G+_Joe C. Hecht Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Review: TWiT's Coding 101 - Episode 23 - Perl: RegEx Search and Replace Like fine wine, sometimes, this show seems to improve with time. Episode 23 is no exception, and brings forth additional explanations on the useage of Perl's powerful RegEx support. I give this episode a rating of "Highly Recommended". The show's hosts (Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ and Shannon Morse) presented the material clearly (and concisely), and delivered the show in a very relaxed manner. Unlike some of the previous episodes, this show seemed neither freewheeling or caffeinated, nor practiced or targeted, but instead came across very natural, with the viewers here reporting a feeling that the host's knew very well what they were presenting, and demonstrated a very high degree of confidence. As I understand it, the hosts have been on hiatus for a wedding of one of the hosts (congratulations and well wishes go out to Shannon Morse), and the vacation seems to have paid off well for all involved (both the hosts and the viewers). One would be hard pressed to find issue with Episode 23, but none the less, arguably, some small critiques can be made. First, let me say that I have a lot of respect for anyone that can hold up a hand and take responsibility for any sort of delivered shortcoming, and Episode 23 left me only able to stand and applaud. The hosts not only went over the top to take responsibility for past issues with show notes and code postings, but went on to say that the issues were being addressed, and that improvements were on the way. So where did the show fall short? That is a hard call to make, and I am going to have to get pretty picky to deliver. So here ya go: Perhaps word wrap could have been turned off and the notepad widow enlarged slightly to avoid one single line break in the code (simply for clarity). Tough to do for a live show? Probably. The Perl Guru (TWiT's Patrick Delahanty) starts with code output that is perhaps less than totally clear, and he would be well advised (again) to issue screen clearing commands between code runs, and perhaps practice delivering the code (and preparing the code content) a bit more before recording the show, and to consider what the code and presentation looks like from the viewer's side of things. We still have had no explanation of the SheBang line in the code, and Patrick gives an explanation that mentions the use of "Smart quotes", without ever explaining what a "Smart quote" actually is. Describing what a "=~" expression component is as a "regular expression thing" might have deserved a better explanation. Patrick is working on a Mac, and showing the command he uses to start his editor of choice is only going to cause a some viewers to type "emacs" and wonder what they are doing wrong when (and if) the command fails to run (Windows viewers). Again, tough to do for a live show? Probably. I was very happy to see the show's hosts asking the guru questions that some viewers would have had (and that the guru should have covered by default). As of late, I have been missing in the chat room during the time the show is recorded, so I am unsure if the questions came from chat room members, or where explanation shortcomings that that the hosts picked up on, but in either case, the questions were addressed, and the guru was sharp enough to ask "are there any other questions" before moving on (always a good question to ask). This was a good show. I hope there is follow up on the show's posted example code that will work well for all users (providing line endings for both Windows and Unix like systems). Again, this episode was tough one to critique, and I hope that trend continues. Certainly, doing the show live, and with little (if any) post editing is nothing short of difficult, and one would think the practice would leave a lot to easily find fault with. I did try hard to find those faults, and shoot holes in what (little) I did find. In case anyone is wondering if I have "gone soft" simply due to being asked to host a couple of episodes of the show, that is simply not true. I did blow holes in everything I did find, and anyone who knows me will testify that I never make exceptions in my take on brutal honesty. Simply put, I call it like I see it, both the good and bad, and in this case, I can happily report that foe the most part, "It's good". For a live offering, it is very good. Like the previous episode (#22), I give a call out to the hosts, and say "Kudo's" for a job well done. TJoe Joe C. Hecht, Code4Sale, LLC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Patrick Delahanty Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Joe, thanks for the feedback! I actually did have Perl code samples prepared ahead of time, but had to change things up live based on Padre's line of questioning and so that's why I was doing live coding. I'll try to remember to clear the screen more often before running code in future episodes. Thanks for watching! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Joe C. Hecht Posted July 1, 2014 Author Share Posted July 1, 2014 Patrick Delahanty A live presentation is harder than it looks. I did two (one today and one over the weekend) and dealing with the desktop captures, multiple cameras, virtual inputs, juggling the presentation, and keeping your cool is a lot of pressure. You kept your cool. Kudos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Patrick Delahanty Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 My main concern was hoping that the font was readable on the stream...unlike the first Perl episode. Oops! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Larry Weiss Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Yes, what I saw was readable as streamed...and I download the highest resolution version of Coding 101 to get the best image recorded....all other TWiT shows, I download in lowest resolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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