Perl Weekly Challenge – 2019-03-25

I’m not sure that I’ll have time to do these every week, but here are my answers to this week’s two Perl Weekly Challenges. Challenge #1 Write a script to replace the character ‘e’ with ‘E’ in the string ‘Perl Weekly Challenge’. Also print the number of times the character ‘e’ found in the string.

Nothing really complicated here. We can… Continue reading Perl Weekly Challenge – 2019-03-25

A Subtle Bug

Earlier this week, I saw this code being recommended on Stack Overflow. The code contains a nasty, but rather subtle bug. The version I saw has been fixed now, but I thought there were some interesting lessons to learn by looking at the problems in some detail. Let’s start by working out what the bug… Continue reading A Subtle Bug

Please Don’t Use CGI.pm

Put CGI.pm in the Bin

Earlier this week, the Perl magazine site, perl.com, published an article about writing web applications using CGI.pm. That seemed like a bizarre choice to me, but I’ve decided to use it as an excuse to write an article explaining why I think that’s a really bad idea. It’s important to start by getting some definitions… Continue reading Please Don’t Use CGI.pm

Fixing a Bug

Fixing a Bug

I fixed a bug earlier this week. Ok, actually, I introduced a bug and then spent the next few hours tracking it down and fixing it – but that doesn’t sound quite so positive, does it? I thought it might be interesting to talk you through the bug and the fix. I should point out… Continue reading Fixing a Bug

Line of Succession

I’m a republican. No… wait… come back! That’s not what I mean. I’m a long way from being a supporter of the Republican Party. I mean “republican” in its older meaning of “someone who thinks their country should be a republic. That is to say, I’m not a big fan of the British royal family.… Continue reading Line of Succession