back to the Perl future

I've been with the development integration team for a little over a year now. The team had been around for a couple of years before I joined. A lot of the DI team's code is in scripts. And almost all of the scripts are in Perl.

Now this was a change for me. I hadn't looked at Perl in years. I dabbled with it a bit back at Core Networks like over 10 years ago. The truth is somewhere around 2001 I happily converted to Python and never looked back.

But I knew when I joined DI it is a Perl shop. There are a number of Perl developers in the office many of whom have common roots in previous companies to our current employer. All are over 30. I can say that the active Perl developers are technically sharp with good judgment. So if they used Perl extensively over the years and still actively use it then I know there's something there; it's good technology.

But with me Perl has taken some getting used to. The syntax just seemed to be hard to grasp. So I knew I needed to catch up. So I did some self education. I heard good things about Leaning Perl so I ordered it with my own money. The Llama book is a very good read. It presents the material in a very sensible way. It provides the key information to get rolling without getting sidetracked with being pedantic, weird and obsolete syntax forms, or going off on tangents. I definitely recommend Learning Perl to anyone finding themselves getting started on Perl development or maintenance.


It is useful the book is presented training style with exercises at the end of the chapters. These were quite valuable to work through as they force the reader to really better grasp what was presented by actually using it.

So finally I can properly grasp the legacy code and better understand what's going on. I gained some more respect for Perl from this book. There is a certain power with all of the shortcuts and special rules. Perl does have the ability to produce moments of satisfaction when working with it.

It's the kind of thing I think you need to be working with it pretty much every day. So lately I've found at work when I need a little script to do a bit of work I've been using Perl more just to get more ad hoc experience.

So the Llama is a good start. I'll let this absorb for a few months or so then start on some more Perl reading when I'm ready. I think Intermediate Perl would be a good next title.