[MacPerl] RE:[Macperl]Introduction

[madame philosophe <mp@mkt2spamisbadmkt.com>]

Hi David,

>Suggestion #1: Do get "MacPerl, Power and Ease".

I've been reading the online version. It's a good read. And covers a lot
in a short amount of time!

I may actually buy it this weekend.


>2) There is a mountain - nay, a mountain range - nay, a CONTINENT of
>software libraries for Perl (Perl modules).  This is wonderful, except that
>it takes an already rather large language and makes it almost infinite.
>Try to understand the core language, then pick up modules (some of which
>can almost be languages into and of themselves) slowly at first.

Modules...modules are the most elusive things to me. I understand that
modules are like libraries of packages. I just don't understand how they
get installed with "makefile.pl"

I also don't understand how you are the site/perl folder relates to the
@INC so that the script knows to look there. 

Actually I am recalling this all from memory so I may sound confused.
Don't worry that's because I am.

My biggest problem is with directories and permissions. But I am
assuming that there are no permissions re	quired if using MacPerl rather
than straight Perl on Unix.

>3) Perl is not my favorite OO language.  To me, Perl is almost OO assembly
>language.  Once you are into it, this can be sort of cool in that you
>REALLY learn about objects under the hood, but it sure doesn't make it
>easy.  This refers to WRITING objects.  USING objects is not too hard, if
>you don't try to get fancy and you learn just a little syntax.

As far as perl and OO - 
I'm interested in using the OO interface because as someone mentioned
somwhere in the thread, perl can be written with or without the OO,
since it isn't a strongly typed language.

I also recognize that people are recommending I don't go OO so fast, but
I guess my premise is that if I learn the OO aspects(which I've wanted
to understand even before wanting to learn Perl) then going "procedural"
will be easy. Going from procedural to OO, I hear can be difficult to
get your head around.

Now before I start a holy war (which I don' really want to do here) I
just want to use perl for doing CGI stuff and I know that there are tons
of modules out there to use. And if I want to do that I will need to
understand the OO parts of Perl, or do I? I'm certain that someone will
pipe in right about here.


>I use CGI.pm all the time, but I have to say it is not my favorite Perl
>module.  It seems sometimes to make a fairly simple task complicated.  (The
>reason I use it is that it nicely covers all the wierd cases and
gotchas of Web programming.)

I would be very interested WHEN you find CGI.pm inappropriate, and when
it covers the wierd gotchas. I'm a fan of CGI.pm, but it can be
difficult to grasp at times.


Please tell me!

Thanks,

Annalisa

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