Free Online Perl Workshop

signlink writes "A new online workshop starts today, March 30th, and the first topic is posted. We are running a free perl workshop which will take place over the next ten weeks at http://linux.biondosmith.com . Although free, registration is required - you need to use a valid email address. This will be an interactive online workshop - we will learn to install, read and modify freeware cgi-scripts, and using the skills this teaches us we will write our own. Emphasis will be on the reusability of code, and the course will complete a class project - we will write a form-mail program that executes some user-validation features."

Comments

Argh. Matt Wright. Argh.

[merlyn]

From their opening page:

We will start off the week installing a perl script from Matt Wright's script archive.

Argh. Haven't they heard of the CERT warnings against those scripts? Haven't they heard that Matt himself has denounced his programs in favor of the NMS project?

How do people get so clueless, and yet have such a strong desire to share what they (don't) know?

My response to the fairly rude comment

[biondosmith]

It is obvious that Randall is a talented programmer, and that he DID actually skim the workshop before proceeding to flame me, but I don't understand why he had to do so in such a negative way.

He even posted his own "code hack" on my website to show that he could do things better than Matt Wright. But I did have a good reason for using this particular Matt Wright script. (This isn't formmail, or wwwboard - both of these scripts are full of holes and are regularly targeted by script kiddies.) I used a cookie script from Matt's archive because it is well documented, neatly written and contains code that I can re-use and build. I will also contrast Matt's use of a library later when I build a .pm that does the same thing.

Randall is a perl guru - I am not. But I do know some perl, I am a pretty good teacher - and yes, I want to share the knowledge that I have. I am not interested in portraying myself as a perl-god, I simply find it helpful (helpful to me and helpful to others) by conducting these workshops. It is a nice way to meet other web designers. I would have appreciated help if any were offered in a constructive way. This is only heckling. It isn't helpful, it only serves to inflate Randall's image of himself (see his hacking escapades on his website - this guy loves himself).

Matt
PS - I ask for real email addresses as a way of keeping things honest - (Response to second question). I am giving people access to post information and upload files.