On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 11:15 AM, Steve <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:steve@matsch.com">steve@matsch.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
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On 7/26/2010 11:41 AM, Marc Gamontini wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Being a new comer to Catalyst myself, I've had similar experiences. I will say that we were all warned that the learning curve was substantial (I'm referring to the Definitive Guide to Catalyst). Over the past year I have had to put off things that I *wanted* to do because I didn't quite understand enough about the underlying code. Tools like HTML::FormHandler have several features that I think would be cool to use (Widgets), but I've had enough just getting basic database updates to work that I can't possibly spend the time now learning how to make HFH output HTML (I'm sticking with template toolkit).</blockquote>
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I will say that I've learned a lot about Catalyst, and feel like I've just scratched the surface. We do have a very simple production application written in Catalyst, and are working on a much more complex one currently, as we are believers in the perl community and CPAN and the philosophies associated with them.<br>
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Good luck, and keep at it!<br>
Steve<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
</blockquote></blockquote></div><div><br></div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><div>Similar experience here -- Catalyst pulls in so many modules, it's difficult to see which method, from which module, is the one that's Just Right for the task at hand. This is the strong point of modular code, of course: just refer to a module someone else has already written that takes care of this issue, leverage their experience and brainpower, and you save yourself a lot of time.</div>
<div><br></div><div>But there's still a steep investment finding the right method from the right module. There are so many!</div><div><br></div><div>It's a difficult problem and I don't think there will be any great solution any time soon. Google helps, places like CPAN help, folks who blog about their trials and tribulations and solutions can help, but a definitive "how to do my very specific task X" is often difficult to find without disturbing folks on-list. (I'm imagining a Carnegie grant to get something going... :) There's still a learning curve, but the corve has moved -- from "how do I do this in Perl" to "How do I leverage the experience of all these bright folks who have gone before me?"</div>
<div><br></div><div>But even for all its complexity and power, Catalyst really is well documented, the community is great, and putting working websites together really does get more and more elegant, the more you learn about the framework. I was coding for a bit with a hardware wonk watching over my shoulder and he saw me add two lines of code that did tons of work, adding loads of functionality, and he was just floored. Getting to the point where you know which two lines of code to add, that's the trick. :)</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div>"You're going to charge me five hundred dollars for hitting the engine with a hammer?"</div><div>"No, the hammer-hit only costs $1. Knowing WHERE to hit the engine, *that* costs $499."<br>
</div><div><br></div></span><br>-- <br>will trillich<br>"Sometimes life's gonna hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith." -- Steve Jobs<br>