The Free Love-, er, Teach-In

[Andrew Smith]

Hi

Maybe what's needed is a focus on implementing problems using Perl. If 
participants came along with their problem, and the assembled group of 
experts demonstrated the most appropriate way for it to be implemented  
with the surrounding discussion  covering the rights and wrongs of 
different approaches.  Writing good software is not just  making it 
match the functionality requirements, but includes quality, long term 
reliability and maintainability, and of course documentation.
I'm not suggesting designing applications by committee, but by 
consensus, using best practice.  Open Source Software  lets people see 
how programs work, if they have the time to figure  it out, but not the 
process used to get to the final version.  The experts can also advise 
on their choice of editor and other tools, e.g. svn, and why.
Although I live 400 miles away, I am subscribed to London.pm, because it 
talks about real issues.  Edin.pm is moving that way IMHO.
--
Andrew Smith B.Sc(Hons), MBA
Edinburgh, Scotland


Nicholas Clark wrote:
> And to commit the sin of replying to myself
>
> On Mon, Mar 12, 2007 at 03:00:37PM +0000, Nicholas Clark wrote:
>   
>> On Mon, Mar 12, 2007 at 02:16:49PM +0000, Jonathan Stowe wrote:
>>     
>>> Neither, IMO, does a short training course for "improvers". Infact I'm
>>> not convinced there actually is a shortage of "high-end developers"
>>> rather a shortage of skilled developers with lowish salary expectations
>>> who are interested in working in the kinds of places that want to
>>> recruit these people. 
>>>       
>> You might be being over-specific here. I'd take out the
>> "lowish salary expectations"
>>     
>
> I don't have the data, but the historical perception has been that there
> has been more money in other areas. [eg C++, Java, .NET technologies]
>
> If true, then it would imply that if used-to-be Perl programmers have become
> sucked out into jobs using other skills, then they're unlikely to come back,
> as taking pay cut is rarely seen as a career progression.
>
> Nicholas Clark
>