I started using Perl just over six years ago, when 5.6.2 was already getting old and 5.8.1 was on the way. By the time I put my first module on the CPAN, over half of the current contributors had already shipped.

I have often read the source of a core module and asked "Why?" only to discover some unknown feature or historical accident. The history lesson continues all the way into the roots of Unix in some cases, but also often leaves me thinking "So?". And now I am quickly approaching my 40th CPAN distribution.

In this talk, I will share my own experiences in developing with Perl and explore the idea of the "Modern" or "Enlightened" Perl. Did I miss the heyday of Perl or are we still making that now? How does today's Perl code look different than it did 5 or 10 years ago? Is there a Perl renaissance coming, and what does it have to do with Perl 6? What modules should you be using for new development? Where is my flying car? Why am I still programming in Perl? And why am I programming at all?

I will try to find answers to some of these questions and invite you to bring questions (or answers!) of your own.

As always, the meeting will be followed by social hour at the LuckyLab.

Test::Builder underpins 80% of the tests on CPAN. Its limitations become everyone's limitations. It's done a very good job adapting the last seven years, and testing has become more sophisticated in that time, but age and backwards compatibility holds things back. There are a number of desired features which Test::Builder cannot support, such as end-of-test actions, without radically altering how tests are built.

thus: Test::Builder2.

This will be "something of a talk" followed by some hacking both on Test::Builder2 directly and writing new test modules. It'll give folks an opportunity to work both with Moose (well, Mouse) and git. Pair programming will make life easier, we can pair of experienced folks with inexperienced. Or just huddle together for strength in numbers. I find it easier to pair when each person has their own keyboard, so I'm going to bring along a few spare keyboards and mice. I encourage others to do the same.

Moose is a postmodern object system for Perl 5.

Moose's recent rise in popularity has led to a surge of declarative class-building and accessor-generating modules, but the real power of Moose comes from its metaclass fundamentals, not from the syntactic sugar of has(). Using Moose as a foundation makes it easier for your code to grow and scale.

I'll cover some of the concepts in Moose that the MOP (Meta-Object Protocol) makes possible, especially roles and type constraints. If we have time, I'll go through a simple Moose extension, focusing on the mechanisms Moose provides to help your code play nicely with others'.

If the first sentence of this description was news to you, you should at least read the SYNOPSIS of Moose, and if you can get through Moose::Manual and Moose::Manual::Concepts, so much the better. I'll expect a lot of questions, but I hope to move past "what is an object" pretty quickly. By the end of the night I hope you'll have a better understanding of the depth of what Moose provides, and why has() is only the tip of the iceberg. I don't expect that everyone will immediately understand every concept provided – my goal is to impress you so much with Moose's awesomeness that you're willing to follow up later on the documentation pointers that I throw out.

We will be having three lightning-ish talks at PDX.pm this month.

Perl and Parrot in Google Code-In : Highlights and How To Get Involved

-- Jonathan "Duke" Leto

Tool::Bench : A Generalized Benchmarking Framework for Just About Anything

-- Ben Hengst

Graphics in Software Documentation : Why The Void?

-- Otto Hirr

Please come by and be sure to come hang out afterwards at the Lucky Lab social hour, just a few blocks away.

note: date one week earlier than usual meeting and now at PSU rather than Free Geek!

The Portland Perl Mongers and Portland Linux/Unix Group are pleased to welcome world-renowned Perl trainer and developer Paul Fenwick

The Perl Renaissance is in full swing. Object frameworks and syntax have been undated, web frameworks are easy and powerful, and modules are easy to manage and install. We will cover:

• Overhauling Perl’s Object Oriented framework with Moose.
• Using MooseX::Method::Signatures for beautiful classes.
• Building web applications using Dancer
• Not worrying about web servers by using Plack.
• Critiquing your code with Perl::Critic
• Write amazing regexps with named captures.
• Install new modules quickly and easily with cpanminus
• Manage Perl installations easily with perlbrew
• A whole swag of new features with perl 5.10–5.16
• Much, much more!

About Paul

Adventuretarian. Enjoys Perl, social hacking, mycology, scuba diving, coffee, cycling, FOSS, meeting new people, and talking like a pirate. World famous in NZ.

This meeting will be followed by social hour at the Lucky Lab Brew Pub NW at 1945 NW Quimby