To add to your excellent analogy with hammers, Do you drive across town to get that one best hammer to drive one nail?
OT. I use PHP, I like PHP. Perl Monks: PHP - it's "training wheels without the bike" -- Randal L. Schwartz Pretty accurate. (But imagine PHP if perl didn't exist;) Way OT. I lurk on this list because it tends to tell me things I need to know as opposed to things I want to know. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of J.C. Roberts Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 4:10 AM To: Eugene Hercun Cc: misc@openbsd.org Subject: Re: beginner, intermediate, and advanced scripting On Sat, 14 May 2005 23:39:11 -0700, Eugene Hercun <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Thank you for your responses. Sorry I could not reply sooner since I >went to work before I posted this e-mail. Anyway, I might have missed >it, but did anyone recommend a book regarding scripting for BSD with >perl? >I think were getting a little bit off topic in the last few posts... =) > >Eugene Well, what else would you expect considering your post itself is actually off topic for this list... ;-) I own over fifty different types of hammers and each has a particular use for which is was designed. Though most of them could drive a nail into a piece of wood, some are better suited for that particular task than others. In the end, what makes a "good" hammer comes down to the task you will preform, the time you'll invest in completing it and the time invested by others who must maintain your work. When you're just starting out, it may seem like a waste of ether to watch two knowledgable guys like Jason and Adam debate fine points, but knowing those fine points will serve you well in making your own decisions. There are a lot of ways to drive a nail and what works best for *you* will take some experimentation on your part. As for learning perl, RTFM. Once you get through the basic documentation provided with perl, start reading other peoples code and the free tutorials available on the web, then finally move onto reading the books. The O'Reilly "Perl Bookshelf" is a good place to start and a good value for the money if you insist on buying books. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlcdbs4/ Also, finding the right resources, mailing lists, web boards and the like will definitely help a lot more than the OpenBSD lists. A good place to find such things for perl is at the "monastery" http://www.perlmonks.com As for getting started: http://www.perlmonks.com/?node=Tutorials#perlstart Since you want to know why some people claim perl is a "good" scripting language, there is only one single viable reason for the claim; the reason is because you can write scripts with it. Obviously, the same is true about many other languages. The term "good" is subjective and always an invitation for debate. As for general advice on learning perl, I can think of two things: (1) Though it didn't exist when I learned perl, IMHO, the best advice for a novice is to always put "use strict" in your scripts. The flexibility of perl gives you enough rope to build a bridge across a chasm or to quickly hang yourself and every one you know. Putting "use strict" in your code will not prevent the latter but it can help you avoid some of the less than obvious programming mistakes. (2) Use the "long form" syntax in your code until you get really familiar with the language. Like all languages that offer a "short form" syntax, perl code written for brevity just looks like line noise to the unindoctrinated. Knowing both/all long and short forms is important but which works best for *you* is your own decision. JCR
