YAPC | talks

Joseph Hall

Idiomatic Perl

60 minutes

This lecture catalogs some basic Perl idioms and discusses how Perl's syntax results in programming techniques peculiar to Perl. I illustrate with my own code as well as snippets from the Perl distribution and CPAN.

Object-Oriented Perl

1/2 day

This lecture comprises:

• An introduction to Perl's object-oriented framework--fairly fast-paced, this assumes some familiarity with object-oriented programming principles as well as Perl syntax, including references. I review objects, classes, methods, constructors, destructors, inheritance, and other "building blocks" for Perl programmers doing object-oriented programming.

• Object-oriented programming idioms in Perl--this section discusses object-oriented idioms and how to render them in Perl. Peculiarities, strengths, and weaknesses of Perl relative to other object-oriented languages (primarily C++) are discussed. I also discuss what to do when Perl lacks a feature needed to implement an idiom-- for example, private member data for objects--and the advantages and disadvantages of trying to emulate such features.

• Patterns in perl--this section illustrates Perl renderings of some popular object-oriented programming "patterns." I cover cloning, factories, state machines, and other constructs from the popular Design Patterns book.

Joseph is with 5 Sigma Productions and perltraining.com, and is the author of Effective Perl Programming.