Nov. Meeting Debriefing

[Joshua Keroes]

Topics were brought up at the meeting:

1. A contest-to-have-a-contest
2. HTML::Parser
3. An intro to CFG and Parse::RecDescent
4. An intro to HTML::Widget::Meter (ne HTML::Scale)
5. Dec 5 social meeting


#------------------------------
# 1. Contests
#------------------------------

Speaker: Joshua Keroes in lieu of Paul Blair

pdx.pm is hosting not one but *two* contests to give you O'Reilly
books. There's a copy of both _Perl_for_Systems_Administration_
and the Camel, 3rd e.

Contest 1: "The contest-to-have-a-contest"
Deadline:  3 weeks from now, Dec. 5 (next meeting!)
The deal:  We're lazy. You should think up neat contests for us.
To enter:  Send your contest ideas to the list or masque at pound.perl.org
Prizes:    o/' Fame. You're gonna live forever! o/' oh, and a book, too.

Contest 2: "The contest of the contest-to-have-a-contest"
The deal:  First things first, get crackin' with contest 1!


#------------------------------
# 2. HTML::Parser
#------------------------------

Speaker: Daniel Chetlin

Daniel did a spiffy job talking about the issues surrounding HTML parsing.
HTML::Parser and HTML::TreeBuilder are [now] your friends.

There will be a link to the paper[1] from the pdx.pm website Real Soon Now. :-)

[1] http://chetlin.com/perl/html_parsing.html

#------------------------------
# 3. An intro to CFG and Parse::RecDescent
#------------------------------

Speaker: Daniel Chetlin

A context-free grammar is a set of recursive rewriting rules (or
productions) used to generate patterns of strings. Context-free
grammars are often used to define the syntax of programming
languages. [2]

Parse::RecDescent incrementally generates top-down recursive-descent
text parsers from simple yacc-like grammar specifications. [3]

Damian's own tutorial, reprinted from The Perl Journal, entitled "the
man(1) of descent" [4] is a terrific introduction to parsing. It
includes the Abbot & Costello parser that reproduces their "Who's On
First" routine.

[2] http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/nelson/courses/csc_173/grammars/
[3] from the Parse::RecDescent docs
[4] http://search.cpan.org/doc/DCONWAY/Parse-RecDescent-1.78/tutorial/tutorial.html

#------------------------------
# 4. An intro to HTML::Widget::Meter (né HTML::Scale)
#------------------------------

Speaker: Joshua Keroes

+ Prints HTML meter widgets.
+ Uses either 1-dot graphics or 2-d segmented graphics.
+ Also renders ascii-based meters in the ALT tag (e.g. [===>...])
+ Display meters in different colors depending on value.
+ Much faster than GD::Graph.
+ ...and more!

To beta-test a copy, email me.

#------------------------------
# 5. Dec 5 social meeting
#------------------------------

On Dec 5, the Portland Perl Mongers will have a social meeting.

On the agenda: the announcement of the contest-to-have-a-contest
winner.

Want Free Stuff and Fame? GET YOUR IDEAS IN!


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|   Joshua Keroes, Sr. Software Engineer,  Electric Lightwave, Inc   | 
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
  "To be creative, it's not necessary that you're seeing a new thing,
       but that you're looking at the same things in a new way."
       Dieter Gruen, ultrananocrystalline diamond film inventor
TIMTOWTDI