[pm-h] Livening up the Group

[G. Wade Johnson]

At different points in time, we have discussed ways to liven up the group a
bit.

We've suggested social gatherings (in place of or in addition to) our normal
meetings.

We've talked about changing the time and/or place we meet.

At the latest meeting, we even had suggestions of supplying food or beer to
convince people.<grin/>

Another idea that I've seen suggested elsewhere is a group project. The group
works on one or more projects that are of interest to the members. This helps
keep all of our skills sharp and helps newer Perl programmers learn the
language through practice.

One project that I've been hearing goo things about is the Phalanx Project.
(http://qa.perl.org/phalanx/) The idea of the project is to help improve the
testing of all of the modules on CPAN. The project is currently focusing on
the top 100 modules (based on rough usage statistics) at the moment.

In addition to the obvious benefits of practicing our Perl skills, this
project might have several other benefits to each of us.

  * give us all practice in Perl's Testing modules
  * more in-depth understanding of important Perl modules
  * giving something to the Perl community
  * possible credits for work on major modules

In addition, experience with the modules and process associated with CPAN
might make you think about publishing your own modules on CPAN.

Email the group if you have any opinion (good or bad) about any of these
ideas.

Later,
G. Wade
-- 
"And so it begins"                                -- Ambassador Kosh