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Yet Another Perl Conference
Jeff Wheeler writes "Yet Another Perl Conference is a cheap, rogue perl conference at Carnegie Mellon University on June 24 - 25. Speakers will include Chris Nador, Kevin Lenzo, Jonathan Chafee, Mark-Jason Dominus, Randal Schwartz, and, of course, Larry Wall. YAPC should cost less than 100$US.
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Please fix it. :)
when is the algorithms book due out? sounds nifty to me....
Finally, a conference within a reasonable distance from my house. I'd probably go even if it was about something I don't really need. I just need the company of some fellow geeks. Hehe.
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Ever accidentally forget to close an expression and get the error "unexpected fun" when it tries to parse the next function? The fact that even errors can be unexpectedly fun makes ML a better language than scheme.
(incidentally, 15-212 at CMU is ML only these days. They even stopped teaching in in Java.)
When was that... I heard that it used to be taught in Lisp... In any event, it shows that CMU has at least realized the error of their ways unlike MIT.
A couple of years ago, I'd've sold my kidney to go to that conference. Now... I see Perl as a mediocre language that was pushed into the limelight by the WWW. Armies of novice coders needed languages that they could learn and use *fast*; Perl fit the bill.
There's some high-powered geeks showing up at that conference, though. Maybe I'll go for that. The language itself? Uh-uh.
I sure hope it's under $100! However, I'm so
desperate to have a geek convention in Pittsburgh
I may actually pay that much. Whatever happened
to Pittsburgh being the supercomputing capitol of
the world? Damn the NSF!
While Perl can be a little obscure, I think the real problem is macho code jocks. It is possible (and even easy) to express yourself clearly with Perl, just as it is in C.
All too often programmers think that "quick to type" means "quick to run".
I'm a junior in high school and I'm going through the college application times. I'm taking my SAT I's May 1, SAT II's June 5, and my AP tests in June also. I'm thinking about applying to Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Georgia Tech, Stevens, RIT, and Rennsalear. My mom won't let me goto Caltech or Stanford if I even get in (fat chance...hehe), so I'm not even applying. If I don't get into MIT, CMU seems like the place for me to be. Hopefully over spring break I can go visit the campus and if I'm lucky, attend a conference! ;o
The spelling is Rensselaer. :) (It's the job
of RPI alumni to correct the spelling when ever
we can... 'cause sometimes even we mess it up!:)
Good luck on your applications! All of those sound like good choices.
The reason there's so much unreadable Perl code out there is because it *is* so easy to learn, so you get a LOT of novices/inexperienced coders writing Perl scripts without any clear understanding of how to write good clean code.
You usually find that someone with a lot of good, clean coding experience (doesn't matter what language) tends to write good, clean Perl code as well.
CMU sounds like a nice place for a conference, except for the lack of nearby hotels.
I got my MS from CMU and really liked Pittsburgh. It was fun driving around the ruins and disused infrastructure of the old days of big steel, and finding strange little neighborhoods hidden behind slag heaps.
The campus is very techy and interesting. Big long buildings built with sloping floors, so that they could be turned into factories if the university thing didn't work out.
Also a confusing campus. The 7th floor of Wean Hall connects to the 1st floor of Dorohty hall.
Stefan
I don't think they've dropped the Java version of the course just yet. I think it's just nobody wanted to teach the Java version this semester.
And who would when the language is controlled by Sun?
Hehehehe
/.'ers who were in 129 and are in 251 with me will agree :).
... unless it's during _our_ spring break (last week of march) in which case you should come back when we're in session. And we have interesting speakers just about every day of the week if you're interested.
15-212 in Java is history. ML only. And we code in C++ freshman year, unlike the poor bastards at MIT in Scheme (a LISP for those not familiar). My friend at MIT ported his raytracer to Scheme to win the freshman programming contest.
Very little I've seen yet matches the rigor of the freshman courses 15-129 and 15-251 (as I'm sure all the
If you wanna visit give me a wire kenshiroc@hotmail.com
While I see your point, last year I had a hard time justifying a $3000.00 tab(tutorial, conf, hotel, car, and airfare) and I work for a large international company. It's still damned expensive no matter how you look at it. I probably won't be able to go this year due to cost.
Mom won't let you go to the left coast eh? Try going to Stanford anyway. I'm a stones throw from the university and this is definitely a cool place to be. Especially considering all the Linux events are here, Linus is here, LinuxWorld is here, VA Research is here (and not in Virginia as I discovered this morning-just a stones throw from my office)
Or, get an MBA from Stanford for some serious $$$ and prestige.
The PSC was great at crunching large amounts of data. The NCSA was great at making themselves look good. It just goes to show what counts in the Real World...
hey man, there are no mediocre programming languages, only mediocre programmers. Perl is just a another tool, you either know how to use it or you don't.
Maybe *now* they use ML; I remember taking 15-212 in Scheme...
The floors are sloped for architectural reasons, the factory thing was either a joke Carnegie made or myth propagated by admissions.
I'm not sure how long ago you were here, but the seventh floor of Wean is currently connected to the second floor of Doherty.
The steam tunnels are the best part.
The ORA conf was something like 800.00 which was absurd. I mean USENIX is only 350 or so and 350 per full day tutorial. I emailed OReilly asking what was up with the absurd price w/o an answer.
I'll go to this to support a cheaper conf. Let the market decide!
Ron
Would anyone happen to know if there is to be a Perl conference in the Pacific Northwest area anytime soon?
Being based out of Pittsburgh and having to constantly fly anywhere to get anywhere important, this is a nice change of pace. I'm also a CMU alumnus and I also worked professionally for CMU six months and one thing I can say for sure -- life there sucks -- but it does look good on your resume, and there is a lot of opportunity there (the atmosphere helped me start ML.ORG)... In any case, the airport is very nice :)
CMU kicks MIT's ass anyday. That's because we
use real typesafe languages like ML rather than
that joke of language, scheme.
I have my own gripes about the pricing for the ORA conference, but I don't know there is much that can be done. This year it is in Monterey, which will be even more expensive, I think. But realize that the ORA conference is not for hackers, it is for businesses. The market the Perl Conference is aimed at, it seems, is used to paying that kind of fee for a conference. And hey, it helps pay for www.perl.com, so it can't be all bad. :)
Get off my lawn.
Get off my lawn.