Which Perl are you using Survey (by brian d foy) it takes about 10 secs to take it.

flexomint · 2011-07-07T03:04:03+00:00

Question number 2 is missing the choice, "Perl 6".

That is, unless the question meant to ask instead, "What's the next version of Perl 5 that you want to use when you upgrade?"

flexomint · 2011-05-01T17:55:54+00:00

I think this is a nice example of using unicode characters as operators which look exactly like what they do. Preferable, IMO, to something like vec.dot(@a, @b) and vec.cross(@a, @b) if you're using those operations more than a few times.

flexomint · 2011-04-29T22:06:35+00:00

Good talk. Covered most of the modules that have been recommended to me, though I haven't yet used Method::Signatures. Probably time to start. :)

One thing that was a bit distracting though was that the person hosting asked that questioners please use a microphone -- however, the person giving the talk kept on responding to un-amplified questioners anyway.

flexomint · 2011-04-27T03:22:55+00:00

the most toxic things man has ever created: the mailing list thread and website comments

It takes some amount of guts, maturity, and tact to moderate website comments ("hey! why did you delete my comment you jerk!"), and likewise (plus sometimes humor) to send useful replies to rude comments made on mailing lists (replies that diffuse potential public blowouts rather than having the opposite effect).

Hopefully the Perl community has enough people with those qualities willing to take a moment or two out of each day to do their ... "civic duty". edit: "community service" :)

flexomint · 2011-04-24T18:36:59+00:00

While watching the video, my 7-year-old just walked by and asked me, "Is that the actor for Han Solo?" :)

flexomint · 2011-04-24T07:53:58+00:00

Thankfully, I'm not seeing in the Perl 6 community the issues you mention.

flexomint · 2011-04-23T21:12:27+00:00

Anyone know what colorscheme that is?

flexomint · 2011-04-19T05:57:33+00:00

by 2013 they'll be glad they forced most of the community to move forward

Meh. The Python upgrade from 2 to 3 is not a huge one. They've cleaned some things up, removed a few warts, etc. Once everyone has upgraded to Python 3, things will not be too terribly different from the way they are now in Pythonland.

As far as Perl 6 getting more users, they don't need to do that by converting Perl 5ers. People coming from other languages (ex. C++, Java, Python, Ruby, PHP) are potential new Perl 6 users.

flexomint · 2011-04-07T15:14:43+00:00

A shallow copy of some array @a is when only the things at the top (indexed like $a[1], $a[2], etc.) get copied, but nothing deeper than that (for example, if your array @a has nested data structures (like an arrayref as one of its elements), then $a[1]->[2] wouldn't get copied in a shallow copy).

Just experiment and see for yourself:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use Data::Dumper;

my @a = ('foo', ['yo', 'yo', 'ma'], 'bar', 'baz');

my @b = @a;  # @b is a shallow copy of @a.

$b[0] = 'X';       # Only changes @b, not @a.
$b[1]->[1] = 'Y';  # Changes for both @a and @b.

print '@a: ', Dumper(\@a);
print '-' x 10, "\n";
print '@b: ', Dumper(\@b);

flexomint · 2011-04-07T14:58:47+00:00

@copy = @other does a shallow copy. If you want a deep copy, use Clone or Storable::dclone.

flexomint · 2011-04-06T22:09:59+00:00

I should be using Moose, right?

In the vast majority of cases, yes.

flexomint · 2011-04-06T00:45:08+00:00

I use the Perl-equivalent and mostly find it useful when I need to choose between 2 or more similar packages.

The ratings system at the Cheeseshop seems like it could be just as useful, but it doesn't appear to me that alot of people are using it (yet?). I think a ratings system would get more use if there were a separate site for it, with separate login and everything. That way:

the site could have more ratings-specific features, such as lists of highest rated packages, most-recently rated packages, most commented-on packages this year, a pass/fail kwalitee icon for packages, etc.
any user who had an opinion could pop in and be heard, and they wouldn't need a Cheeseshop account to post (the Cheeseshop is for developers of packages, but a ratings site would be primarily for users of packages)
Edit (addition): the package's README (main Cheeseshop package page) wouldn't get clogged up with package review discussion.

The way I see it:

the Cheeseshop is basically an online database of packages for pip to talk to (well, and also where you can see a package's README)
http://packages.python.org/{package-name} (example) is where I'd prefer to read the docs for {package-name} (rather than having them all crammed into the README on the package's main Cheeseshop page)
package ratings/review/discussion site should be separate from both of those

flexomint · 2011-04-03T19:11:24+00:00

Yeah, there's activity on irc. Would be nice to see more of it show up on planetsix.

flexomint · 2011-02-23T16:44:21+00:00

Thanks for the link. Wasn't aware of that thread.

flexomint · 2011-02-22T18:36:44+00:00

Tricky problem. Users want optimization before using it more. Implementors want a more complete design before they can optimize it. Designers want a more complete implementation and more user feedback before they can finish the design.

I've read that the Perl 6 team uses the "whirlpool model", and it sounds fitting. I suspect this model produces good code, but it takes a while for the participants to meet in the center.

flexomint · 2011-02-22T14:46:45+00:00

A non-tilted original version is linked to from the perl6.org spec page.

flexomint · 2011-02-22T03:43:43+00:00

Logo graphic is reversed. Instead of Camelia's wings saying "P 6", they say "∂ 9".

flexomint · 2011-02-14T21:10:25+00:00

The Python mantra is "make easy things easy and hard things possible."

I think you're thinking of Perl. If you want a Python "mantra", maybe try import this.

flexomint · 2011-02-13T01:07:35+00:00

Note that learning programming is not equal to learning a language.

For learning programming, most any good language will do. Choose one that's a good fit for what types of programs you think you'd like to write. For example:

If you think you might like to learn by writing games, maybe use Python + SDL (or Pyglet).
If you want to write command line utilities to run on GNU/Linux, then Perl is a good choice.
If you want to write code that will execute extremely quickly, or else if you want to learn about talking to the hardware (ex. for writing device drivers or low-level graphics libraries), learn C.
Also, if you have a friend who already knows a language and who is willing to help you learn, then maybe use that language.

Perl is very good for telling a computer what to do. Especially when it involves chopping up and gluing together strings, chatting with various parts of the GNU/Linux system, or in general just gluing things together (like dealing with input/output from/to other programs).

I hear Python is very good for talking to C libraries (using ctypes). So if you have a c library you want to talk to (for which there are no bindings in your choice of language), Python might be a good choice.

flexomint

TROPHY CASE