> I think that one of the main use of Perl is to create web apps. > And the best way of creating web apps is by using a web framework. > And the most developed web framework for Perl is Catalyst. > But those who prefer other frameworks do it because they consider Catalyst > too complex and hard to understand. > So yes, a more clear documentation for Catalyst should be very helpful. > Newbies might have the time and willing to write it, but they might not > know > what to write. :) > So... applying for a grant to do it may be the solution. > > > --Octavian
Good documentation is clearly necessary, but I don't think that it will by itself be enough to attract newbies. I am an interested newbie, so perhaps I can add something to the conversation. My impression is that Catalyst is not so complex by itself, but it sits at the top of a pyramid of knowledge domains that are both broad and deep. MVC (each letter is a book in itself), Perl/CPAN, OO, web servers, security, web hosting (your shared hosting won't work), etc. What did I miss? The loosely coupled Catalyst approach to web frameworks therefore benefits from a loosely coupled approach to Catalyst training. What's the minimum required knowledge to create a "best practice" web application using Catalyst? Each area requires a loosely coupled learning module, that both stands on its own, and directly supports a minimal, yet "best practice" prerequisite understanding necessary for integration into a Catalyst application. I'd like to point out Andrew Solomon's excellent Geekuni courses. I'm just finishing up the Perl Essentials course, which I enrolled in primarily as an on-ramp to the Dancer course. The combination of carefully designed tasks, instant feedback, and mentoring provides a holistic learning experience that I couldn't achieve from months of reading books, online tutorials, and writing my own perl scripts. Yes, I was able to write many useful scripts without fully understanding many of the concepts I was using. I'm anticipating that the Dancer course will be equally effective. I recommend that the Catalyst community work with Andrew Solomon and Geekuni to create and promote courses that would support Catalyst (and prerequisites) training. Full Disclosure - I'm a perl newbie, and I'd love to learn to build useful web applications with Catalyst. :) _______________________________________________ List: [email protected] Listinfo: http://lists.scsys.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/catalyst Searchable archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Dev site: http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/
