SPUG: Tim Maher speaking to GSLUG, 10/8

[Tim Maher]

Fellow SPUGsters,

Just a quick note to inform you that I'll be giving a 2-hour talk on
my "Minimal Perl" approach to learning Perl this Saturday, at 10am,
at North Seattle Community College, through GSLUG.  There's no charge,
and all are welcome.

I've attached a preliminary announcement below, but watch
http://wiki.gslug.org/index.php/MinimalPerlTalk for additional
details (including directions to the meeting room), when GSLUG
officials make them available.

By the way, I'm also offering a 4.5-day Perl/CGI class in Kirkland
in mid-November, which is described at http://TeachMePerl.com/sched.html.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Speaker:
        Tim Maher, CEO, Consultix 
Talk:
        "Minimal Perl for UNIX and Linux People"

ABSTRACT:

Perl is one of the most expressive, powerful, versatile, OS-
portable, and /fun/ languages for general purpose programming,
and certainly one of the best choices for applications involving
text, HTML, or XML processing, and CGI or Database programming.
HOWEVER, the language as it is generally taught is overly complex
and confusing, being replete with many redundant and esoteric
features that can confuse and discourage programmers. This talk
teaches UNIX/Linux people to program in a strategically crafted
/subset/ of Perl, developed through 6 years of work with corporate
engineers. It pares down the language to an easily learned and
sensible set of core features, which are easily assimilated because
they capitalize on the learner's existing knowledge of key
UNIX/Linux concepts and commands that are shared by Perl.


ABOUT THE TALK:

Many people using UNIX or Linux would benefit greatly from
learning the wonderful but misunderstood language called Perl,
but they've heard that it's "weird", or perhaps "write-only",
which gives them pause. Add to this the daunting proposition of
grappling with the important but voluminous and wacky "Camel"
book (1,092 pages), and many decide to stick with the languages
they already know, leaving Perl to others.

But really, UNIX people don't have to learn much Perl to begin
to reap its rewards. That's because Perl encompasses the
functionality of certain core UNIX commands, including grep,
sed, and awk, and can be easily approached as as an
enhancement on those.

This talk, adapted from the upcoming book of the same name,
illustrates the core features of Perl through one-liners and
scripts that are of general interest and applicability to UNIX
and Linux people. Along the way, it leaves out all the overly
redundant, loony, bizarre, or esoteric features of Perl, 
demonstrating that without them, the language becomes more
accessible without losing its power or versatility.

RELATED RESOURCES:

See http://MinimalPerl.com for information about Tim's upcoming book,
brochure downloads, and to place advance orders.

See http://TeachMePerl.com/publications/slides.html for the slides
of related presentations, covering

 * the migration of refugees from the lands of UNIX and C to Perlistan
 (http://TeachMePerl.com/publications/dialect_lt.pdf),

 * 5 Perl one-liners every UNIX/Linux user should know
 (http://TeachMePerl.com/publications/5perlcmds.pdf),

 * a recent conference presentation on Minimal Perl
 (http://TeachMePerl.com/publications/mp4ulp_p1_small.pdf), and

 * a talk on Tim's latest Perl module, Shell::POSIX::Select,
 which implements for Perl the only UNIX loop that Perl lacked,
 the "select" loop of the POSIX shells.
 (http://TeachMePerl.com/publications/YAPC.03/Shell::POSIX::Select/select_mono.pdf),

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Since 1982, Dr. Tim Maher of Seattle-based Consultix has taught
many thousands of software professionals to program in Unix-related
languages. He's a former employee of AT&T, U.C. Berkeley, and the
University of Utah, the developer of the first Perl beautifier,
the founder of the Seattle Perl Users Group (SPUG), a winner of
the Perl community's White Camel award, a frequent speaker at
Perl conferences, and the author of Manning Publication's
upcoming "Minimal Perl for UNIX and Linux People".

-Tim 
*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*
| Tim Maher, PhD     (206) 781-UNIX      (866) DOC-PERL     (866) DOC-UNIX |
| tim(AT)Consultix-Inc.Com  http://TeachMePerl.Com  http://TeachMeUnix.Com |
| CLASSES: Perl and CGI Programming, 11/14-18    UNIX Fundamentals: 12/6-9 |
*-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=*
|    Watch for my Fall, 2005 book: "Minimal Perl for UNIX/Linux People"    |
|  See http://minimalperl.com for details, ordering, and email-list signup |
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