[Catalyst] Advent Calendar... Grant proposal...

[rick at hiranyaloka.com]

> 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. :)