[PLUG-ANNOUNCE] Craftsmanship Panel -- Portland Perl Mongers

[Eric Wilhelm]

Wed, Sept 13th,  6:53pm at FreeGeek -- 1731 SE 10th Ave., Portland, OR

A machinist, a writer, and a hacker walk into a Perl Mongers meeting...

We're doing a panel on craftsmanship for the September meeting of the  
Portland Perl Mongers.  I'm throwing these difficult questions to a 
panel of three craftsmen (all of whom have done a fair amount of work 
with software.)

  o In a world of rough carpentry, does craftsmanship matter?
  o The bottom line is important, but which one?
  o What effect does open-source have?

More info:  http://pdx.pm.org/kwiki/

Of course the venue implies that there will be a "with regard to Perl" 
bent to the discussion, but 2/3 of the panel doesn't know too much 
Perl, so there will also be a healthy dose of "with regard to software 
in general" involved.

Perl may have a reputation as a write-only language, but I've found that 
many of the best Perl hackers have an impressive command of software 
engineering/architecture concepts.  (And many of Portland's own are 
working on large systems in Perl.)  With some of the modules on CPAN 
and the work on Perl6, perl has started to acquire advanced concepts 
such as metaprogramming and domain-specific languages.  It's obvious 
that this is not Perl4 anymore, even if the kids in the back of the 
class haven't noticed.  Yes, there's still enough rope to shoot 
yourself in the foot with, but a good butcher knows that the bandsaw 
will always take his arm off faster than it cuts a side of beef.

Join us for an evening of mixed metaphors about all things 
Craftsmanship, possibly some answers, and beer at the end.

--Eric
-- 
I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a
desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
--E.B. White
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