From tom at eborcom.com Wed Jul 1 05:57:20 2009 From: tom at eborcom.com (Tom Hukins) Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 13:57:20 +0100 Subject: Meeting: Tue 30th June In-Reply-To: <27183a390906230739n363c0db1gbcf757e18013827b@mail.gmail.com> References: <27183a390906230739n363c0db1gbcf757e18013827b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20090701125720.GD46262@eborcom.com> On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 03:39:23PM +0100, Andy Selby wrote: > The monthly MKLUG/MiltonKeynes.pm meet-up is nearly upon us! ..and I enjoyed it - thanks to everyone who attended. I had a few interesting Perl-related conversations with people in addition to the usual general chat. I thought others might be interested in a brief summary, so I'm sharing: HTTP::Async is a very useful module if you want to retrieve lots of different Web pages simultaneously. You don't have to learn a whole new event framework, like POE, you just write normal Perl code. We like XML::Compile::SOAP much more than SOAP::Lite, although it's a bit awkward to figure out at times. CPAN has lots of useful modules: it's worth searching it thoroughly before writing new code that might reinvent them. Reading the code of good CPAN modules helps you to learn Perl. Although several of us get frustrated by MySQL, we agreed we would choose it over other relational databases if we were to start a business tomorrow. Well, some of us agreed this, such is the nature of agreement... In general, this list has been very quiet lately. Which is fine. But if you have something to share, please do. On an unrelated note, the Web site now contains the full list of talks for our July 14th meeting. I'll send a proper announcement soon. Tom From tom at eborcom.com Mon Jul 6 08:33:51 2009 From: tom at eborcom.com (Tom Hukins) Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 16:33:51 +0100 Subject: Technical Meeting: Tuesday 14th July, 2009 Message-ID: <20090706153351.GF97545@eborcom.com> Milton Keynes Perl Mongers will hold our third technical meeting of 2009 on Tuesday 14th July at the Open University's Systems Seminar Room. Arrive at 7pm so the first talk can start promptly at 7.15. This meeting is open to regular group members, newcomers and anyone else who would like to listen to the talks. We have a loose database theme this month, as well as the usual varied talks about Perl and software development. Please invite anyone who you think might have an interest. If you've never been before, come along. We have the following talks lined up: Colin Bradford will tell us about Data Warehousing with Perl: archiving and analysing large data sets from a popular online business. Oliver Gorwits will explain how to use local::lib to let users manage modules without needing root access to machines. Matt Trout will talk about the future of DBIx::Class, a database object relational mapper for Perl. We have a few five minute lightning talks too: Ian Cameron will tell us about his adventures with WWW::Mechanize. Tony Edwardson will tell us how to managed database queries with SQL::Library and Tom Hukins will share his thoughts on code, comments and commit messages. Finally, remember to arrive at the OU for 7pm on Tuesday 14th July. Here's how to find us: First, find the OU campus as described at http://www3.open.ac.uk/contact/locations.aspx Enter the campus (signposted Open University, not Open University East), via Brickhill Street (V10). Take the middle lane past Security (on the left), through the barriers, and then turn right on to Ring Road East. Ahead you will see the road narrows to single lane on your side of the road, where there are no entry signs. Just prior to this is the entrance to a car park on the left (marked Inner East Parking on the campus map). Take this left turn and head to the top left (North West on the campus map) of the car park. The meeting is in the south east section of the Venables Building, nearest the Inner East Parking on the campus map. Take the path (marked in orange on the campus map) west from the car park toward the centre of campus. Take a right under an archway in to the courtyard area bound by Venables South, East, and South East, keeping right (heading North East on the campus map), behind the building section marked South East. You will find a double door on your right, which is Entrance G at the South East section of Venables Building. We'll see you there, as these are usually access controlled doors, so you will probably need to be let in. If you haven't attended one of our meetings at the OU before, you might want to ask for someone's phone number in case you have trouble finding us. If you need a lift to the meeting, please ask our mailing list or IRC channel (see http://miltonkeynes.pm.org/ for details). See you on the 14th, Tom From andyfrommk at googlemail.com Sat Jul 11 05:29:04 2009 From: andyfrommk at googlemail.com (Andy Selby) Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:29:04 +0100 Subject: Cheap Perl books == false economy? Message-ID: <27183a390907110529g66ca4366u757b7b6a11d549e7@mail.gmail.com> I found "The Complete Reference Perl" on eBay for 99p http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270421684548&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en But its for Perl 5.6 is it worth it? would it teach me outdated practices? should I, instead, buy new at full price? Andy From stewart.ravenhall at gmail.com Sun Jul 12 02:28:39 2009 From: stewart.ravenhall at gmail.com (Stewart Ravenhall) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:28:39 +0100 Subject: Cheap Perl books == false economy? In-Reply-To: <27183a390907110529g66ca4366u757b7b6a11d549e7@mail.gmail.com> References: <27183a390907110529g66ca4366u757b7b6a11d549e7@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <200907121028.39532.stewart.ravenhall@gmail.com> On Saturday 11 July 2009 13:29:04 Andy Selby wrote: > But its for Perl 5.6 > would it teach me outdated practices? Mostly you'd be fine, but you'd miss out on the 5.10 regexp stuff. http://perl.abigail.be/Talks/Test::Regexp/HTML/ Other stuff too of course. ;-) Stew From oliver.gorwits at oucs.ox.ac.uk Sun Jul 12 12:05:19 2009 From: oliver.gorwits at oucs.ox.ac.uk (Oliver Gorwits) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:05:19 +0100 Subject: Technical Meeting: Tuesday 14th July, 2009 In-Reply-To: <20090706153351.GF97545@eborcom.com> References: <20090706153351.GF97545@eborcom.com> Message-ID: <4A5A33EF.80000@oucs.ox.ac.uk> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Tom Hukins wrote: > Milton Keynes Perl Mongers will hold our third technical meeting > of 2009 on Tuesday 14th July at the Open University's Systems > Seminar Room. Arrive at 7pm so the first talk can start promptly > at 7.15. As usual, will anyone be travelling via the central MK train station that I could hook up with to get to the OU? Mail me off-list if you prefer. cheers, - -- Oliver Gorwits, Network and Telecommunications Group, Oxford University Computing Services -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFKWjPv2NPq7pwWBt4RAgZGAKDG7vhIbgn6FqzF6EetUESO2rp9pACg8kVN yq5nNcIBILXvIcuqfxTimws= =GC3F -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From oliver.gorwits at oucs.ox.ac.uk Sun Jul 12 13:12:52 2009 From: oliver.gorwits at oucs.ox.ac.uk (Oliver Gorwits) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:12:52 +0100 Subject: Technical Meeting: Tuesday 14th July, 2009 In-Reply-To: <4A5A33EF.80000@oucs.ox.ac.uk> References: <20090706153351.GF97545@eborcom.com> <4A5A33EF.80000@oucs.ox.ac.uk> Message-ID: <4A5A43C4.3050909@oucs.ox.ac.uk> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Oliver Gorwits wrote: > As usual, will anyone be travelling via the central MK train > station that I could hook up with to get to the OU? Looks like I'm sorted now, ta. - -- Oliver Gorwits, Network and Telecommunications Group, Oxford University Computing Services -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFKWkPE2NPq7pwWBt4RAu7QAKCmJmQo6dQ2gVMa16rx11HTRSqJwQCgpY8F 0iI7oxEftSimA3y6k/XpGTk= =08bQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From tom at eborcom.com Sun Jul 12 14:05:22 2009 From: tom at eborcom.com (Tom Hukins) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:05:22 +0100 Subject: Cheap Perl books == false economy? In-Reply-To: <27183a390907110529g66ca4366u757b7b6a11d549e7@mail.gmail.com> References: <27183a390907110529g66ca4366u757b7b6a11d549e7@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20090712210521.GA90967@eborcom.com> On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 01:29:04PM +0100, Andy Selby wrote: > I found "The Complete Reference Perl" on eBay for 99p > But its for Perl 5.6 > is it worth it? > would it teach me outdated practices? > should I, instead, buy new at full price? Andy, nice question. These all look like nice, easy yes/no questions, but I think you've hit on some interesting aspects of Perl. Firstly, why do you think you want to buy the book? What do you expect to get from it? Different books suit different people at different stages of programming. Why not think up what an ideal Perl book for you would cover and tell us about it? I've not read the particular book you mention and I don't know exactly what you might want from it, although I've got a rough idea. I'm happy to talk about this on Tuesday if I'm not fast asleep.. One of my favourite books on Perl is "Effective Perl Programming". I read it when I was in my early twenties. So it predates Perl 5.6. I remember when this was all fields and I had my own teeth. But it's a really good book (in certain circumstances - the trick with books is to figure out what you want from them). I've seen Perl books published recently, littered with errors, that I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Ever. But they might tell you a thing or two about some of Perl's recent features. So what? Then again, older Perl books can't consider newer modules (as mentioned by oliver on IRC), so there's some merit in newer books. I guess I'd figure out what you want to learn, then ask which book might help achive that rather than buying stuff just because it happens to be cheap on ebay at the moment. Tom From andyfrommk at googlemail.com Sun Jul 12 15:12:56 2009 From: andyfrommk at googlemail.com (Andy Selby) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:12:56 +0100 Subject: Cheap Perl books == false economy? In-Reply-To: <20090712210521.GA90967@eborcom.com> References: <27183a390907110529g66ca4366u757b7b6a11d549e7@mail.gmail.com> <20090712210521.GA90967@eborcom.com> Message-ID: <27183a390907121512y74f6ffd8jdc8ee4efe4047e60@mail.gmail.com> > On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 01:29:04PM +0100, Andy Selby wrote: >> I found "The Complete Reference Perl" on eBay for 99p >> But its for Perl 5.6 >> is it worth it? >> would it teach me outdated practices? >> should I, instead, buy new at full price? > > Firstly, why do you think you want to buy the book? ?What do you > expect to get from it? Its a cheap impulse buy, although I have put a tenner on it. > Different books suit different people at different stages of > programming. ?Why not think up what an ideal Perl book for you would > cover and tell us about it? ?I've not read the particular book you > mention and I don't know exactly what you might want from it, although > I've got a rough idea. A guide to the module Dont::GetDistracted::WhenYouShouldBeLearningPerl. Or hang it over my head like the sword of Damocles to motivate myself to learn Perl /me goes to research sword of Damocles on wikipedia, ends up on article about the F22 Raptor half an hour later. > I'm happy to talk about this on Tuesday if I'm not fast asleep.. Sure thing, I promise to be more serious by then > I've seen Perl books published recently, littered with errors, that I > wouldn't recommend to anyone. ?Ever. ?But they might tell you a thing > or two about some of Perl's recent features. ?So what? Review them here http://birmingham.pm.org/revs/main The page needs a few recent reviews. > Then again, older Perl books can't consider newer modules (as > mentioned by oliver on IRC), so there's some merit in newer books. Modules on CPAN usually have example code, its easy to paste that code into your program and modify it to work, no book needed. > I guess I'd figure out what you want to learn, then ask which book > might help achive that rather than buying stuff just because it > happens to be cheap on ebay at the moment. /me whistles nonchalantly > Tom Andy From tom at eborcom.com Sun Jul 12 15:30:28 2009 From: tom at eborcom.com (Tom Hukins) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:30:28 +0100 Subject: Cheap Perl books == false economy? In-Reply-To: <27183a390907121512y74f6ffd8jdc8ee4efe4047e60@mail.gmail.com> References: <27183a390907110529g66ca4366u757b7b6a11d549e7@mail.gmail.com> <20090712210521.GA90967@eborcom.com> <27183a390907121512y74f6ffd8jdc8ee4efe4047e60@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20090712223028.GC90967@eborcom.com> On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 11:12:56PM +0100, Andy Selby wrote: > A guide to the module Dont::GetDistracted::WhenYouShouldBeLearningPerl. > Or hang it over my head like the sword of Damocles to motivate myself > to learn Perl Yeah, I want that one too. I love hearing people tell me about all the neat things they've used Moose and its friends for. But I seem to spend my weekends away from the computer.. > > I'm happy to talk about this on Tuesday if I'm not fast asleep.. > > Sure thing, I promise to be more serious by then Please don't be. ;) > Review them here http://birmingham.pm.org/revs/main > The page needs a few recent reviews. Nice prompting. I've reviewed some of the CPAN modules I like: http://cpanratings.perl.org/user/tomhukins But I haven't reviewed any books. There's also http://books.perl.org/ and a few helpful reviews on the london.pm.org site. Josette at O'Reilly tried to hassle me into getting us to review books at some point, so if there's a vague MK book-reviewing ambition we can get hold of review copies of their books. With the usual "Tom not doing it" caveat, naturally. ;) All of which somehow reminds me of a book review that made the front page of Slashdot, with the following omitted: Version control is like teenage sex, everybody is talking about it, most people ain't doing it and those that are doing it are doing it wrong. (with the names changed to protect Dean) At least, that's how I remember it.. Tom From andyfrommk at googlemail.com Tue Jul 21 09:23:22 2009 From: andyfrommk at googlemail.com (Andy Selby) Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:23:22 +0100 Subject: Meeting: Tuesday 28th July 2008 Message-ID: <27183a390907210923v437c4e5fg189910331e55b675@mail.gmail.com> The monthly MKLUG/MiltonKeynes.pm meet-up is nearly upon us! As ever, it will be held at the Wetherspoons pub, near the railway station (not the one in the snow dome), next door to Chiquitos: http://miltonkeynes.openguides.org/?J.D_Wetherspoon%2C_Central_Milton_Keynes Starting from 8pm, and going on till the last people stumble off home. Feel free to bring your laptop/Linux device along if you want a hand/to show off. Andy