Re: Have you netted a Perl Monk or Perl Pretender in 5 minutes or less?

[saberworks]

I think the best measures of a good perl programmer are:

1. usage of CPAN modules when available
2. demonstrated knowledge of perl references
3. demonstrated knowledge of (at least basic) regular expressions
4. use strict; dammit

Ask for code samples they've written in the last 6 months.
Ask them to code something on a whiteboard.

More important is their basic application design knowledge. How to put together a program. How to modularize it. How to make the components reusable (do they even THINK about this?). How to break up a large spec into discrete parts which can be tackled somewhat atomically.

During interviews, I've been subjected to completely silly "program this crap with no external resources" and "what do the $' and $" and $/ and $\ vars in perl mean?" tests as well as others which concentrate more on my background and general domain knowledge. I think the former had it less right simply because nobody in their right mind codes without internet access or at least some freaking documentation at hand.

One who abstracts the database connection code into a module and never has to think about it again is more qualified than someone who memorizes the order of arguments to the DBI->connect() method.

[rinceWind]

My subconscious is playing tricks. I read item 4 as:

use strict; gromit

I imagine that Wallace is a Perl hacker par excellence, and codes drivers for all his gadgets in perl. I bet he uses strict, and taint mode after his episode with the wrong trousers (having your webserver rooted and vandalised is very much a comparable experience).

[gloryhack]

Yes, indeed. 'use strict' dammit dammit dammit!

Admittedly, some perfectly valid code will not sneak past the strict pragma, but there should be a valid, easily explained reason for using 'no strict <something>' in a local scope.

It's my considered but possibly flawed opinion that professional discipline requires the use of the strict pragma. If you cannot easily justify why it is not being used, you're probably just too darn lazy to do a good job. So sez me.

Your other points are equally valid IMHO, but the strict pragma I think deserves more attention. But then, I've been publicly flogged for my insistence upon its use, not just here but on other well-regarded Perl related sites, so I'm a mite sensitive to it. USE STRICT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!