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authorPatrick Spek <p.spek@tyil.nl>2018-08-23 09:26:17 +0200
committerPatrick Spek <p.spek@tyil.nl>2018-08-23 09:26:17 +0200
commit2f524f972a4c4121b19ac053cfcf5d163e145613 (patch)
tree0bbba7f6eb0013977bad7c36f06687ff8d4dedfc /_posts
parent421106c826172d977a1e1caa43ebf2f41ed5c473 (diff)
Update TPCiG article based on feedback from tejr
Diffstat (limited to '_posts')
-rw-r--r--_posts/2018-08-15-the-perl-conference-in-glasgow.adoc54
1 files changed, 32 insertions, 22 deletions
diff --git a/_posts/2018-08-15-the-perl-conference-in-glasgow.adoc b/_posts/2018-08-15-the-perl-conference-in-glasgow.adoc
index e79b2e6..ac9b4a4 100644
--- a/_posts/2018-08-15-the-perl-conference-in-glasgow.adoc
+++ b/_posts/2018-08-15-the-perl-conference-in-glasgow.adoc
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ presentation, because I feel the message is important.
There used to be comments here to show a different perspective to the speaker.
However, someone's lightning talk has been removed because
https://act.perlconference.org/tpc-2018-glasgow/news/1568[some people played
-the "offended" card], and no specifics are being published about it. As such, I
-cannot make any assertions on what is and what is not allowed, and have to
+the "offended" card], and no specifics are being published about it. Therefore,
+I cannot make any assertions on what is and what is not allowed, and have to
assume that criticism of harmful beliefs will be shut down. As such, I have
removed the comments which used to be here, in an attempt to keep it from
detracting from the rest of my post.
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ offers a lot of concepts which are very well suited for modern programming.
However, if no new users try out the language, it will be all for nothing. As
such, we need to bring new blood in to the community.
-One of the ways of doing this, is by extending our promoting efforts outside of
+One of the ways of doing this is by extending our promoting efforts outside of
the Perl community. Most people who like Perl are in a social bubble with other
people that are also familiar with the Perl programming language, be it 5 or 6.
But we need to reach new people as well, who will most likely be outside of
@@ -48,8 +48,8 @@ I myself am part of the "techies", so I'll stick to this particular group for
now. And I know people like me can be found at meetups, so it would be
worthwhile to promote Perl at meetups which are not dedicated to Perl. Think of
more generic programming meetups, or GNU+Linux User Groups. We have to be
-mindful not to be too pushy, though. Listen to others people, and try to
-understand the problem they're facing. Most of them will not be open to use a
+mindful not to be too pushy, though. Listen to other people, and try to
+understand the problem they're facing. Most of them will not be open to using a
different language immediately, especially not Perl (which sadly has a
particularly bad standing amongst people unfamiliar with it). Try to assist
them with their issues, and slowly introduce them to Perl (6) if it helps to
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ hours a month is a good estimate.
The speaker shows the perfect use case for
https://docs.perl6.org/language/grammars[Perl 6 grammars], advanced yet
readable parsing of text and doing stuff with the results. It's an interesting
-talk, showcasing some nifty grammar constructs. The best part of this is, that
+talk, showcasing some nifty grammar constructs. The best part of this is that
it actually runs in production, where it parses over 700 files, consisting over
100,000 lines of code, in about 22 seconds (on his laptop). This goes to show
that Perl 6 is no longer "too slow to use in production".
@@ -115,9 +115,9 @@ like Tux's `Text::CSV` runs.
Personally, I prefer GitLab over GitHub, as they have much better testing
functionality, and they actually release their own platform as an open source
package. I'd like more GitLab love from the community and speakers as well if
-possible. This would also make the speakers CI configuration simpler, for which
-he currently uses a `.travis.yml` file. This requires him to build Perl 6 from
-source every test run, wasting quite a lot of time.
+possible. This would also make the speaker's CI configuration simpler, for
+which he currently uses a `.travis.yml` file. This requires him to build Perl 6
+from source every test run, wasting quite a lot of time.
A number of directories were listed which are standard in Perl 6 module
skeletons. However, the `resources` directory was left out of it, which should
@@ -128,10 +128,11 @@ bundle additional resources with your moule.
It was also noted that there's a module to help you set up this module
skeleton, `mi6`. The speaker also noted that it doesn't seem to add much once
you know how a Perl 6 module is organized, and I tend to agree with this.
-Actually, I made a module precisely because I agree to him here, `App::Assixt`.
-This module intends to smoothen the entire course of module development, not
-just the creation of a skeleton file. It will take care of keeping your
-`META6.json` up to date, and ease uploading your module to CPAN as well.
+Actually, I made a module precisely because I agree with him here,
+`App::Assixt`. This module intends to smoothen the entire course of module
+development, not just the creation of a skeleton file. It will take care of
+keeping your `META6.json` up to date, and ease uploading your module to CPAN as
+well.
Lastly, the speaker says the `META6.json` documentation can be found in S22.
While this is technically correct, S22 is *not* the implementation's
@@ -152,15 +153,15 @@ modules myself, and have been in the situation where I had not realized I got a
merge request from another person (same goes for issue reports). I would
recommend people who are not getting timely responses to their contributions to
contact the maintainer via other channels which are more suited for
-communications. Think of email or irc, for instance. You'll generally have a
+communications. Think of email or IRC, for instance. You'll generally have a
much better chance of getting a timely response from the author, and then you
can work out your contribution and see if you can get it merged into the main
project.
The speaker also lists a couple of ways to get started with contributing to
-modules. One thing I missed in particular was the Squashatons for Perl 6. These
-generally offer a good entry point to help out with the language's development
-and the ecosystem's maintainance.
+modules. One thing I missed in particular was the Squashathons for Perl 6.
+These generally offer a good entry point to help out with the language's
+development and the ecosystem's maintainance.
Near the end, it was pointed out that it is a good idea to have a thick skin.
Even when it's not intended, people can come accross as rude. This is in
@@ -209,15 +210,15 @@ language.
Perl 6 has this very neat feature called
https://docs.perl6.org/language/typesystem#index-entry-subset-subset[subsets].
These can be used to make your own types with very little effort, which can
-help tremendously to keep your code clean and consise. There are two arguments
-I have in favour of subsets that the speaker did note touch upon.
+help tremendously to keep your code clean and concise. There are two arguments
+I have in favour of subsets that the speaker did not touch upon.
First off, using a subset instead of a `where` clause in a sub or method
signature will bring much better error messages. If you use a `where` in your
signature, and the check fails, you'll get an error that there was no signature
that matched `where { ... }`.
-Secondly, if you want to use abstract methods, you can't really use a where.
+Secondly, if you want to use abstract methods, you can't really use a `where`.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51570655/how-to-use-abstract-multi-methods-containing-a-where[I've
asked a question about this on Stack Overflow], which has the details as to why
this doesn't work the way you might expect.
@@ -250,5 +251,14 @@ method norm ('row-sum')
This is shorter and clearer, and you'll get better feedback from the compiler
as well. I https://github.com/pierre-vigier/Perl6-Math-Matrix/pull/49[submitted
a pull request on the GitHub repository] in an attempt to improve this, which
-got merged! The speaker was not aware it could be done this easy, so I'm proud
-I got to teach him something right after he did his presentation.
+got merged! The speaker was not aware it could be done in this manner, so I'm
+proud I got to teach him something right after he did his presentation.
+
+== Winding down
+
+I've had a great time at the Perl conference, spoke to many people with whom
+I've had some great discussions. I got to meet and personally thank a number of
+people who've helped me out over the past year as well.
+
+A big thank you to all the people who made this conference possible, and I hope
+to see you all again in Riga!