LPM: Roll call

[Mik Firestone]

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.

As a certified Perl Bigot ( no really, I have the certificate ), I use perl
every where.  As a sysadmin, I mostly use perl to rip text files but ( in true
UN*X tradition ), it is all just a text file in the end.  I have written
client/server apps, I have interfaced with Oracle databases, I have written
large automation programs, I have made my life as a sysadmin easier... oh, and
I am currently rewriting majordomo/cool.

My boss knows and actively encourages my perl use - I was hired primarily due
to a few mutual friends describing me ( somewhat incorrectly ) as a local perl
diety.  Managers further up the line seem more concerned with results and not
too worried about how I got there.  

My first introduction to perl was v5.001m.  I was a sysadmin for a bank and
wanted to run SATAN on my network, which required the aformentioned version of
perl.  It took some doing - the bank had very strict policies about
downloading and using "freeware".  I ignored them, located the necessary
CDROM distributions ( "back in the days" of 9600 Kbaud modems, downloading the
perl source code just wasn't an option ) and installed.  At which point, SATAN
broke and I started to fix it.  Sigh.

I have advanced my skills most by actively trying to advance my skills.  The
nature of perl will allow a person to write perl that looks and reads an awful
lot like C.  Everytime I found myself using C methodology, I read the Camel
and the man pages to find the true Perl way.  I also used "Mastering Regular
Expressions" to further my understanding of regex in general, but perl's
engine in particular.  I still feel perl's true power is to be found in the
regex engine.  I have also found the "Perl Cookbook" to be invaluable, but I
use it mostly when I am being lazy and don't want to think of the problem too
hard :)  Add to that a deeper understanding of perl's namespace than I ever
actually wanted ( ack ) and I seem to have become something of a magician.
Wizardry, though, still evades me.  Sigh.

Mik

PS - What's the address for (un)subscribing?  I need to subscribe my work
     address.
-- 
Mik Firestone fireston at lexmark.com
If ever I become an Evil Overlord:
I will not order my trusted lieutenant to kill the infant who is destined to
overthrow me-I'll do it myself.