SPUG: Tonight's Meeting, Intro to Perl

[Tim Maher]

SPUGsters,

Hope to see a lot of you tonight, along with your 
friends who need an easy intro to Perl.

Don't forget to sign up on the Kwiki page if you're
planning to eat at Cedars.
==============================================================
| Tim Maher, Ph.D.                    tim(AT)teachmeperl.com | 
| SPUG Founder & Leader              spug(AT)teachmeperl.com |
| Seattle Perl Users Group        http://www.seattleperl.com |
| SPUG Wiki Site               http://spugwiki.perlocity.org |
| Perl Certification Site      http://perlcert.perlocity.org |
==============================================================

  ---------------------------------------------------------
      January/February Seattle Perl Users Group Meeting
  ---------------------------------------------------------
       Title: "Introduction to Perl", Parts I and II
     Speaker: Tim Maher, Consultix (tim<at>teachmeperl.com)
      Part I: Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2004 7-9pm
  ---------------------------------------------------------

Who's right about Perl?

<Mr. Camel>
    "Perl is an immensely powerful language, suitable for a
    wide range of applications, that allows unparalleled freedom
    of expression and diversity in coding solutions."
</Mr. Camel>

<Mr. Python>
    "Perl is a write-only, line-noise language that encourages
    programmers to cultivate incompatible idiosyncratic dialects
    of cryptic symbols, making it difficult for one programmer
    to understand or maintain programs written by another."
</Mr. Python>

Who's right? Both!  Perl is indeed a powerful and important
language with lots of features and coding options, and it can
be difficult to learn and hard to read.  /But it doesn't have
to be!/  To make Perl *more accessible* and /more acceptable/
to IT departments, Tim Maher has developed a tiny subset of
the language called "Minimal Perl" that is easily learned yet
sufficient for writing many useful kinds of highly readable
programs.

For the January 20th SPUG meeting, Tim will provide an "Intro
to Perl" for those who've been craving one, that's based on
the Minimal Perl dialect.

Because this is a beginner's oriented talk, we're especially
interested in attracting first-time visitors to SPUG who
wouldn't be able to handle the pace of our regular meetings.
So please help spread the word to potentially interested
parties by forwarding this email to friends and colleagues,
and cross-posting it on other mailing lists.

Tim will continue his Intro to Perl at the Feb 17th meeting,
and if possible, interested parties should try to attend
both sessions.

-Tim

      January/February Seattle Perl Users Group Meeting
  ---------------------------------------------------------
       Title: "Introduction to Perl", Parts I and II
     Speaker: Tim Maher, Consultix (tim<at>teachmeperl.com)

      Part I: Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2004 7-9pm
     Part II: Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004 7-9pm
    Location: SAFECO bldg, Brooklyn St. and NE 45th St.
              Seattle WA USA

        Cost: Free and open to the general public.
   More Info: http://seattleperl.org/
  ---------------------------------------------------------

In these talks, veteran UNIX/Linux/Perl trainer Tim Maher will
provide an introduction to the Perl language.  The emphasis
will be on basic features of Perl, especially ones that are
easy to learn for those familiar with the UNIX *grep* command
and its relatives, and with fundamental shell programming
principles (use of variables, arguments, redirection, etc.).
Attendees will learn the *easy way* to write Perl programs
that can do "file conversion", "data validation", "report
generation", and "number crunching", among other things.

Tim's talk will feature excerpts from his upcoming book for
Manning Press called "Minimal Perl for Shell Users and
Programmers", his commercial Perl training courses, and his past
presentations at the LinuxFest Northwest conference, YAPC
conferences in the US and Europe, and The Perl Conference.

Pre- and Post- Meeting Activities
---------------------------------
The pre-meeting dinner will be at the Cedars restaurant, at 50th
St. and Brooklyn, in the University District, near the Safeco
building where the meeting will take place. The phone number is
527-5247. If you are planning to be there, please enter your
name on the Kwiki RSVP page (see spugwiki.perlocity.org) by
2pm on the meeting day. (NOTE: Arrival by 5:45pm is recommended
for those ordering food).

*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*
| Tim Maher, CEO     (206) 781-UNIX      (866) DOC-PERL     (866) DOC-UNIX |
| tim(AT)Consultix-Inc.Com  http://TeachMePerl.Com  http://TeachMeUnix.Com |
*+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-*
|  Watch for my Manning book: "Minimal Perl for Shell Users & Programmers" |
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