YAPC, Code::Perl, and News!

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Thought about learning Java?
Want to try something a little different?
 
Bring your brain and a copy of  "Head First Java." Expect fast, 
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warrior, crack open "Head First Java."
 
Check out an excerpt.
 
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Hello, world!
 
Your loyal Perl.com editor Simon Cozens is travelling the world 
right now.  Your guest editor will try not to get into too much 
trouble while he's gone.  Here's the latest scoop from the Perl 
world this week.
  
* Perl at Large
 
YAPC::NA::2003 was a success, so it's time to start thinking of 
YAPC::NA::2004.  Consequently, the Perl Foundation has put out a 
call for venue.  If you're thinking of putting in a bid, be advised 
that amazing volunteer Jeff Bisbee is putting together a checklist 
of Things That Will Make Your Life Easier.  (Note to everyone who 
thought Florida was a bit muggy: Portland's nice this time of year.)
 
http://use.perl.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/23/0949246&mode=nested&tid=25
 
Presentation sensei MJD has finished selecting lightning talks for 
OSCON.  Here's the list: 
 
http://perl.plover.com/lt/osc2003/perl.html 
 
Speaking of talk selection, YAPC::Europe has published their final 
list of accepted talks.  Paris is also lovely this time of year.  
 
http://yapc.mongueurs.net/yapc/talks/
 
* Interesting Module Corner
 
A common question in Perl venues is "How do you get ideas for 
programs to write?"  There's no single best answer, but watching 
CPAN's recent uploads list is a good way to find interesting new 
modules.  This week, Code::Perl 0.03 came out.
 
http://search.cpan.org/author/FDALY/Code-Perl-0.03/
 
If you've really adopted true laziness, odds are you've played 
around with code generation a time or two.  If you've succeeded, 
you've probably spent way too much time worrying about line endings, 
quotes, and all sorts of escaping issues.  That doesn't mean that 
code generation is appropriate only for the smart kids -- it can 
make anyone more productive.  
 
It does mean that we need better tools to help us be sufficiently 
lazy.  Code::Perl looks like a step in the right direction.  
 
Here's where you (if you have more time than ideas) come in.  Are 
you looking for an interesting problem to solve?  Here are two wacky 
ideas to extend Code::Perl.  First, could it produce bytecode?  
B::Generate is always tempting.  Second, could it produce Perl 6 
code?
 
* Perl.com News
 
The recently-released Perl 6 Essentials covers Perl 6 as it exists 
now -- lots of syntax, lots of goals, and lots of working code in 
Parrot and imcc.  There's also a much bigger little question.  
Why?  In this excerpt from chapter three, Allison Randal explains 
the "Perl 6 Design Philosophy".  (She's also been giving talks on 
this at various conferences.) 
 
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/06/25/perl6essentials.html
 
(At the risk of editorial hubris, it may be worth considering these 
principles in light of "What I Hate About Your Programming Language".  
Then again, maybe not.) 
 
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2003/05/12/languagephilosophy.html
 
Piers Cawley celebrates the first anniversary of his involvement 
with the Perl 6 summary.  This week includes continuation passing 
shenanigans, stunning decisions on Parrot object operations, and 
method dispatch.  The next couple of weeks should prove interesting, 
as the State of the Onion talk looms large.  
 
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/06/p6pdigest/20030622.html
 
* In Conclusion
 
TPC 2003 is right around the corner.  If you're visiting the fair 
City of Roses, check out the semi unofficial OSCON wiki: 
 
http://oscon.kwiki.org/
 
Thanks go to Ingy for making it possible.
 
Your backup Simon,
-- chromatic
 
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The 5th O'Reilly Open Source Convention July 7-11, 2003
Portland Marriott Downtown, Portland, OR
 
Join Larry Wall, Damian Conway, Mark-Jason Dominus, and a host
of luminaries from the Perl community as well as the leaders of
critical open source technologies. 
 
http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/
 
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*** Featured Articles ***
 
Perl 6 Design Philosophy 
Perl 6 Essentials is the first book to offer a peek into the next 
major version of the Perl language. In this excerpt from Chapter 
3 of the book, the authors take an in-depth look of some of the 
most important principles of natural language and their impact on 
the design decisions made in Perl 6.
 
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/06/25/perl6essentials.html
 
***
 
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-06-22 
Continuation Passing Shenanigans, evil dlopen() tricks, and 
controlling method dispatch dominate perl6-internals and perl6-
language, according to fearless summarizer Piers Cawley.  
 
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/06/p6pdigest/20030622.html
 
***  
 
Perl Design
Patterns The Gang-of-Four Design Patterns book had a huge impact 
on programming methodologies in the Java and C++ communities, but 
what do Design Patterns have to say to Perl programmers? Phil Crow 
examines how some popular patterns fit in to Perl programming.  
 
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/06/13/design1.html
 
***
 
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-06-08
IMCC becomes Parrot, continuation passing style, timely destruction 
YET AGAIN, multi-method dispatch and more.
 
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/06/p6pdigest/20030608.html
 
***
 
Regexp Power
In this short series of two articles, we'll take a look through 
some of the less well-known or less understood parts of the regular 
expression language, and see how they can be used to solve problems 
with more power and less fuss.
 
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/06/06/regexps.html
 
***
 
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-06-01
Much more work on IMCC, method calling syntax in Parrot, coroutines 
attempt to become threads, compile-time binding, and many more 
discussions in this week's Perl 6 news - all summaries as usual by 
the eminent Piers Cawley.
 
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/06/p6pdigest/20030601.html
 
***
 
Hidden Treasures of the Perl Core
The Perl Core comes with a lot of little modules to help you get 
your job done. Many of these modules are not well known. Even 
some of the well known modules have some nice features that are 
often overlooked. In this article, we'll dive into many of these 
hidden treasures of the Perl Core.
 
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/05/29/treasures.html
 
***
 
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