Courses 2011

Once again we could win Damian Conway as instructor for courses in 2011. Damian is the author of several books about Perl and of numerous Perl modules. In addition to his work as Perl instructor and consultant he works closely together with Larry Wall on the definition of Perl 6.

The courses are being organized together with the IT services of ETH Zurich. Courses will be held in room D44 of the CHN building next to the main building of ETH Zurich between 9 and 17h unless marked differently. The courses will be given in English.

For registration, please follow the links below each course. Please note, if you don't have an ETH account you need to first open a guest account. You'll find the relevant information on the registration pages.

NOTE: The course on Advanced Presentation Techniques on 31 August 2011 is not a IT specific course, but addresses its topic in a general manner. The Regular Expression course on 25 August 2011 can also by useful for users of other programming languages, as (Perl) Regular Expressions can be used in various languages. The course on the editor Vim 27 August 2011 is not Perl-specific.

The following course schedule was selected based on the popularity of the topics in a Doodle poll.

Introduction to Perl for Programmers: Monday/Tuesday, 22/23 August 2011 (two-day course) --- Registration
This tutorial is a quick guide to the features and philosophy of the Perl programming language. It covers basic syntax, operators, data structures, control structures, I/O, references, subroutines, packages and modules, existing Perl libraries, debugging, and documentation.
Mastering Perl Data Structures: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 --- Registration
One of Perl's most useful and powerful features is its comprehensive set of built-in data structures. This course explores Perl's core data types in detail, focussing on the combination and nesting of references, arrays, and hashes to create essential programming tools such as queues, stacks, tuples, records, sets, single- and bi-directional mappings, tables, and trees.
Understanding Regular Expressions for Bioinformatics: Thursday, 25 August 2011 --- Registration
This one-day tutorial will introduce Perl programmers in bioinformatics-related fields to the full functionality of Perl's regular expressions.
Perl Best Practice: Friday, 26 August 2011 --- Registration
One of the major challenges of using Perl in a development environment is that Perl's "More Than One Way To Do It" philosophy often means there are far too many choices when it comes to solving a particular problem using the language. This makes coding standards and the use of best-practice techniques especially important in Perl development.
Mastering Vim: Saturday, 27 August 2011 (8.30-12.00) --- Registration
It may not be true that most humans only use 10% of their brains, but it's definitely true that most programmers who use vi or Vim only use about one tenth of the power of those editors. This tutorial explores some of the lesser-known but amazingly useful features of Vim.
Introductory Object-Oriented Perl: Monday, 29 August 2011 --- Registration
This one-day tutorial will show you how to build on the basic Perl constructs and techniques you already know and discover the elegance and power of Perl's OO capabilities.
Introduction to Modern Perls (5.10, 5.12, 5.14): Tuesday, 30 August 2011 --- Registration
Perl 5.10 added more useful features to the language than any other release since Perl 5.0.0. However, many people are now using Perl 5.10, without taking advantage of those new features.
Perl 5.12 and 5.14 are the latest releases of Perl and provide important refinements and enhancements to the extra functionality introduced in Perl 5.10. Perl 5.12 was released in early 2010, and Perl 5.14 a year later.
This one-day tutorial provides a detailed introduction to the new and improved features of these three modern versions of Perl 5, along with practical examples of how they can improve the performance, robustness, and maintainability of your code.
Advanced Technical Presentation Techniques: Wednesday, 31 August 2011 --- Registration
Presenting technical information to an audience is one of the hardest tasks any professional can face. Presenting effectively is not a natural talent for most people. Indeed, many technical presentations utterly fail in their primary objective -- to convey a complex idea or argument clearly and convincingly.
The best, most effective presentations capture the audience quickly, hold their interest effortlessly, educate and entertain them in equal measure, and sometimes even inspire them. This day-long tutorial explores simple and effective techniques for achieving those goals in any kind of technical presentation.
The morning sessions focus on preparation, content selection, delivery techniques, and handling questions.
The afternoon sessions will be run as a workshop. A limited number of attendees will have the opportunity to give a short presentation they have previously created (or specifically created for the class), after which we will work through it together to improve its design and delivery. Those attendees who prefer not to present during the workshop will still benefit greatly from the observations and suggestions made to other participants.

Comments of former participants.

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