Advanced Perl Training

Course Number: PRL-102
Duration: 4 days
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Advanced Perl Training Overview

Accelebrate's Advanced Perl training teaches Perl developers the skills they need to fully utilize Perl’s object-oriented features, interact with databases, use Perl/Tk, extend Perl with C/C++, and write their own Perl modules.

Location and Pricing

Most Accelebrate courses are taught on-site at our clients' locations worldwide for groups of 3 or more attendees and are customized to their specific needs. Please visit our client list to see organizations for whom we have recently delivered training. These courses can also be delivered as live, private online classes for groups that are geographically dispersed or wish to save on the instructor's or students' travel expenses. To receive a customized proposal and price quote private training at your site or online, please contact us.

In addition, some courses are available as live, online classes for individuals. To see a schedule of online courses, please visit http://www.accelebrate.com/online_training/?action=category&page=perl.

Advanced Perl Training Prerequisites

All attendees must have prior Perl programming experience, either from their own work or Accelebrate's Introduction to Perl Programming training.

Hands-on/Lecture Ratio

This Perl training class is 70% hands-on, 30% lecture, with the longest lecture segments lasting for 20 minutes. Students "learn by doing," with immediate opportunities to apply the material they learn to real-world problems.

Advanced Perl Training Materials

All attendees receive comprehensive courseware and a copy of O'Reilly's Perl Best Practices.

Software Needed on Each Student PC (or a Server Accessible via Telnet or Remote Desktop Connection)

Windows, MacOS, or Unix operating system
The latest version of Perl installed
A text editor for editing the Perl scripts (please contact us to discuss the best editor for your environment)
DBI.pm (downloadable from CPAN at http://search.cpan.org/search?module=DBI)
A database of the customer's choice (MySQL recommended; almost all major databases can be accommodated)
The appropriate DBD (DBI database driver) for the database

Accelebrate welcomes the opportunity to assist its clients with configuring their environment for class.

Advanced Perl Training Objectives

Debug Perl applications using a variety of tools
Manipulate lists
Create packages
Utilize Perl’s object-oriented features and write their own classes
Install and use Perl modules
Integrate Perl scripts with databases using the DBI module
Explore the fundamentals of Perl/Tk programming
Extend Perl with C/C++
Develop their own Perl modules

Advanced Perl Training Outline

Debugging

Warnings
Diagnostic Messages
Carping, Confessing, and Croaking
Strict Checks
Compiler Pragmas
Debugging Flags
Your Perl Configuration
The Devel::Peek Module
The Data::Dumper Module

Expert List Manipulation

The grep Operator
Lists, Arrays, and List Operators
Context
Context and Subroutines
Initializing Arrays and Hashes
Reference Syntax
Auto-vivification
Defined Values
Other List Operators
Usage of map, grep, and foreach

Blocks and Code References

Blocks
Subroutines
Subroutine Prototypes
Code Refs and Anonymous Subroutines
Typeglobbing for the Non-Squeamish
Local (Dynamic) Variables
Lexical Variables
Persistent Private Subroutine Variables
Closures
The eval Operator
The Block Form of eval
The String Form of eval
Block Form of eval for Exception Handling

Packages

Review of Packages
BEGIN and END Blocks
Symbol Tables
Package Variables
Calling Package Subroutines
Importing Package Symbols
Exporting Package Symbols
Using the Exporter Package
The use Function
AUTOLOAD and @ISA
AutoLoader and SelfLoader

Objects and Classes

Object-Oriented Stuff
Making Perl Object-Oriented
References
The bless Function
So, What's a Blessed Thing Good For?
Calling Class and Object Methods
Object Methods
Writing Classes
Constructors
Inheritance
What Perl Doesn't Do

Tied Variables

Why Use tie?
Tying a Scalar
Inside Tied Variables
untie
Tying an Array
Tying Hashes
Tie::Hash and Tie::Array
Tying Filehandles
What Are DBM, NDBM, GDBM, SDBM, etc?
Using the DBM Modules

Installing and Using Perl Modules

Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris
CPAN
Using Modules
Installing a Perl Module
Unpacking the Module Source
The Configuration Step
The Build Step
The Test Step
The Install Step
Using CPAN.pm
Using Module Documentation

Introduction to DBI/DBD

The Old Way - DBPerls
A Better Way - DBI/DBD
Database Programming
Handles
Connecting to the Database
Creating a SQL Query
Getting the Results
Updating Database Data
Transaction Management
Finishing Up

DBI/DBD SQL Programming

Error Checking in DBI
Getting Connected
Drivers
Using Parameterized Statements
Statement Handle Attributes
Other Handle Attributes
Column Binding
The do Method
BLOBs and LONGs and Such
Installing DBI Drivers

Introduction to Perl/Tk

Tcl, Tk, Tcl/Tk, Tkperl, Perl/Tk, etc.
Perl/Tk
Creating a Perl/Tk Application
GUI Programming Overview
Adding Widgets
Scrolled Widgets
Configuring Widgets
Menus
More Fun with Menus
Using FileSelect

Perl/Tk Programming

Tk::Error and Tk::ErrorDialog
Configuring Widgets
Geometry Management
Geometry Management with grid()
The Frame Widget
Defining Widget Callbacks
Bindings
Nonblocking I/O with fileevent()
Tags
Other Widgets
Other Tk Commands
Getting Tk

Extending Perl with C/C++

Extending the Perl Interpreter
Overview of Perl5 XSUBs
Get Started with h2xs
Set up the Perl Wrapper Class
Write the XS Code
The XS File
Write Some Test Code
What Do You Want?
Returning Values on the Stack
A Walk Through an XSUB
Arguments to XSUBs
Other h2xs Options

Embedding the Perl Interpreter

Why Embed Perl?
Embedding Perl in a C Program
Compiling the Program
perlmain.c
Perl Data Types
Macros and Functions
Manipulating Scalars
Memory Management
Script Space
Evaluating Perl Expressions
Dynamic Loading
Multiple Perl Interpreters

Module Development and Distribution

Distributing Modules
Get Started with h2xs
Files Created by h2xs
The Build Library (blib) ulectory
Unit Testing and test.pl
Versions
Using blib
POD
POD Translators
Cutting a Distribution
Other Niceties
Makefile.PL

Design and Implementation

Think First
Object-Oriented Design
Object-Oriented Development
Library Modules
Utility Programs
Filters
Performance
Timing with Benchmark

Conclusion

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