[LA.pm] Next step for a newbie

[Todd Cranston-Cuebas]

There are a lot of ways you can contribute. As noted previously, bug
tracking, etc. is always there. Documentation or being the moderator on a
mail list are other ways. Trust me, there are a few very notable people in
the perl world who got very far this way. First, documentation is very low
on the priority level for many engineers but in the process of getting it
done, you're making a major contribution and learning a ton. Second,
moderating a list means by definition you pretty much read _everything_ so
you're learning. How do you do it? You find a project that is doing
something you find very interesting. You contact the leaders of the project
by email, etc. You volunteer!

Todd 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: losangeles-pm-bounces+tcc=ticketmaster.com at pm.org 
> [mailto:losangeles-pm-bounces+tcc=ticketmaster.com at pm.org] On 
> Behalf Of Ron Smith
> Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 12:45 PM
> To: losangeles-pm at mail.pm.org
> Subject: Re: [LA.pm] Next step for a newbie
> 
> Jeremiah,
> 
> I've already done some of the things you mentioned. I have 
> the Llama book and have gone through the majority of the 
> chapters there. I also have the Camel book and the Cookbook 
> and found myself having to refer to all three from time to 
> time. As for the other books you mentioned, I will definitely 
> be looking into those.
> I've almost bought "Object Oriented Perl", by Conway, several 
> times. I think the reason I didn't buy it was because I 
> though it was over my head, at the time.
> I'll certainly give it a second.
> 
> Another interesting thing you mention was setting up a site 
> to demo my work. I've though about doing just that, lately. 
> One of the issues I have regarding that is I would need to 
> find an *inexpensive* host that supports mod_perl and the 
> .NET technologies as well.
> If you, or anyone else, can point me in the right direction 
> I'd appreciate it.
> 
> Todd,
> 
> Where would I go to begin getting info on how to get involved 
> with an open-source project? The thing I'm a little concerned 
> with is, are my skills up to a level where I can make a 
> meaningful contribution.
> 
> Also, I don't have any problem starting at *any* capacity. In 
> the past, on previous jobs, I've written short one-off 
> programs to do specific things like locating different 
> versions of the same file or tracking disk usage ...etc. 
> Besides, things like that are fun to do, to me.
> 
> Ranga,
> 
> Thanks for the tip. I do need to explore the different 
> modules available, so far I've just been sticking to the 
> modules that come packed with Perl. Or, maybe I just haven't 
> written anything that would require the addition of a module; 
> it's probably the later. :)
> 
> 
> Bjørn,
> 
> I took a look at "Effective Perl Programming" from the link 
> in your response and was impressed with the Table of Contents 
> and the Index of the book. On that alone, I'll probably buy 
> it. Thanks, for the pointer.
> 
> David,
> 
> What I've experienced, so far, is that I'm not particularly 
> able to remember everything I've picked up, in the way of 
> programming knowledge, so I remember where I *saw* the 
> solution to a problem. Or, I'll retain the concept to the 
> solution of a particular problem then look up the details. 
> Does anyone else have that experience?
> 
> Joshua,
> 
> There seems to be a meeting of the minds on attending the 
> YAPC conferences. It looks like it will be in Chicago this 
> year. So, I won't be able to make it this time around, but 
> I'll certainly keep them in mind.
> 
> I have to say a word of thanks, to everyone that responded to 
> my original post. I get such a kick out of using Perl that it 
> has motivated me to pursue a new career path, and that's saying a lot.
> 
> 
> Ron Smith
> geeksatlarge at yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
> Losangeles-pm mailing list
> Losangeles-pm at pm.org
> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/losangeles-pm
>