Re: Ask Perlmonks: What should be included in an "Advanced Perl Independent Study"?

[turnstep]

What have you found to be the best way of learning things that you haven't been required to get the job done???

I point people towards obfuscated perl programs (good ones) as a great way of learning new features and thinking about things in a new way. Good obfuscation will bend and twist all the usual rules, forcing you to really learn the limits, normal uses, abnormal uses, and sheer abuse of common and not-so-common features of the language.

[Adam]

Hehe, I was just thinking, and take this as you will, but it would be mighty amusing if you include a small obfuscation as the footer^* on each page of your paper that you will submit at the end of the term. I assume that you will write some kind of paper, be it a description of what you did or some an actual research paper, and this might make it a little more fun, and provide examples of the nuances of Perl.

^*Specifically, a different obfuscation on each page. I would not suggest coming up with all of them yourself either. Some - yes! - but not all. There are plenty of good one or two line obfuscations here that use various cool tricks, and you could use those. (with permission, of course!)