Perl Presentation

[Ali Shirvani]

Hi all,
I'm a student of computer engineering, and I want to have a talk on
Perl for *Programming Languages Course*. Is there any resource that
specified the concepts of programming language theory that Perl based
on them?

Thanks,

 

[Tad J McClellan]

I'm a student of computer engineering, and I want to have a talk on
Perl for *Programming Languages Course*. Is there any resource that
specified the concepts of programming language theory that Perl based
on them?

What is unique about Perl are its concepts of *natural* language theory:

http://www.wall.org/~larry/natural.html

 

[cartercc]

Hi all,
I'm a student of computer engineering, and I want to have a talk on
Perl for *Programming Languages Course*. Is there any resource that
specified the concepts of programming language theory that Perl based
on them?

Thanks,

Shirvani --

There is an absolute wealth on Perl online. I don't really think that
your objective is achievable, but don't take this in a negative sense.
I am a database manager for a large public university, and I use Perl
on a daily basis to produce reports that can't be touched by any
database. I also have an advanced degree in SW and will finish my PhD
in SW next year (I hope) and can tell you from experience that Perl
and academics do not mix.

If you have a paper or presentation for a course, that's probably
about a ten page paper or a 15 minute presentation, which is very
limited to discuss any topic, much less a topic as big as Perl. I
would NOT focus on the technical or the computer science aspects of
Perl. Instead, I would focus on the practical aspects. After all, PERL
stands for PRACTICAL Extraction and Reporting Language.

Look at CPAN. Pick half a dozen different topics. You might consider
database, XML, networking, interface with Microsoft applications, CGI,
bioinformatics, text processing, etc. Talk about how Perl lends itself
to very different types of problems, and talk about the vast number of
modules that have been developed to solve these problems with Perl.
Use the source code for one to illustrate what you mean.

For filler, you can talk briefly about the history of Perl, or you can
talk about the variety of open employment positions that mention Perl
(search dice.com).

CC

 

[RedGrittyBrick]

Hi all,
I'm a student of computer engineering, and I want to have a talk on
Perl for *Programming Languages Course*. Is there any resource that
specified the concepts of programming language theory that Perl based
on them?

I'd read the presentations that Larry Wall gave on the "State of the
Onion". See "Culture" in http://www.wall.org/~larry/perl.html

Actually this is good advice regardless of the question. It is always
pleasant to be entertained whilst being educated.

 

[Charlton Wilbur]

cc> I also have an advanced degree in SW and will finish my PhD in
cc> SW next year (I hope) and can tell you from experience that Perl
cc> and academics do not mix.

I expect the numerous academics who actually use Perl (Damian Conway,
for one) and the people who use Perl to get work done (such as the
people in linguistics and bioinformatics) would disagree with you.

Charlton

 

[cartercc]

I expect the numerous academics who actually use Perl (Damian Conway,
for one) and the people who use Perl to get work done (such as the
people in linguistics and bioinformatics) would disagree with you.

They undoubtedly would. The ones that focus on research tend to look
down on Perl as a 'practical' language and as such not suited serious
research. It's pretty much expected that code for graduate level
projects will be written in C, and for defense related spending (and
we have a good amount of defense dollars here) Ada.

I remember an algorithms class where I turned in an assignment in
Perl, and was told that I wouldn't get credit for it unless I wrote it
in another language, even though it worked perfectly and the CPU time
was within the range of solutions written in those other languages.

I'm not being ugly or critical or judgmental. I'm just describing my
experience.

CC

 

[brian d foy]

cc> I also have an advanced degree in SW and will finish my PhD in
cc> SW next year (I hope) and can tell you from experience that Perl
cc> and academics do not mix.

I expect the numerous academics who actually use Perl (Damian Conway,
for one)

Damian's Dead Languages talk tells you why he wasn't fit for academia
and mostly isn't in that world anymore. Be careful what you want to
make other people say

 

[Charlton Wilbur]

cc> I also have an advanced degree in SW and will finish my PhD in
cc> SW next year (I hope) and can tell you from experience that Perl
cc> and academics do not mix.

bdf> Damian's Dead Languages talk tells you why he wasn't fit for
bdf> academia and mostly isn't in that world anymore. Be careful
bdf> what you want to make other people say

I can't find that talk online, but in the interview he gave at
http://fyi.oreilly.com/2008/08/the-mind-of-damian-conway-scie.html
he offers the explanation that he has too many research interests to
focus on one, which makes university research difficult.

Do not confuse "is a college professor" with "is an academic."

Charlton

 

[David Combs]

database. I also have an advanced degree in SW and will finish my PhD
in SW next year (I hope) and can tell you from experience that Perl

Wow, am I getting old! -- so much new terminology in technical fields.

Please, what does "SW" stand for?


Thanks,

David

 

[cartercc]

Please, what does "SW" stand for?

Sorry, my bad. I meant SwE, Software Engineering. Though, as my 'real'
engineering friends tell me, software cannot be engineered because it
doesn't involve physical constraints and physical laws, and that I'll
never be a 'real' engineer.

Oh, well.

CC