Perl in the shell
Why doesn’t anyone talk about computer programming languages these days? I’ve just spent the last couple of days working with a great guy called Jason Froebe on a Perl tutorial that really digs deep into making sure developers know that it is a fully-featured language and yet – all I see on the IT news-o-meter is corporate shenanigans not exactly likely to set the average software engineer’s world on fire.
I think it’s really great that RIM have opened a new office and launched a new product while Sun is hosting the first annual MySQL customer conferences, IDC’s market predictions are just superb and xyz company’s warnings over security and data breaches are good too. But what about the languages that bind all these developments to drive the mechanics of what surfaces on the technology horizon every day?
Maybe it’s just because I try to stay focused on the application development “beat”, but I feel everything is just a bit too “cosmetic” right now. It’s like putting a chrome tailpipe on your exhaust without worrying about the workings of your engine.
I was kind of interested to see that Oracle had launched an application testing suite this week, but it’s all a bit, “…helping customers deliver high quality, mission-critical applications faster and with less effort.” - if you know what I mean. Not exactly phone the BBC and call the Prime Minister stuff is it?
It would be great if we could ‘feel’ the industry a little more in my opinion. I saw a new book launched this week called The Productive Programmer by “master” (no less) developer Neil Ford. This volume is supposed to be full of critical timesaving and productivity tools that you can adopt right away, no matter what platform you use.
According to the publishers, “Ford not only offers advice on the mechanics of productivity - how to work smarter, spurn interruptions, get the most out your computer and avoid repetition - he also details valuable practices that will help you elude common traps, improve your code and become more valuable to your team.”
Great! At last! If you’re looking for that book – the publisher sounds Irish, starts with an “O” and rhymes with “smiley”.
Apologies for ranting, but the weight of the corporate message machine seems to be so ‘macroeconomic’ these days that I fear we’re losing site of the minutiae of detail that I think programmers are so fond of.
As for my pal Jason, well I immersed myself in this Perl project with him and enjoyed every bit of it. His bio claims that he speaks “fluent munchkin”, he dies his hair blue, orange and green and he titles his blog Ramblings of a Geek. Need I say more?