[oak perl] Lexical vs. Package variables

[David Fetter]

On Thu, Feb 10, 2005 at 08:02:48PM -0800, Jon Seidel, CMC wrote:
> Sandy...
> 
> A book that I found very useful when learning about OOP is
> "Object-Oriented Programming" by Damian Conway. The introductory
> chapters are very good, IMO, and then he goes into some very
> specific, detailed implementations of OO, starting small and then
> moving up.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1884777791/104-6663660-8107124
> 
> However, he uses some very complicated (to me, anyway) constructs in
> the later chapters that I really had to pore over... his
> indirection, for one thing.

To me, a lot of what's in the later chapters (and some of the earlier
ones) bespeaks a fundamental misunderstanding of relational database
management systems.  They are *not* dumb data stores, and if you treat
them as though they are, you get yourself in boiling hot water.

> Also, he uses at least one experimental feature that is no longer in
> the language (a Perl 5 thing about "hashed arrays"... I can't recall
> the precise name), so that's an issue.

"Pseudo-hashes," if I recall correctly.

> But I think it's an excellent text that can get you as deep as you
> want.  It just may have more than you want at this point.

I'd say get a good look at the parts where he doesn't touch things in
persistent stores, 'cause brilliant as Damian is--he's been excluded
from some Perl programming contests because he was sweeping them every
time--he doesn't appear to get how they work.

Cheers,
D
-- 
David Fetter david at fetter.org http://fetter.org/
phone: +1 510 893 6100   mobile: +1 415 235 3778

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