[MacPerl] Conference Revisted [off-topic]

[darrylc@foothills.eznet.com (Darryl Caldwell)]

Well, the first of what looks to be a long tradition of Perl conferences is
over and done. O'Reilly & Associates did a good job for the first time out.

Breaking News
=============

O'Reilly expected to draw 300 participants to the conference, 1000 showed up.

www.perl.com is now being handled by O'Reilly. In case you haven't been
there, there is a new look to the site and it is now accessible via a T3,
which will speed things up a bit.

O'Reilly also unveiled a new logo for the camel along with the slogan: "The
Programming Republic of Perl"

Larry Wall is alive and well. His current toy is a tool to write Java
classes with Perl implementations. This will be processed by a compiler
backend which will produce Java-bytecode.

There were about fifteen of us at the MacPerl BOF. We met by the pool side
and got a chance to talk about how we use MacPerl. It was good to see the
faces of those with whom we have been in e-mail contact. We all wished
Matthias could have been there to receive a much deserved slap on the back
for a job well done.

Perl 5.005 is due sometime in November. Dr. Malcolm Beattie, who is in
charge of this port along with Tim Bunce, gave a rundown of its new
features which include an enhanced version of the Perl -> C compiler and
multi-threading.

O'Reilly's book kiosk sold out of Jeffrey Friedl's Mastering Regular
Expressions twice.

O'Reilly promised to put slides and some notes from the various sessions on
www.perl.com.

There was much praise and appreciation for the freeware community.

There were many Perl luminaries on hand. Among those not already mentioned:
Randal Schwartz, Tom Christiansen, Felix Gallo, Nathan Torkington, Jon
Orwant, Lincoln Stein, Gunther Birzniek, Brian Behlendorf, Chip Salzenberg,
Nate Patwardhan, Clay Irving, Tom Phoenix, Jon Udell, Dick Hardt, and many
many more.


Over All Impression
===================

As I said it was a good for the first time out. Next year I would hope to
see an environment more conducive to hands-on experience and some vehicle
in which participants could share code and tips amongst each other. I asked
others about their impressions and some more experienced users felt they
needed to learn more.

One impromptu highlight was a beginner question and answer session with
Randal, Chip, Nathan, Tom, Tom Phoenix, Tim O'Reilly, and others. The
questions ran from raw newbie to mid-level. It was good to watch the big
guys in action, to get an idea on how they approach problems. Reminded me
of an in-the-flesh exposure to comp.lang.perl.misc.

There was much bashing of Windoze. (Pun intended)



Darryl Caldwell             Oikiasuchou School
___________________________________________________
The Practice Hall: http://www.eznet.com/bravo/ph/ph.html
Myth & Martial Culture




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