in reply to Re: Re: Teaching Perl Idioms
in thread Teaching Perl Idioms

Now that's a thought! Why not, as bonus problems, introduce a few of the easier golfs? Do something like "Try and solve this under 100 characters. The best I've seen is 53" and have them go at it. Then, explain a few solutions, including the best one. I know that I learned a ton of idioms, especially list-processing, through golfing.

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Re: Re3: Teaching Perl Idioms
by Masem (Monsignor) on Sep 26, 2001 at 21:56 UTC
    Now I wouldn't go as far as suggesting to teach perl via golf. A good perl golf usually is an end result of knowing where whitespace isn't needed and taking advantage of perl's special variables outside of $_ and @_.

    Mind you, showing a de-obfu golf program (with white space expands and variables named right) and the associated C/C++/Java solution may be useful. Or better yet, show the true power of list processing by comparing the Schwatzian TRansformation vs the equivalent in C. In perl, it's 3 simple lines vs much more than in most other languages.

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