[roch-pm] [Fwd: Perl.com Newsletter -- Parse::RecDescent Tutorial]

Brian Mathis bmathis at directedge.com
Wed Jun 13 20:30:53 CDT 2001


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Hello, world. This is Simon Cozens, www.perl.com managing editor,
bringing you the latest goings on from the world of Perl and our
own site.

*** Perl at large ***

Well, as I write this, YAPC (Yet Another Perl Conference) is under
24 hours away. If you're getting ready to head off, this article may
help. It contains directions from the airport to the McGill campus
where the conference is being held:

     http://use.perl.org/article.pl?sid=01/06/012955&mode=nocomment

The YAPC schedule is available, as is the schedule for Lightning
Talks:

     http://www.yapc.org/America/talks.shmtl
     http://perl.plover.com/lt/yapc2001.html

Away from the conferences, things have been happening with CPAN; the
scripts index is back

     http://www.cpan.org/scripts/

and there are a bunch of mailing lists to inform you when new things
get put onto the CPAN:

     http://theory5.uwinnipeg.ca/cgi-bin/cpan-update

On the development front, I've moved the Perl repository browser -- a
nifty little gadget that allows real-time access to Perl's version
control system -- to ActiveState with help from Gurusamy Sarathy. You
can now find it at:

     http://public.activestate.com/cgi-bin/perlbrowse

Another real-time access method will be provided by the changes
mailing list, which is being set up as I write. Send mail to

     perl5-changes-subscribe at perl.org

to receive change reports as they happen.


*** What's new on www.perl.com? ***

Leon Brocard brings us the perl5-porters summary for the final
time. Next week, I shall be returning to my summarizing duties:

     http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/06/p5pdigest/THISWEEK-20010611.html

Once again, Bryan Warnock brings us his summary of the Perl 6
mailing lists:

     http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/06/p6pdigest/THISWEEK-20010611.html

Parse::RecDescent is the topic of our feature article this week.
As you probably know, Yet Another Society, via donations from the
Perl community, has bought out Damian Conway's teaching commitments
for the year so that he can work on cool Perl gadgetry for us. One
of his most interesting pieces of gadgetry is Parse::RecDescent, a
recursive-descent parser generator.

This is a tremendous help to Perl programmers who need to deal with
any sort of structured data; from configuration files to mail headers
to ...  well, basically anything. It's even been used to parse other
programming languages for conversion to Perl, something that will be
quite a major topic of TPC.

However, it's not all that easy to get into unless you see some good
examples and a good tutorial. But don't worry, Jeff Goff has
it covered. He explains what Parse::RecDescent does, how to build up
grammars, and how to use Parse::RecDescent in your programs.

This is another of those articles I'm really glad to be able to
present, because it's something that's been really needed;
Parse::RecDescent is an extremely useful module, and more people
need to know about it.

	http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/06/13/recdecent.html

You'll remember that two weeks ago, Casey West gave us his views
on how the Perl community does and should tolerate novice users of
the language.  This week, we also bring you a response to that
article by Robert Kiesling. He argues that if there is a problem,
it's more due to the nature of Perl than the nature of its
programmers.

	http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/06/12/anti_begin.html

Enjoy!

SC


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Parse::RecDescent Tutorial
http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/06/13/recdecent.html?wwwrrr_20010613.txt
Parse::RecDescent is a recursive-descent parser generator
designed to help to Perl programmers who need to deal with any
sort of structured data, from configuration files to mail
headers to almost anything. It's even been used to parse other
programming languages for conversion to Perl. Jeff Goff explains
what Parse::RecDescent does, how to build up grammars, and how
to use Parse::RecDescent in your programs.


The Beginner's Attitude of Perl: What Attitude?
http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/06/12/anti_begin.html?wwwrrr_20010613.txt
Robert Kiesling says that the Perl Community's attitude toward
new users is common fare for Internet development and compared
to other lists, Perl is downright civil.


Using CGI::Application
http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/06/05/cgi.html?wwwrrr_20010613.txt
The Common Gateway Interface may well be the backbone of many web
applications, but sometimes it can feel dry and monotonous to
work with. If you're fed up with "my $query = CGI->new()",
Jesse Erlbaum presents a kinder, gentler alternative.


Turning the Tides on Perl's Attitude Toward Beginners
http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/05/29/tides.html?wwwrrr_20010613.txt
Casey West is taking a stand against elitism in the Perl
community and seems to be making progress. He has launched
several new services for the Perl beginner that are being
enthusiastically received.


Taking Lessons From Traffic Lights
http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/05/22/trafficlights.html?wwwrrr_20010613.txt
Michael Schwern examines traffic lights and shows what lessons
applied to the development of Perl 6.


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-- 
Brian Mathis
Direct Edge
http://www.directedge.com

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