How to be a good Perl programmer

Now that we have learned a little about what Perl programming language is, let's tell you more about the art, the profession, or the hobby of programming in this wonderful language.

The Good Perl Programmer

It has a very famous slogan, which says that the good Perl programmer has three characteristics:

1. It's lazy
2. Impatient
3. Hubris (in the sense of being arrogant)

Sounds like three bad things, doesn't it? But calm down, let's explain this story better.

A lazy person wants to do little work, try as little as possible.
So a good Perl programmer will try to do something, solve the problem as easily as possible, striving and rolling as little as possible to get rid of that problem right away.

There is even a famous phrase from Bill Gates that talks about it:

Impatient people don't want to do something the computer could be doing. After all, machines are for this: to do what we want, in a very quick way. So Perl programmers will avoid doing everything they can, and will delegate things to their scripts as much as possible.

You also have to be hubris. You have to want to share your code, show it to the community, to colleagues.

Obviously, you will not show an ugly, confusing script ... you will want to show something beautiful, simple, straightforward ... do in 10 lines what someone else did using 50.

Others also have to understand what you have done.
So you should also search in a readable, easily understandable way by others.
You have to want to show your work to others.

How to be a good Perl programmer

Another well-known phrase in the Perl world is:
There is more than one way to do it

It's such a flexible language that you'll never find two Perl scripts alike.
Perl programs are like a fingerprint, each one is different and is the face of its creator.

What will define you as a good programmer is your initial study here at Progressive Perl.
There is no right and wrong way to make code, there are ways and ways, so it is important here in the beginning to get you started, to make good code.

So for the rest of the course, read carefully, calmly, without haste.
Make sure you get everything right, it makes sense in your head.

Don't decorate, learn. It has to make sense, you have to understand what you are doing, what is happening and why.

Read here, do internet searches, visit forums, ask on social networks or here in the site comments. It is part of learning.

And the main thing: make the codes, write, type.
It's good to watch videos ... but just watching or reading will never make you a programmer.

Put your hand in the code, type, make mistakes, rewrite, that's how you learn.

By the way, it's important to persist.
Study. Did not understand? Read again. Nothing yet? Research, ask questions.

Going to do an exercise, can't you? Try again.
Nothing ? Try one more time.
At square zero? Go out, have a coffee, watch a youtube video, come back and try again.

A big, ugly, confusing code come out?
That's the way, little by little you get better.

Do you want to give up, do something else?
Relax your head, this is extremely normal, it happens to everyone.
The important thing is to go back to study, go back and try to solve the problem again.

Programming is that, solving problems, using creativity, programming is 99% transpiration and 1% inspiration.

Those guys who make wonderful code, in a few lines, without any mistake, did not reach that point overnight, no one is born knowing that.

It was sweating, grating, studying, trying again to make the script work, was reading code from others, asking, asking questions ...

OK?
Let's get our hands dirty?

Now, let's learn how to create our first Perl program in the next tutorial.