a casual coder tag:blogs.perl.org,2009-11-03:/users/a_casual_coder//405 2010-07-11T17:20:22Z A blog about the Perl programming language Movable Type Pro 4.38 First Edition tag:blogs.perl.org,2010:/users/a_casual_coder//405.742 2010-07-11T16:17:54Z 2010-07-11T17:20:22Z Being a bookish type I am always on the lookout for new stock. One thing to avoid in a bookshop is probably the computer shelf, although I always do check it out. Good job too! On a recent trip into... a casual coder Being a bookish type I am always on the lookout for new stock. One thing to avoid in a bookshop is probably the computer shelf, although I always do check it out. Good job too! On a recent trip into our more remote rural areas I came across a little gem.

Larry Wall & Randal L. Schwartz. PROGRAMMING PERL. January 1991 1st printing

The very first edition of the book was on the shelf in front of my eyes sandwiched between a Win95 book and some other item of even less consequence. A taller format than the current O'Reilly books, it is complete with a 16pp 'Quick Reference Guide' , and came as a Nutshell Handbook in the 'Unix Programming' series.

Unlike the other first editions that I might be searching for, and which can often be worth a small fortune, this item has little monetary value, but is worth a lot to me just to have on the shelf (at home of course).

The rear cover blurb punts the book as ".. the hottest new UNIX utility in years...". Interestingly the first page notes "Perl is quite popular and getting more so ....".

It has the camel on the front, although the reproduction on today's editions is better. The colour scheme is magenta & black on white instead of the usual cyan & black on white of current O'Reilly offerings.

The amazing thing is that this book is less than 20 years old. To me that is only yesterday (books aren't old unless they were printed in the 1700s) in the book world. Offered a good enough price I would sell any book I own, but crazily not this one!

]]> The Mail Archive tag:blogs.perl.org,2010:/users/a_casual_coder//405.697 2010-07-01T18:02:15Z 2010-07-01T18:30:45Z The Mailman archive is not always implemented on mailing lists (although on perl-mongers it is), but often it would be advantageous to have something slightly more accessible, and more importantly something more open to the non-perl community. I found The... a casual coder The Mailman archive is not always implemented on mailing lists (although on perl-mongers it is), but often it would be advantageous to have something slightly more accessible, and more importantly something more open to the non-perl community.

I found The Mail Archive some while back which members of certain non-programming groups I am on have found an easy way to keep on top of posts to their mailing lists rather than reading emails mixed in with other emails & having to generally handle them on a daily basis. So I added the za-pm group to this. Now with some posts stacked up you can see how it displays.

Use is simplicity itself, just add archive@mail-archive.com as a member and all else is handled automagically. Put a link on the bottom of every post and you are set for the members to pick it up.

I'm not claiming this is the best such solution, there are others, but it works nicely and the display format is neat. I hope that this will make za-pm more visible to the world both within and without the perl community.

]]> Must remember to keep my mouth shut :( tag:blogs.perl.org,2010:/users/a_casual_coder//405.692 2010-06-30T23:21:14Z 2010-06-30T23:45:06Z Over the past year I had posted queries to our local perlmongers group za-pm and received substantial help from the inmates. Looking at things Perl I noted that on the perl.org site that we did not have a flag planted... a casual coder Over the past year I had posted queries to our local perlmongers group za-pm and received substantial help from the inmates.

Looking at things Perl I noted that on the perl.org site that we did not have a flag planted on the map. Querying this I found that the group leader (I never knew there was such a thing) had gone awol and that his emails were bouncing.

Reporting this with glee to the list & asking the leader to please stand up and be identified got me voted into the hot seat before you could write a perl one-liner.

Having disposed of other encumbrous duties I recently got access to the web site and added a small note, the first in seven years! Happy that I had fulfilled my promise to reactivate the site to pm_group I sent a small 'done it' note expecting a pat on the back.

Now my contact there has suggested I blog about it here rather than brag about it to him, which is just as well since I was about to ask his advice on how to advance za-pm advocacy, and methinks I can slip something in here.

So here it is as I see it. We have a small group. But South Africans now have their own diaspora world wide. We are in the Americas, Europe, down under; you name it and there are expatriates working there. So this is by way of an invite for those of you in the za-diaspora to join us on za-pm. We'd like to liven it up a little, and if there are few of us still left at home then we hope that those of you stranded overseas can come and tell us how it is in the real world outside.

That's it, except to say that I am not a perl professional but my dearest wish is six months on a desert isle (like the little one in cartoons with a palm tree in the middle, the circling shark, and the liner going past) with an inexhaustable supply of needles, sorry, batteries, and of course my perl and catalyst books.

We'll blog again, just now!

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