From 55783c26c7e70433fb4905ec006a80d15c6d1a96 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Patrick Spek Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2018 01:04:58 +0200 Subject: Add day 1 talks from TPCiG --- .../2018-08-15-the-perl-conference-in-glasgow.adoc | 169 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 169 insertions(+) create mode 100644 _posts/2018-08-15-the-perl-conference-in-glasgow.adoc (limited to '_posts') diff --git a/_posts/2018-08-15-the-perl-conference-in-glasgow.adoc b/_posts/2018-08-15-the-perl-conference-in-glasgow.adoc new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be0a7f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2018-08-15-the-perl-conference-in-glasgow.adoc @@ -0,0 +1,169 @@ +--- +date: 2018-08-15 +wip: true +tags: Perl Conference +description: > + My feedback and comments on some of the talks I attended during The Perl + Conference in Glasgow, in 2018. +--- += The Perl Conference in Glasgow +:toc: preamble + +This year the European Perl Conference was hosted in Glasgow, and of course +I've attended a number of presentation there. On some of these, I have some +feedback or comments. These talks, and the feedback I have for them, are +detailed in this blog post. For some talks, I'll detail it as a summary of the +presentation, because I feel the message is important. + +[NOTE] +==== +The first talk I cover is not so much about Perl, but more about politics, as +the talk was mostly about the speaker's ideology. If this does not interest +you, I'd suggest you skip the link:#discourse-without-drama[Discourse Without +Drama] section, and head straight to the +link:#european-perl-mongers-organiser-s-forum-2018[European Perl Mongers +Organiser’s Forum 2018]. +==== + +== Discourse Without Drama + +This was the first talk, and the only talk available at this timeslot. I am +personally very much against the diversity ideology footnote:[I am not against +the concept of diversity, I wholly support the idea of equal opportunities. +What I do not accept is the idea of equal outcome, or forced diversity based on +physical traits. This is what I refer to with "the diversity ideology", as this +is what it has become in recent times.], and must admit I am skeptical of such +presentations from the get-go. Nonetheless, I did stay until the end and tried +to give it a fair shot. However, I cannot sit idle while she tries to force +her ideology on this community I care very deeply about. + +One of the things that stood out to me is that the speaker tells us not to use +logical fallacies to condemn her ideology. This on itself I can easily agree +with. However, this should go both ways: we should also not use logical +fallacies to promote her ideology. Most notably, she pointed out the +https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum[_argumentum ad populum_]. +This basically means that just because a lot of people do or say something, +doesn't make it right. And this applies to this idea that we need to push the +diversity ideology, with concepts like a code of conduct footnote:[I personally +prefer calling it a "code of misconduct", as these documents are mostly used to +draft a list of misconducts that will bring repurcussions with them, not detail +how the community tries to better itself.], in the Perl community. + +Another thing which slightly bothered me is the useless spin into radical +feminist ideology, which has no place on the Perl conference. We're not at a +political rally here, we're at a Perl conference. Surely, things can (and will) +get political from time to time, but the way the presenter forces us into +talking about her ideology seems unfit for this event. + +Next, the speaker raises the point that people should *not* grow a thicker +skin. Instead, people should get softer hearts. While I can get behind the +latter part, I disagree with the former. Different people have different ideas +of what counts as offensive, which is part of why it's impossible to guarantee +a "safe space" where nobody will ever be offended. If everybody can just be +offended at anything and have the other party suffer repurcussions for it, it's +just a clear invitation to abuse by the perpetually offended. + +The speaker was also very defensive about being called a "social justice +warrior", and informed the crowd that if she were to be called one, she'd +gladly take up a sword. This gives off a feeling that the presenter isn't +interested in civil discourse to come to an agreement together with everyone. +Instead, she'd rather strike down any and all who don't completely accept her +ideology. + +While discussing her points for instating certain rules such as a code of +conduct in one of the IRC channels I moderate, I was pointed towards +https://shiromarieke.github.io/coc.html[a very interesting article], which I +would recommend to the speaker and anyone else reading this. If we truly need +to have a code of conduct at the Perl community, I'd like to propose the text +from this particular poster, found all around the conference: + +image::https://matrix.org/_matrix/media/v1/download/matrix.org/ZAHwJvcPyKLIgnDqWBxJyctD[Perl Code of Conduct, 400, 600, role="center"] + +Additionally, I'd like to leave this particular quote to the speaker herself, +which was written on the wall of one of the rooms during the conference: + +[quote, Oscar Romero] +____ +Aspire not to have more, but to be more... +____ + +== European Perl Mongers Organiser's Forum 2018 + +The Perl community isn't big nowadays, which is sad. The Perl 6 language also +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 +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 +this social bubble. These people don't have to be techies either, they might +just as well be marketeers or designers. + +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 +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 +showcase what you mean. It might also be interesting to show people examples on +how to solve certain issues before telling them the language's name, so they +don't have a negative preconception solely from the name. + +Another thing to note is that Perl is more than just a programming language. +It's a community, and a large library of modules, known as CPAN. And CPAN +offers some nifty tools, such as the CPAN testers, which help ensure module +developers that their code runs on a massive set of platforms and Perl +versions. + +This has led me to consider the creation of a new Perl 6 module: +`CPAN::Tester`, to make it easy for people to contribute to a large-scale +testing environment for Perl 6. The idea is that one can run `CPAN::Tester` on +their machine, which will keep track of new Perl 6 modules being uploaded to +CPAN. The results are to be sent to another server (or multiple servers), which +can aggregate the data and show a matrix of test results. This aggregating +server could also be built as a Perl 6 module, possibly named +`CPAN::Tester::ResultsServer`. This would make setting up an environment +similar to CPAN testers for Perl 5 quite easy for Perl 6. + +== TPF Update + +This talk gave some interesting information on the current state of The Perl +Foundation. And there have been some nice developments in the past year, mostly +the updated websites (https://perl.com and https://perlfoundation.org). Sadly, +some sites remain in a slightly outdated state, though there are plans to +update these too. Most notably, https://jobs.perl.org seems to require a +webmaster to bring the platform online and keep it in check. If this is +something you'd like to do, don't hesitate to contact The Perl Foundation about +it. + +Furthermore, The Perl Foundation is looking for more sponsors, as always. +However, you don't need to be a massive corporation to be able to help them +out. They are looking for more smaller sponsors as well. The money of the +sponsorships will be used to support the Perl community. This means money will +be going towards organizing events, such as The Perl Conference, or grants for +both Perl 5 and Perl 6 development and promotion. + +If you'd like to help the Perl community through The Perl Foundation by +volunteering, this is also greatly appreciated. The time commitment expected of +you will depend very much on the tasks you want to deal with, but about 10 +hours a month is a good estimate. + +== Perl 6 in Real Life $Work + +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 +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". + +It might be interesting to run this application of grammars on every Perl 6 +release to gather more information on the speed improvements of Perl 6, much +like Tux's `Text::CSV` runs. + -- cgit v1.1