what is Perl state of the art?

[warble606]

I encountered Perl several years ago and learned
the basics in about one day. However I didn't use it
much since and I was curious what the state of the art is.
I know that modules were introduced, some of them fairly
convenient. Can Perl hook in with GUIs and such now?
Is there object-oriented Perl yet?

Incidentally I wanted to answer my own question with
a trip to the bookstore but I found that technical book
writers either have an inability to be concise, or have
perhaps some financial interest in not being concise.


Thanks.

 

[Sherm Pendley]

I know that modules were introduced, some of them fairly
convenient.

Have a look at <http://www.cpan.org> - that's the centralized repository for
modules. Some (me included) would say that CPAN is arguably Perl's best
feature.

Can Perl hook in with GUIs and such now?

Yep. Several toolkits, actually. Again - have a look on CPAN. (And in
my .sig, if you're using a Mac...)

Is there object-oriented Perl yet?

Yep - there's even a sequel to "Learning Perl" that covers it, titled
"Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules".

Incidentally I wanted to answer my own question with
a trip to the bookstore but I found that technical book
writers either have an inability to be concise, or have
perhaps some financial interest in not being concise.

I think they're paid by the pound. ;-)

sherm--

 

[Paul Lalli]

I encountered Perl several years ago and learned
the basics in about one day. However I didn't use it
much since and I was curious what the state of the art is.
I know that modules were introduced, some of them fairly
convenient.

Yes. Check out http://www.cpan.org and read such documentation as
perldoc perlmod
perldoc -f use

Can Perl hook in with GUIs and such now?

Yes. Many GUI interfaces exist. One common one is with the Tk toolkit
originally written for Tcl. "Perl/Tk", as it's known, is implemented
via the Tk module, available on the CPAN site mentioned above. See
also: http://www.perltk.org

Is there object-oriented Perl yet?

Yes. Check out
perldoc perlobj

Incidentally I wanted to answer my own question with
a trip to the bookstore but I found that technical book
writers either have an inability to be concise, or have
perhaps some financial interest in not being concise.

Or perhaps they realize it's better to be precise than concise. There
are too many details in Perl to be able to make broad generalizations
that would be needed to shorten documentation. [1] For the brief
introductions to the language, check out
perldoc perlintro
"Learning Perl" by Randal Schwartz
"Perl in a Nutshell" by Stephen Spainhour et al

Paul Lalli

[1] The authors of Learning Perl and Programming Perl make this fact
known via the abundance of footnotes in their works.

 

[John Bokma]

wrote:

I encountered Perl several years ago and learned
the basics in about one day. However I didn't use it
much since and I was curious what the state of the art is.
I know that modules were introduced, some of them fairly
convenient. Can Perl hook in with GUIs and such now?

Others have mentioned a few. I have been using WxWindows (aka WxWidgets).
Although the documentation is sparse (amazing for a project around for 10
(?) years)

Is there object-oriented Perl yet?

Years :-D.

Incidentally I wanted to answer my own question with
a trip to the bookstore but I found that technical book
writers either have an inability to be concise, or have
perhaps some financial interest in not being concise.

You probably have been looking at the "unleashed platinum gold deluxe
complete in 24 hours for dummies" doorstops eh books. Next time look for
O'Reilly first.

 

[Chris Mattern]

You probably have been looking at the "unleashed platinum gold deluxe
complete in 24 hours for dummies" doorstops eh books. Next time look for
O'Reilly first.

"Programming Perl" makes for a pretty good doorstop as well. Thing is,
it's useful for learning Perl, too.
--
Christopher Mattern

"Which one you figure tracked us?"
"The ugly one, sir."
"...Could you be more specific?"

 

[John Bokma]

"Programming Perl" makes for a pretty good doorstop as well.

Oh, but that's a reference manual, those should have a lot of pages :-D

Thing is,
it's useful for learning Perl, too.

Not for a beginner, especially if the beginner has little or no past
programming experience.