Is it feasible to learn Perl and Catalyst at the same time?

Question

Is it feasible to learn Perl and Catalyst at the same time? If so, what would be the typical path?

I am experienced .Net/C#/C++ developer but fairly new to Perl

Nosh

Answer 1

Catalyst is a web framework in Perl which does use some advanced concepts in Perl like attributes, references, et cetera. Perl should be learnt first. When you are comfortable with Perl, you can dive into Catalyst.

For learning Perl, you can check out http://learn.perl.org/. There are lots of Perl Mongers websites as well. You may be able to find a community near your area too!

Also do surf on to Perl Monks.

Chug

Alan, our answers couldn't conflict much more. I'm interested to see what the community thinks. – Antigen

Kind of the same thing as "should I learn Ruby before using Rails?" I agree that the language should be learned before the framework. You may get by without knowing the language very well, but you won't know exactly what you're doing. – Hydrography

I'm going to come down on this side of the fence. Even if you're absolutely great at absorbing information, start familiarizing yourself with Perl by writing some simple programs that don't use any thing fancier than stdin and stdout. Then make your way up to code that uses a few different modules at once (preferably OO ones) and uses references fluently. Then, if you don't feel overwhelmed, dive into Catalyst with the help of the latest book. – Underexposure

Answer 2

Start right away with a gentle Catalyst tutorial, with some beginner's Perl tutorials/references handy. Coming from C#/C++ you will have a few surprises with Perl, but not enough to worry about. Perl is typically distributed with much documentation, and it's invaluable. So I feel you can pick up on Perl as you learn Catalyst, and then learn deeper Perl skills later.

Antigen

Answer 3

In the book, coming out on the 12th of july 2009, we recommend that you're familiar with Perl data types, references, and objects. The best free sources I came up with for learning about this stuff are the Perlmonks tutorials, especially the one on references.

If you're an experienced programmer just getting into perl then Catalyst is quite a good way to learn how to program disciplined, structured, object oriented Perl.

Other than that, as dwc says the tutorial is pretty good.

Anagoge

What is the title of the book? The link is dead. – Fibroma

this one. Affiliate link donates 50% of royalties to the perl foundation (not that they're very significant royalties ... ) – Anagoge

Answer 4

The most important thing to remember to always:

use strict;
use warnings;

at the beginning of all Perl files.

(at least until you know why)

Alane

Answer 5

I think its only natural to know about the material that goes into building before constructing one. and framework is precisely that.

Natural transition is from the basics and if you think you have less time, you should probably start with small books like Beginning perl by simon cozens or learn.perl.org etc to know what it is like to write programs what are differences in procedural and object oriented lingo when it comes to perl etc.

Supinator