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Getting to know people who love Perl.

by drift211 (Novice)
on May 13, 2011 at 22:35 UTC ( [id://904746]=perlquestion: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

drift211 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello Perl People,

I am Perl enthusiast and I was wondering, what is the best way to become more involved in the Perl community? I am still at a beginner level and have finished the book "Beginning Perl." I hope to connect with others so I can raise my ability with Perl to the next level.

Thank you, David

Comment:16May11

I just wanted to say thank you, to those that have taken the time to comment and point me in the right direction.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Getting to know people who love Perl.
by toolic (Bishop) on May 13, 2011 at 22:59 UTC
Re: Getting to know people who love Perl.
by LanX (Saint) on May 13, 2011 at 22:42 UTC
      check for a perlmongers group next to you

      And if there isn't one, start one.

      Once you've found a group, offer to do a talk or two. There are lots of good reasons to do a talk even though you still consider yourself beginner level ...

      • preparing to speak about a topic will help you gain a deeper understanding of the topic ("learn through teaching")
      • people will ask questions that allow you to expand your knowledge even further
      • there is always demand for beginner-level talks at PM groups (there's always someone who knows less than you)
      • improving your speaking skills is an excellent goal in itself
        Thank you for the recommendation. I live in Los Angeles and I believe there are few groups here. I do really love Perl and the Philosophy of "there is more than one way to do it" .Although I don't plan on becoming a professional programmer or a Guru. Its more of a hobby/useful skill Internet for me. Are these groups for people like me as well? Thanks
Re: Getting to know people who love Perl.
by wind (Priest) on May 13, 2011 at 22:42 UTC

    Becoming a member of the forums is the first step to building your skills and getting to know other perl coders. Read the questions and answers regularly, and even chime in when you know how to help another beginner.

    To build some local contacts, see if there is a Perl Mongers group near you to join.

Re: Getting to know people who love Perl.
by biohisham (Priest) on May 14, 2011 at 17:08 UTC
    Congrats David, this book is an interesting read, don't stop there, keep wading along, check the Tutorials and Reviews and read the documentations every time you learn something new...

    My piece of advice is to maintain a thick skin, many out there who failed to love Perl ended up poking things in it, be it their complaints about the syntax, the approach, the readability...etc, but they don't seem to appreciate that Perl is a language for those who are linguistically capable and that it has so many virtues, we boast of our cohesiveness and heterogeneousness, we all come from different walks of life where we apply Perl and this in itself is a great source of development for a programmer for they can see how this language can be stretched to solve problems in many areas (finance, biology, mathematics, networking, system administration...etc)...


    Excellence is an Endeavor of Persistence. A Year-Old Monk :D .
Re: Getting to know people who love Perl.
by stvn (Monsignor) on May 16, 2011 at 00:51 UTC
    I am still at a beginner level and have finished the book "Beginning Perl."

    I recommend you read Modern Perl next, hang around here answering/asking questions and if you have the stomach for it come over to irc.perl.org and join a few channels.

    Additionally, if you can get yourself to Asheville, NC at the end of June, you might want to attend YAPC::NA, it is a really great way to meet people and learn Perl. And it is pretty cheap too (as far as conferences go that is).

    -stvn
Re: Getting to know people who love Perl.
by CountZero (Bishop) on May 14, 2011 at 17:02 UTC
    Date a girl who loves pea?rls?

    Update: changed the "regex" after drift211 showed me the error of my ways

    CountZero

    A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James

      I am still trying to figure this out.I think its a regular expression that looks for perl or parls. Or it could be something else less appropriate. Anyway this over my head at the moment.

      Cool stuff

Re: Getting to know people who love Perl.
by bibliophile (Prior) on May 16, 2011 at 20:22 UTC
    I would absolutely second the notion of hanging out here with the other Perl Monks.

    Even if, like me, you don't answer many questions, just following along with the answers that wiser monks provide gives insight into the Perl way of thinking.

    I've lost track of the number of times I've seen the answers to questions I didn't know I had! :-)

Re: Getting to know people who love Perl.
by Anonymous Monk on May 14, 2011 at 18:00 UTC

    You might consider handing out $100 bills around perlmonks. :)

    I'd say your next step is to read "Intermediate Perl", then "Perl Best Practices".

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