Re: Seeing Perl in a new light

[gwadej]

Congratulations on the next step in your understanding of programming.

Possibly the biggest problem you will have at this point is in the sheer number of approaches you now have available. As ELISHEVA points out, you would be wise to change a small portion of your site using your intended method at first.

Based on past experience, I can say that whatever you come up with first won't be right. This is not meant to discourage you, but to make you think. When you get your first version built, you will have a better understanding of what you can do (and will have learned more). You may then want to change your approach.

Also as ELISHEVA advised, version control becomes very handy at this point. It helps you save the various attempts you've made and allows you to make wild changes freely, knowing that you can always go back to something from before.

One thing to consider on the file naming approach is an old maxim of programming:

All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection.

Imagine that you had a file that listed the filenames and appropriate titles. Now, if your titling function used a the title fro the file if it exists, or a constructed title like you describe, you can add files easily and fixup names as needed. This may be a bit more complicated than you had considered, but having a real programming language opens up new ways of thinking about your problems.

Congratulations again and welcome to the journey.

[Lady_Aleena]

gwadej...thank you for your support. Now, I have to find the ways and means to get to my goal. I wish that this lent itself to baby steps, but it really doesn't. This is to be the shell script for all of the pages of my site. I am not sure if it is possible to do it just for one small section. I have asked ELISHEVA to clarify what version control entails, though you are always welcome to chime in to that too. As for file names, well, I am a Wikipedian, so I will come up with something. :)

[gwadej]

One way to do the baby steps thing is to set up a single directory where you will try this approach. Think of it as a test site or sub-site. Then, go wild in that directory.

One of the realities of programming is that you will have bugs. Fixing these are much easier if you are not stressed about getting your whole site back on line.

As you get an idea fleshed out and (relatively) stable, you can apply that idea (and possibly code) to your main site.

I know it seems like unnecessary, extra work, but we are suggesting this based on years (in my case around 20) of development in multiple languages on and off the web. The first time you really mess up, you'll thank us. (And if you don't really mess up, you're not trying hard enough.<grin/>)

Stay curious and have fun.

[tilly]

That maxim is from David Wheeler. However Kevlin Henney's corollary has much truth as well: "...except for the problem of too many layers of indirection."