else. you'd be hard pressed to argue that seeing someone coding in perl or other less visually based programming paradigm to have relevance as a screencast format.
      most of us have not so sexy jobs that to only a certain extent may involve perl, working for companies. little incentive and time to produce perl screencasts i think.
      also, when you hand-hold too much, people naturally shy away or get bored with it..often failing to make the grade.
      hope this doesn't sound too negative but that's the way i see it about perl or cobol or sql or C or C++ screencasts. on the other hand i enjoy inkscape and similar screencasts quite good for learning techniques.
      the hardest line to type correctly is: stty erase ^H
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