[Pdx-pm] learning Perl 5.10^W8^W6^W5 on Linux^WMac^WWindows

[Eric Wilhelm]

# someone off-list wrote:
>Do you want to require Perl 5.010?

Yes.  Absolutely.  There are plenty of Perl 4 tutorials out there and 
piles of resources for 5.005_x VMS first-timers.  What we're badly 
lacking are resources for new users to learn how to use new Perl.  It 
might be fair to have a sidebar explaining oldities, but it's not my 
first priority.

I've thought about just using the 'use Modern::Perl' idiom.  It's 
unfortunate that this would require me to explain how to setup the CPAN 
*before* anything else (because that's unfortunately tedious.)  Some of 
the complexity has to stand behind the curtain during the sales pitch 
or people will just go "look how shiny and simple ___ is compared to 
this".  Anything with 3+ platforms and multiple versions is equally 
complicated, but I think part of Perl's problem is that everyone seems 
to want to explain the thick part first.

>" the '::' is translated to the directory seperator on your system,
>typically '/' or '\'."
>
> It's important enough to not be a parenthetical.

Hmm.  And now we have a windows sidebar too.  Makes me start thinking 
that maybe the whole thing should be built out of javascript like a 
choose-your-own-adventure story.

Thanks,
Eric
-- 
"It works better if you plug it in!"
--Sattinger's Law
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