Code – Richard Foley

Remote perl developers amid the CoViD-19

We’re in the middle of a *global* pandemic with the coronavirus running riot around the world. Most countries have implemented some form of “lockdown”, forbidding their citizens to gather in large numbers, or congregate together. There was a time when self-satisfied westerners looked askance at the Chinese tourists wandering around European cities with their face … Read more

The debugger as a perl shell

Starting a Session (perl -d) For an example of its simplest usage, start the debugger by giving it something innocuous (like a 0 (zero)) as the evaluation argument to the debugger via the command line: This way of invoking the debugger works just as well on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X as it does on the many … Read more

Perl debugger pocket reference

The Perl Debugger Pocket Reference provides complete coverage in a conveniently small package.Maybe you write code so clean you never have to look at it twice. Or perhaps you’d rather focus your energies on writing clean code, rather than learning about the debugger. But if you need to learn about the Perl debugger in a hurry, … Read more

Request Tracker

RT Essentials, co-written by one of the RT’s original core developers, Jesse Vincent, starts off with a quick background lesson about ticketing systems and then shows you how to install and configure RT. This comprehensive guide explains how to perform day-to-day tasks to turn your RT server into a highly useful tracking tool. One way … Read more

Pro Perl Debugging

Pro Perl Debugging steps in to help resolve the dilemma of application testing and debugging—one of the biggest time commitments in a programmers daily routine. What this book will do is rescue you from substandard application testing practices. The book commences with several chapters that overview the debuggers basic features, then covers common debugging scenarios. … Read more

The Dump-Value Command: C

The Dump-Value Command: C for the perl debugger. To dump the entire expression thoroughly, use the x command, which will dump the given value completely: DB<13> x @x 0 ‘first’ 1 ‘second’ 2 ‘third’ 3 ‘fourth’ 4 ‘fifth’ DB<14> That’s better, but it’s still a bit clunky, x is better used by giving it a reference … Read more

Can you make it go faster, again?

You know how it is when management asks you to make an existing program go faster, it’s almost always a challenge which is taken up with enthusiasm. You get to explore the codebase, try out new approaches, fix those long clunky if statements, rationalize the code, all within the constraints of maintaining backward compatibility, and utilizing your … Read more

Widen your horizon

As programmers, many of us tend to be critical thinkers, by nature. We still need to widen your horizon. And mine. It’s no good just churning out the same old stuff, repeating what we were told, or read about, from earlier times. We need to use our brains to consider new ways of doing things, clearer, … Read more

File::Data v1.20 released

File::Data – interface to file data DESCRIPTION Wraps all the accessing of a file into a convenient set of calls for reading and writing data, including a simple regex interface. Note that the file needs to exist prior to using this module! See new() SYNOPSIS use strict; use File::Data; my $o_dat = File::Data->new(‘./t/example’); $o_dat->write(“complete file … Read more