How does one get to "know" Perl?

sigzero on 2007-05-08T23:37:14

I am just curious. I do not have formal education. I do like Perl though. Sometimes it is hard for me to wrap my head around how to do some things that "I" think should be easy. I recently changed projects to a Perl one where I will be maintaining some Perl and refactoring it. Is my path just reading reading reading and taking classes when time allows?

If you are not formally educated (meaning college) as a programmer what did you do?

Read, Practice and Help Others

Mr. Muskrat on 2007-05-09T00:09:43

I started by reading everything I could find on Perl. Then I started using Perl to add functionality to my web site. Later I started writing stand-alone apps so that I wouldn't have to buy some pricey piece of software. A short time after that I started using Perl at work to make my data entry job easier. (Stop laughing, the job market sucked.)

It was at that time that I found Perl Monks. I would read the posts every day and absorb as much as I could. I started posting replies when I knew the answer (or thought that I did).

I've had several jobs since then and each new job is a step up. I'm currently working as a (mostly) Perl developer with a snazzy title, "Senior Design Engineer".

I wish you all the best. May it be a fun and enlightening journey!

Re:Read, Practice and Help Others

sigzero on 2007-05-09T01:09:06

I wish you all the best. May it be a fun and enlightening journey!

I am hoping it will be and I hope to learn enough to give back to the community in some way.

c.l.p.*

gizmo_mathboy on 2007-05-09T03:51:19

While I am college educated I didn't get a degree in programming. I picked up Perl while a software tester. It was mostly for stuff not directly related to the job.

I got better by reading, hanging out on clpm and reading everything. This started way back in 1996.

I've rusted somewhat because my current job as a sysadmin hasn't pushed my Perl skills.

I'm aiming to get sharp again.

Books, Conferences and Obfuscations

domm on 2007-05-09T05:57:44

I spend some one or two years at the university, but I was studying sociology and not computer science. When I started with Perl ~10 years ago, I learned all I needed from books like "Learning Perl" and "Advanced Perl Programming (1st Ed.)". In retrospect, my code from this time was horrible.

Then I started to go to conferences (YAPC::Europe, German Perl Workshop, ..) where I learned a lot (not so much on Perl itself, but more on general development strategies, testing etc). It also helps to give talks, because preparing a talk gives you a good excuse to look very closely at a topic.

The third foundation of my Perl knowlede is (or rather was) doing and decoding Obfuscations. IMO Obfiscations teach a lot of interesting Perl, and doing things delibertaly wrong (from a design point of view) also teaches you how to do things right.

Currently, I keep up to date by reading use.perl (and occasionally PerlMonks) and by keeping a close eye on new CPAN uploads. And by reading books & going to conferences...

It was harder in 1988 :)

merlyn on 2007-05-09T11:37:59

I read the perl-1 manpage. That's how I got started.

Re:It was harder in 1988 :)

sigzero on 2007-05-09T11:53:18
I have started printing out the POD stuff (perlreftut, etc.) to read.

Re:It was harder in 1988 :)

jonasbn on 2007-05-21T19:25:21
I started out with Learning Perl, I have given away copies of this marvelous book. It has assignments, this is what can really get you going, problems that need solving, hands-on is the best way in my opinion.

I am self-taught, I have some academic experience, but I never finished anything, there was simply too much work :)

I have thought a lot about this

Limbic Region on 2007-05-09T12:24:27

so much so, that I have been toying with the idea of writing a book on the topic. In any case, here are a few links I have written that may be of some interest: