• Open source is improv, so say "Yes and" (petdance.com)
• craigslist donates $100,000 to the Perl Foundation (news.perlfoundation.org)
• Text::AsciiTeX renders TeX formulas as ASCII art (blogs.perl.org)
• The most important pig in the office (with nod to @chipsalz, too) (petdance.com)
• An hour-long video of Damian Conway talking Perl and physics (blip.tv)
• Speed up Perlbrew with parallel tests (modernperlbooks.com)
• Visualizing the Perl 5 support policy (dagolden.com)
• MooseX::Role::Loggable adds logging goodness to your objects (blogs.perl.org)
• Rakudo Star 2012.01 released (rakudo.org)
• What's next in Rakudo (6guts.wordpress.com)
• I'll be presenting "29 ways to get started in open source today" at YAPC:NA (act.yapcna.org)
• DC-Baltimore Perl Workshop is April 14th. $25 for two tracks of talks. (dcbpw.org)

• File-at-a-time test coverage with Devel::Cover (modernperlbooks.com)
• What I learned at the Twin City (Austria) Perl Workshop 2011 (domm.plix.at)
• Add ack's Google+ page to your circles (plus.google.com)
• Introduction to writing tests with Test::More (perltraining.com.au)
• Benchmarking Marpa vs. regexes for parsing (blogs.perl.org)
• Debugging tips for Inline::C (blogs.perl.org)
• RT @bradfitz Hey #Perl, are times that tough? Where can I donate $50 so you guys can buy a real SSL certificate for (pause.cpan.org?)
• What Perl compiler modules could have been (modernperlbooks.com)
• Handy regular expressions part VII from @pkrumins (catonmat.net)
• Technical quality is an insurance policy (modernperlbooks.com)
• Graphic time-based data in Perl (preshweb.co.uk)
• Pegasus is Module::Starter for DBIx::Class (blogs.perl.org)
• What brian d foy learned from YAPC::Brasil (blogs.perl.org)
• Data::Printer: A colored data structure pretty printer (onionstand.blogspot.com)
• Data::Printer is handy for debugging data structures (effectiveperlprogramming.com)
• Padre 0.92 adds Perl 6 support and other features (blogs.perl.org)
• Should YAPC::NA 2012 have an unconference? (blogs.perl.org)

• Jesse Vincent (@obra) passes the Perl 5 maintainership to Ricardo Signes (@RJBS) (groups.google.com)
• blogs.perl.org needs your help (blogs.perl.org)
• Explaining why Moose is awesome (johnwang.com)
• RT @clonezone Do NOT do your own CSV parsing. There’s a lot of variants...your code probably can’t deal with things like embedded newlines.
• MJD (@mjdominus) on the importance of giving fish (perlbuzz.com)
• metacpan.org is one year old today. Amazing what they have done! (perlnews.org)
• Help new Perl programmers find good tutorials. (szabgab.com)
• YAPC::NA 2012 will have a job fair. Madison = big college town. (blog.yapcna.org)
• What can Validation::Class do for you? A screencast: (blogs.perl.org)
• FLOSS Weekly interviews @thaljef about Perl::Critic (twit.tv)
• A gentle reminder about test coverage (modernperlbooks.com)
• A look back at the first year of MetaCPAN's life (blogs.perl.org)
• On "technical debt" vs. "technical friction" (modernperlbooks.com)

• RT @briandfoy_perl Huh, the new look for (lists.perl.org) is really slick. Leo Lapworth really deserves his White Camel Award.
• RT @parrotvm We are converting our Trac wiki to @Github! (github.com) If you want to help, let us know!
• Perl, C and Dr. Dennis Ritchie (blogs.perl.org)
• Trial releases with Dist::Zilla (blogs.perl.org)
• Handy guide to core module activity (blogs.perl.org)
• Photos from YAPC::Asia in Tokyo (blogs.perl.org)
• Announcing namespace::sweep (blogs.perl.org)
• Why do you want new major Perl features? (blogs.perl.org)

(These notes are extracted from my notes from OSCON 2011. Other topics include API design, PostgreSQL, Jenkins and Cornac.

The Conway Channel

The Conway Channel is Damian Conway's annual discussion of new tools that he's created in the past year.

Regexp::Grammars is all sorts of parsing stuff for Perl 5.10 regexes, and it went entirely over my head.

IO::Prompter is an updated version of IO::Prompt which is pretty cool already. It only works Perl with 5.10+. IO::Prompt makes it easy to prompt the user for input, and the new IO::Prompter adds more options and data validation.

# Get a number
my $n = prompt -num 'Enter a number';

# Get a password with asterisks
my $passwd = prompt 'Enter your password', -echo=>'*';

# Menu with nested options
my $selection
    = prompt 'Choose wisely...', -menu => {
            wealth => [ 'moderate', 'vast', 'incalculable' ],
            health => [ 'hale', 'hearty', 'rude' ],
            wisdom => [ 'cosmic', 'folk' ],
        }, '>';

Data::Show is like Data::Dumper but also shows helpful debug tips like variable names and origin of the statement. It doesn't try to serialize your output like Data::Dumper does, which is a good thing. Data::Show is now my default data debug tool.

my $person = {
    name => 'Quinn',
    preferred_games => {
        wii => 'Mario Party 8',
        board => 'Life: Spongebob Squarepants Edition',
    },
    aliases => [ 'Shmoo', 'Monkeybutt' ],
    greeter => sub { my $name = shift; say "Hello $name" },
};
show $person;

======(  $person  )====================[ 'data-show.pl', line 20 ]======

    {
      aliases => ["Shmoo", "Monkeybutt"],
      greeter => sub { ... },
      name => "Quinn",
      preferred_games => {
        board => "Life: Spongebob Squarepants Edition",
        wii => "Mario Party 8",
      },
    }

use Acme::Crap;

crap    'This broke';
crap!   'This other thing broke';
crap!!  'A third thing broke';
crap!!! 'A four thing broke';

This broke at acme-crap.pl line 10
This other thing broke! at acme-crap.pl line 11
A Third Thing Broke!! at acme-crap.pl line 12
A FOUR THING BROKE!!! at acme-crap.pl line 13

As with most of Damian's joke modules, you're not likely to use this in a real program, but to learn from how it works internally. In Acme::Crap's case, the lesson is in overloading the ! operator.

(Re)Developing Perl 5 Modules in Perl 6

Perl isn't a programming language. It's a life support system for CPAN.

Damian ported some of his Perl 5 modules to Perl 6 as a learning exercise.

Acme::Don't

Makes a block of code not get executed, so it gets syntax checked but not run.

# Usage example
use Acme::Don't;

don't { blah(); blah(); blah();

Perl 6 implementation

module Acme::Don't;
use v6;
sub don't (&) is export {}

Lessons:

• No homonyms in Perl 6
• No cargo-cult vestigials
• Fewer implicit behaviours
• A little more typing required
• Still obviously Perlish

IO::Insitu

Modifies files in place.

• Parameter lists really help
• Smarter open() helps too
• Roles let you mix in behviours
• A lot less typing required
• Mainly because of better builtins

Smart::Comments

• Perl 6's macros kick source filters' butt
• Mutate grammar, not source
• Still room for cleverness
• No Perl 6 implementation yet has full macro support
• No Perl 6 implementation yet has STD grammar

Perl 6 is solid enough now. Start thinking about porting modules.

• Haha: "Been there, done that, have the broken coffee mug" (radar.oreilly.com) #perl6
• jobs.perl.org now location-searchable. (jobs.perl.org) Old postings not geocoded yet, but future ones will be.
• ack 1.96 released, ignores minified Javascript (groups.google.com)
• prisk is a Perl-based version of the board game Risk. (jquelin.blogspot.com)
• Path::Class::Rule is another rules-based file finder (dagolden.com)
• Why is taint mode so slow? (martin-evans.me.uk)
• Devel::Comments looks like Smart::Comments (blogs.perl.org)
• What's an author? What's a contributor? (blogs.perl.org)

• Hello, World in Place 2: InteractiveDebugger (blogs.perl.org)
• Giving ack a little bit extra do-what-I-mean (shuttlethread.com)
• Reducing documentation's technical debt (blogs.perl.org)
• YAPC::NA attendees, please respond to survey (blogs.perl.org)
• File::UStore, a UUID-based file storage abstractor (blogs.perl.org)
• Protecting against cross-site scripting attacks with Template::AutoFilter (blogs.perl.org)
• Screencast: How to contribute to a Perl module using vim and Github (szabgab.com)
• Avoid unwanted bitwise operators with Perl::Critic (szabgab.com)
• Just discovered rjray's Perl Module Monday feature: (dereferenced.com)
• Booking.com donates $10K to support Perl 5 maintenance (news.perlfoundation.org)
• Expect a flurry of Rakudo releases soon (rakudo.org)
• cPanel is also sponsoring Perl 5 Maintenance Fund (news.perlfoundation.org)
• YAPC::NA 2012 gets away from RTFM marketing (perlbuzz.com)
• About the Perl 5 Core Maintenance Fund (perlfoundation.org)
• Upgrading from Perl 5.8 to a less-than-newest version (blog.timbunce.org)
• Using Acme::CPANAuthors::India to link with other authors (blogs.perl.org)
• YAPC::Asia 2011 call for papers now open (yapcasia.org)
• YAPC::Asia 2011 and the webapps behind it (blogs.perl.org)
• Going to OSCON next week? Here are six tips for making the most of it with the least amount of hassle (petdance.com)
• Portuguese Perl Workshop is Sep 22-23, 2011 (workshop.perl.pt)
• Tool to move tickets from RT to Github (pythian.com)
• Now you need LWP::Protocol::https (blogs.perl.org)
• Perl program to back up Google contacts/calendar (preshweb.co.uk)
• "What is MetaCPAN" screencast http://youtu.be/7N1lZY5E5gg (now with English subtitles)
• Can't let #oscon pass without getting the scoop on cpangloss.com from (
• "Perl 6 is solid enough now. Start thinking about porting modules. Start thinking about reinventing modules." -- Damian at #oscon
• RT @pghphw @mjdominus will be teaching a course and giving a talk at PPW 2011. Watch for details.
• Notes on Morphing Graph::Easy into Graph::Easy::Marpa (savage.net.au)
• A new vim plugin to work with ack and iTerm: (vim.org)
• Holy cow does a lot get done on MetaCPAN in a week (blogs.perl.org)
• MetaCPAN::API gets updated (blogs.perl.org)
• Rakudo Star 2011.07 released (rakudo.org)
• Would you bring your kids to YAPC? (blog.yapcna.org)
• Recollections of YAPC::NA 2011 (activestate.com)
• Understanding autovivification (effectiveperlprogramming.com)

• Hello, World in Place 2: InteractiveDebugger (blogs.perl.org)
• Giving ack a little bit extra do-what-I-mean (shuttlethread.com)
• Reducing documentation's technical debt (blogs.perl.org)
• YAPC::NA attendees, please respond to survey (blogs.perl.org)
• File::UStore, a UUID-based file storage abstractor (blogs.perl.org)
• Protecting against cross-site scripting attacks with Template::AutoFilter (blogs.perl.org)
• Screencast: How to contribute to a Perl module using vim and Github (szabgab.com)
• Avoid unwanted bitwise operators with Perl::Critic (szabgab.com)
• Just discovered rjray's Perl Module Monday feature: (dereferenced.com)
• Booking.com donates $10K to support Perl 5 maintenance (news.perlfoundation.org)
• Expect a flurry of Rakudo releases soon (rakudo.org)
• cPanel is also sponsoring Perl 5 Maintenance Fund (news.perlfoundation.org)
• YAPC::NA 2012 gets away from RTFM marketing (perlbuzz.com)
• About the Perl 5 Core Maintenance Fund (perlfoundation.org)
• Upgrading from Perl 5.8 to a less-than-newest version (blog.timbunce.org)
• Using Acme::CPANAuthors::India to link with other authors (blogs.perl.org)
• YAPC::Asia 2011 call for papers now open (yapcasia.org)
• YAPC::Asia 2011 and the webapps behind it (blogs.perl.org)
• Going to OSCON next week? Here are six tips for making the most of it with the least amount of hassle (petdance.com)
• Portuguese Perl Workshop is Sep 22-23, 2011 (workshop.perl.pt)
• Tool to move tickets from RT to Github (pythian.com)
• Now you need LWP::Protocol::https (blogs.perl.org)
• Perl program to back up Google contacts/calendar (preshweb.co.uk)
• "What is MetaCPAN" screencast http://youtu.be/7N1lZY5E5gg (now with English subtitles)
• Can't let #oscon pass without getting the scoop on cpangloss.com from (
• "Perl 6 is solid enough now. Start thinking about porting modules. Start thinking about reinventing modules." -- Damian at #oscon
• RT @pghphw @mjdominus will be teaching a course and giving a talk at PPW 2011. Watch for details.
• Notes on Morphing Graph::Easy into Graph::Easy::Marpa (savage.net.au)
• A new vim plugin to work with ack and iTerm: (vim.org)
• Holy cow does a lot get done on MetaCPAN in a week (blogs.perl.org)
• MetaCPAN::API gets updated (blogs.perl.org)
• Rakudo Star 2011.07 released (rakudo.org)
• Would you bring your kids to YAPC? (blog.yapcna.org)
• Recollections of YAPC::NA 2011 (activestate.com)
• Understanding autovivification (effectiveperlprogramming.com)

• Hello, World in Place 2: InteractiveDebugger (blogs.perl.org)
• Giving ack a little bit extra do-what-I-mean (shuttlethread.com)
• Reducing documentation's technical debt (blogs.perl.org)
• YAPC::NA attendees, please respond to survey (blogs.perl.org)
• File::UStore, a UUID-based file storage abstractor (blogs.perl.org)
• Protecting against cross-site scripting attacks with Template::AutoFilter (blogs.perl.org)
• Screencast: How to contribute to a Perl module using vim and Github (szabgab.com)
• Avoid unwanted bitwise operators with Perl::Critic (szabgab.com)
• Just discovered rjray's Perl Module Monday feature: (dereferenced.com)
• Booking.com donates $10K to support Perl 5 maintenance (news.perlfoundation.org)
• Expect a flurry of Rakudo releases soon (rakudo.org)
• cPanel is also sponsoring Perl 5 Maintenance Fund (news.perlfoundation.org)
• YAPC::NA 2012 gets away from RTFM marketing (perlbuzz.com)
• About the Perl 5 Core Maintenance Fund (perlfoundation.org)
• Upgrading from Perl 5.8 to a less-than-newest version (blog.timbunce.org)
• Using Acme::CPANAuthors::India to link with other authors (blogs.perl.org)
• YAPC::Asia 2011 call for papers now open (yapcasia.org)
• YAPC::Asia 2011 and the webapps behind it (blogs.perl.org)
• Going to OSCON next week? Here are six tips for making the most of it with the least amount of hassle (petdance.com)
• Portuguese Perl Workshop is Sep 22-23, 2011 (workshop.perl.pt)
• Tool to move tickets from RT to Github (pythian.com)
• Now you need LWP::Protocol::https (blogs.perl.org)
• Perl program to back up Google contacts/calendar (preshweb.co.uk)
• "What is MetaCPAN" screencast http://youtu.be/7N1lZY5E5gg (now with English subtitles)
• Can't let #oscon pass without getting the scoop on cpangloss.com from (
• "Perl 6 is solid enough now. Start thinking about porting modules. Start thinking about reinventing modules." -- Damian at #oscon
• RT @pghphw @mjdominus will be teaching a course and giving a talk at PPW 2011. Watch for details.
• Notes on Morphing Graph::Easy into Graph::Easy::Marpa (savage.net.au)
• A new vim plugin to work with ack and iTerm: (vim.org)
• Holy cow does a lot get done on MetaCPAN in a week (blogs.perl.org)
• MetaCPAN::API gets updated (blogs.perl.org)
• Rakudo Star 2011.07 released (rakudo.org)
• Would you bring your kids to YAPC? (blog.yapcna.org)
• Recollections of YAPC::NA 2011 (activestate.com)
• Understanding autovivification (effectiveperlprogramming.com)

• Hello, World in Place 2: InteractiveDebugger (blogs.perl.org)
• Giving ack a little bit extra do-what-I-mean (shuttlethread.com)
• Reducing documentation's technical debt (blogs.perl.org)
• YAPC::NA attendees, please respond to survey (blogs.perl.org)
• File::UStore, a UUID-based file storage abstractor (blogs.perl.org)
• Protecting against cross-site scripting attacks with Template::AutoFilter (blogs.perl.org)
• Screencast: How to contribute to a Perl module using vim and Github (szabgab.com)
• Avoid unwanted bitwise operators with Perl::Critic (szabgab.com)
• Just discovered rjray's Perl Module Monday feature: (dereferenced.com)
• Booking.com donates $10K to support Perl 5 maintenance (news.perlfoundation.org)
• Expect a flurry of Rakudo releases soon (rakudo.org)
• cPanel is also sponsoring Perl 5 Maintenance Fund (news.perlfoundation.org)
• YAPC::NA 2012 gets away from RTFM marketing (perlbuzz.com)
• About the Perl 5 Core Maintenance Fund (perlfoundation.org)
• Upgrading from Perl 5.8 to a less-than-newest version (blog.timbunce.org)
• Using Acme::CPANAuthors::India to link with other authors (blogs.perl.org)
• YAPC::Asia 2011 call for papers now open (yapcasia.org)
• YAPC::Asia 2011 and the webapps behind it (blogs.perl.org)
• Going to OSCON next week? Here are six tips for making the most of it with the least amount of hassle (petdance.com)
• Portuguese Perl Workshop is Sep 22-23, 2011 (workshop.perl.pt)
• Tool to move tickets from RT to Github (pythian.com)
• Now you need LWP::Protocol::https (blogs.perl.org)
• Perl program to back up Google contacts/calendar (preshweb.co.uk)
• "What is MetaCPAN" screencast http://youtu.be/7N1lZY5E5gg (now with English subtitles)
• Can't let #oscon pass without getting the scoop on cpangloss.com from (
• "Perl 6 is solid enough now. Start thinking about porting modules. Start thinking about reinventing modules." -- Damian at #oscon
• RT @pghphw @mjdominus will be teaching a course and giving a talk at PPW 2011. Watch for details.
• Notes on Morphing Graph::Easy into Graph::Easy::Marpa (savage.net.au)
• A new vim plugin to work with ack and iTerm: (vim.org)
• Holy cow does a lot get done on MetaCPAN in a week (blogs.perl.org)
• MetaCPAN::API gets updated (blogs.perl.org)
• Rakudo Star 2011.07 released (rakudo.org)
• Would you bring your kids to YAPC? (blog.yapcna.org)
• Recollections of YAPC::NA 2011 (activestate.com)
• Understanding autovivification (effectiveperlprogramming.com)