June 6th, 2001 The Seven Steps to Perl Mastery

The Seven Steps to Perl Mastery

                                                         by Tom Christiansen.

A Perl Novice...
-- Thinks CGI and Perl are interchangeable terms.
-- Still thinks Perl looks like bad C code viewed over a noisy modem.
-- Is insecure about the concept of dollar signs and at signs.
-- Thinks Perl should be more like sh or tcl.
-- Has heard of the ``Unix mindset''
       but hopes it's a treatable condition.
-- Can't figure out how to read input from the keyboard.
-- Thinks regular expressions are somebody cursing.
-- Wonders why no one can give him a straight answer
   about whether Perl is compiled or interpreted.

A Perl Initiate...
-- Has begun to learn about $_
-- and doesn't like it one bit.
-- Thinks the -w flag is a waste of time.
-- Thinks Perl should be more like C++ or Java.
-- Is still trying to figure why Perl has two different kinds of arrays.
-- Knows how to use perlbug, but sends in bogus bug reports.
-- Has been bitten by implicit context conversions,
   but hasn't caught on yet to how triggered it.
-- Can't keep == separate from eq, and still thinks
   that + should concatenate strings.

A Perl User...
-- Thinks Perl is just for text processing.
-- Uses the Perl debugger.
-- Has used other people's modules.
-- Wonders what an object is.
-- Knows their way around CPAN.
-- Knows the difference between local and my.
-- Uses .
-- Is still trying to figure what references are for.
-- Thinks Perl should be more like scheme or eiffel.
-- Submits real bug reports with perlbug.

A Perl Adept...
-- Write JAPHs to impress their friends and annoy their coworkers.
-- Begins all programs with use strict.
-- Thinks Perl should just be Perl.
-- Has taken enough advantage of cryptocontext to annoy others.
-- Knows how to create records and objects with hash refs.
-- Uses syscall to get at undocumented operating system calls.
-- Curses the flexibility of the Perl object system.
-- Uses /e in substitutes.
-- Has begun to wonder what typeglobs are for.
-- Has written their own modules in Perl.
-- Begins to look at all data in terms of regular expressions.
-- Understands why regexes can't match nested data.
-- Rewrites minor utilities in Perl.

A Perl Hacker...
-- Writes games in Perl.
-- Has written extension modules in C.
-- Uses AUTOLOAD and closures in curious ways.
-- Appreciates the aesthetics of the Schwartzian Transform.
-- Delights in the flexibility of the Perl object system.
-- Has written their own pod2XXX translator.
-- Understands the output from Perl -Dflags.
-- Accesses the Perl symbol table directly.
-- Submits bug reports with working patches.
-- Edits files using a special Perl-embedded version of vi or emacs.
-- Has contributed modules, manpages,
   and tools to the standard Perl distribution.

A Perl Guru...
-- Can answer any Perl question instantly.
-- Can write anything in Perl
-- and does.
-- Takes advantage of undocumented language features.
-- Writes code that gives even Larry pause.
-- Implements opaque objects and compiled regexes using closures.
-- Can read and understand the output of the perl-to-C compiler.
-- Embeds Perl interpreters in larger applications.
-- Has written their own -d:debugger module.
-- Used object-oriented programming before it existed.
-- Is debating taking their turn with the patch pumpkin.

A Perl Wizard...
-- Is on a first-name basis with Larry's wife.
-- Has written or rewritten major subsystems of the Perl compiler
    or interpreter.
-- Is thinking about rewriting the regex engine, the memory
   allocator, or the garbage collector.
-- Doesn't write games in Perl because they realize
   that Perl *is* the game.

심오한 것들은 모두 맞닿아 있는 건가...

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