I’m in the Perl phase of my language obsession rotation. I’ve created a handy language obsession table you can use to simulate the behavior for your favorite GURPS Geek campaign.
Roll 3d6 for the subject.
Roll | Result |
---|---|
3-6 | Perl |
7-9 | Python |
10-11 | Ruby |
12-13 | Parrot |
14 | PHP |
15-18 | Something shiny I found on the Web. You can get plausible results by selecting a random entry from the Wikipedia list of programming languages. |
Every week after the first, roll 1d6.
Roll | Result |
---|---|
1-3 | Continue last week's language |
4-6 | Roll on Table 1 for a new language |
Alternately, you can set a duration of 1d6 weeks. That’s handy for an ADHD NPC
geek, where you don’t want to check every week. Note that this is free time
obsession. The language at $work
is whatever $work
requires.
I don’t know why I felt the need to share this. I’ve already spent more time on that silly table than the actual subject I wanted to write about.
So anyways - I’m messing about with Perl. I have been reading chromatic’s Modern Perl blog for a while - even when I’m not in a Perl cycle. It’s good, you should try it out. He presents a needed perspective on Perl as something more than a musty system administration language.
chromatic is also writing a book and maintaining the draft on github. I finally decided I wanted to read that draft. The README and a tiny bit of Git knowledge provide all I need.
Now there is a handful of POD files in build/chapters which I could read with perldoc.
I can also generate HTML for those days when perldoc just isn’t making me happy.
Oops. It looks like there’s a dependency. No problem.
Now I can open the chapters in my favorite Web browser.
From here, I can pay attention to chromatic’s tweets — or his dents, since he seems more active on Identi.ca - or watch the modern_perl_book
repository on github. Whenever he mentions new content, I will refresh and rebuild.
I don’t want to remember three whole commands. Am I taking Laziness too far? Perhaps. Nevertheless, here’s a Perl script to handle the task. It should only rebuild the chapters and HTML if there was an update in the repository.
Backlinks
Added to vault 2024-01-15. Updated on 2024-01-26