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Mastering Perl
book

Mastering Perl

by brian d foy
July 2007
Beginner
342 pages
8h 30m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Mastering Perl

Appendix B. brian’s Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem

After several years of teaching Perl and helping other people solve their Perl problems, I wrote a guide that showed how I think through a problem. It’s appeared on a couple of web sites and there are even a couple of translations.[65]Some of the stuff I did unconsciously, and those are the hardest things to pass on to a new programmer. Now that I have this guide, other people can develop their own problem-solving skills. It might not solve all of your Perl problems, but it’s a good way to try.

My Philosophy of Problem-Solving

I believe in three things when it comes to programming, or even anything else I do.

It is not personal

Forget about code ownership. You may think yourself an artist, but even the Old Masters produced a lot of crap. Everybody’s code is crap, which means my code is crap and your code is crap. Learn to love that. When you have a problem, your first thought should be “Something is wrong with my crappy code.” That means you do not get to blame Perl. It is not personal.

Forget about how you do things. If the way you did things worked, you would not be reading this. That is not a bad thing. It is just time to evolve. We’ve all been there.

Personal responsibility

If you have a problem with your program it is just that—your problem. You should do as much to solve it by yourself as you can. Remember, everyone else has their own programs, which means they have their own problems. Do your homework and give it your best shot ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780596527242Errata Page