Perl Jumpstart

• Two full days.
• Emphasis on practical skills.
• Hands-on.
• The training materials are at http://www.keller.com/perljumpstart.

Experience programming in other languages is assumed.

Please see Prerequisites, below.

• Write and run Perl scripts, on Unix or NT
• Perform I/O
• Use Perl's control structures
• Process a variety of data and file types
• Use Perl's built-in variables and operators
• Write object-oriented Perl code
• Handle errors, generate messages, terminate gracefully
• Use Perl's debugger

• Grasp the syntax of Perl
• Invoke Perl
• Interact with users through standard I/O
• Do file I/O
• Use various built-in functions
• Embed comments in your code
• Write loops, branches, and related control structures
• Process text in a variety of powerful ways
• Find, compare, and modify strings
• Process list variables
• Process arrays
• Use regular expressions and the associated Perl operators
• Use special features of Perl 5
• Process command-line arguments
• Use Perl's special built-in variables
• Write modular code (subroutines and structure)
• Grasp issues of Perl programming style
• Apply the notion of scope
• Generate attractively-formatted output
• Use boolean operators
• Pipe to Unix and NT utilities
• Use associative arrays
• Handle dbm files
• Write object-oriented Perl code
• Make your programs robust
• Handle errors, generate messages, terminate gracefully
• Use Perl's debugger

Programming is best learned by example. This presentation is task-oriented rather than the more common but less effective feature-oriented approach. As each mechanism in the language is presented, it is clear why it is needed, and the example demonstrates it quickly.

No other Perl class (to our knowledge) covers this much material this quickly. Attendees emerge with practical skills and are indeed able to write Perl programs of their own, yet they are away from their desks for a minimum time.

• An excellent starting place for Perl on the web: http://www.perl.com.
• O'Reilly's books on Perl: http://www.oreilly.com/publishing/perl.
• Sally Newman's Perl Cheat Sheet

• A whiteboard or flipchart
• A PC or workstation for each student (Unix, Windows 95, or Windows NT)
• A PC or workstation for the instructor
• A data projector for the instructor's computer
• A web browser on each computer
• Connection to the Internet
• Perl version 5.004 or later -- here's where to get it
• Here are detailed instructions