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.

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.

pdx.pm : Dependency Injection strategies with perl

notbenh - Dependency Injection:

• What are you talking about?
• ... oh that, I did that all the time in java/ruby/??? so you can do that in perl!?
• So what are some patterns for non-moose solutions?
• What else can you do with this stuff?

If you have specific questions/aspects that you would like me to focus on please feel free to contact me pre-meeting at ben.hengst { at } gmail.com

As always, social time and drinks at the Lucky Lab Hawthorne (3 blocks north) post talk.

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