Looping Perls

Another night of INFM 743 has come and gone. Class was still good and I felt like I understood as much as could be expected (whoever decided on 3 hour long classes in computer programming needs some instructional design lessons). My brain felt full about 2/3 of the way through class. Prior to hitting the computers with the meat of the course for the evening there was the presentation of this great website 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web. Which is visually very attractive and accessibly informative (think I just made up a phrase). There was also a conversation about boss v. bossette to which my reply can be found on the right. I found the image on pinterest.com and before that it was on a tumblr blog which I didn't have access to so my citation will have to end here.

Tonight's coursework was devoted to Perl loops and arrays. By the time we had finished going through the loops portion of the ppt I was feeling pretty comfortable with the basics of Perl syntax (by that I only mean the most basic layout of the code not anywhere near the nitty gritty of true programming). But Perl is starting to feel familiar - maybe. I definitely need to play more with the loop sample files and try to find a Perl dictionary amidst the list of supporting websites on the course website.

The arrays seemed simpler to me. Maybe all the time spent on loops beforehand meant my brain was finally in a programming groove. Or it might have been the way we went through each part of the sample files piece by piece and made substitutions to them. Or the fact that there were less numbers in the array examples. Or that I had finally decided to forget trying to learn LINUX and Perl at the same time (like I was during loops). Anyways arrays made more sense and I was anxious to get home so I could play some more with Perl programming while it was still fresh in my brain. Though I'm pretty sure that my niece will be programming adeptly before I am. Go Ella!

Have a great day and keep smiling! :)

Comments

John Riston said…
Hey Laura,

Perl is a tough language to start out with. Sounds like you're getting the hang of it though!

I'm sure this was one of your class resources, but here's a link to the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). It's got lots of documentation and code modules you can play with.

http://cpan.perl.org/

I also have a Perl book you can borrow, though I might need it back if my work puts me on a job where I'd need it. Hasn't happened in four years, though.

Anyway, good luck!
laura said…
Thanks John,

I will play with CPAN. I'm considering getting a book as a quick beginning reference to help me get the lingo/vocabulary down.

laura