LPM: Roll call ...

Rich Bowen rbowen at rcbowen.com
Mon Apr 19 12:12:45 CDT 1999


Rich Bowen wrote:
> 
> By way of Roll Call, please take a moment or two to answer the
> following, if you will. If, on the other hand, you are a lurker and
> determined to remain so, well, OK then, be that way.
> 
> I'd really like to know how people are using Perl in their work. I'd
> also really like to know the general attitude of management towards Perl
> - whether it is accepted as a 'real' programming language, whether
> people actually know that you are running business-critical processes on
> Perl, stuff like that.
> 
> I would like to know a more about how people first "discovered" perl,
> how they developed and enhanced their proficiency, etc.

OK, I'll go first.

Hi. My name is Rich, and I'm a Perl Hacker.

I'm using Perl mainly for CGI and NT system administration. 

CGI on BSD with Apache, Linux with Apache, NT with Apache, NT with IIS,
and NT with Netscape, and Win95 with Omni.

NT sysadmin stuff, like purging old files, system performance
monitoring, database admin stuff.

My former manager knew that I used something called Perl, but I don't
think that he really knew what it was, and I don't think that he knew
that 'Perl' and 'CGI' were not the same thing. He was a good manager,
but knew nothing about programming or about the Internet. My current
manager is a BSD nut from long back. He was using Perl back in version
1. In fact, when I was in grad school, and I put up my first web page at
http://somemachine/~rbowen, he was actually the sysadmin. He recognizes
the value of Perl, and actually had NT system adminstration utility
development in Perl listed on my official task list. It's kinda cool - I
develop apps on company time, and put them on CPAN. Since this is a
spftware development company, a lot of people are aware of Perl. Most of
them think that it is an inferior language to, say, C or Java. Some of
them really recognize the power that Perl has, and a few of them are
veritable Perl hackers that I have just not convinced to come to PM yet.

I discovered Perl in a rather scary manner, looking back. My first Perl
experiences were hacking on code by Matt Wright. In fact, for a long
time, I could actually say that Matt Wright taught me everything I knew.
**shudder**  Anyways, I have (I hope) advanced a little more since them.
I would say that the most beneficial things in increasing my Perl
proficiency were "Advanced Perl Programming", "Efficient Perl
Programming", The Perl Conference, and "Mastering Regular Expressions".

In addition to my real job, I also run a business on the side -
RCBowen.com - where I write custom Perl CGI applications for a variety
of customers. My biggest customer is General Motors Desert Proving
Ground, but I also have done work for Dell, Budweiser, Textron, and a
bunch of other companies that you have not heard of.

And, finally, I also teach Perl courses for the HTML Writers Guild
(http://www.hwg.org/). The next one starts on May 10th or 12th or
somewhere around there.

Rich
-- 
perl -e "eval  reverse '\'rekcaH lreP rehtonA tsuJ\' tnirp'"
http://www.rcbowen.com/



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