Programming in Perl - Spring 2009

In preparation for today's class on Perl/Tk, please make sure your machine has a working installation of Perl and Tk installed. There is a handout on the syllabus page entitled "Steps To PerlTk", detailing how to get Perl/Tk installed on your local machine. These instructions will have you download and use ActiveState's distribution of Perl (cleverly named ActivePerl). If you so choose, you may instead download Strawberry Perl, or use Cygwin to get a Unix-like flavor, or if you're really daring, compile Perl yourself from the source files found at perl.com. I recommend just using ActivePerl.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Homework 6 is now available.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

I want to restate something from the Useful Modules lecture, because more than half the class got it wrong on the ICA. When using GetOpt::Long, ALL options are optional. That's why they're called "options". More than half the class is apparently under the impression that you use foo:i for an "optional" option and foo=i for a "required" option. This is not the case. You use a colon when you want the user to be able to provide a value to the option or to choose not to. You use an equals when the user must provide a value any time the option is given. If I use foo=i then any time the user provides --foo on the command line, it must be followed by an integer. If I use foo:i, then when the user provides --foo on the command line, it may or may not be followed by an integer value. If it is not, GetOptions will simply set it equal to 0. In either case, however, the user is under no requirement to provide the option in the first place.

	./program.pl	./program.pl --foo	./program.pl --foo 5
'foo' => \$foo	`$foo` is left untouched	`$foo` = 1	`$foo` = 1 (5 is still in `@ARGV`)
'foo:i' => \$foo	`$foo` is left untouched	`$foo` = 0	`$foo` = 5
'foo=i' => \$foo	`$foo` is left untouched	Run Time Error!	`$foo` = 5

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Wednesday, March 25

Homework 5 is now available as well. It is due in three weeks, two weeks after HW4 is due.

Wednesday, March 18

Homework 4 is now available.

Monday, March 2, 2009

My solution to HW2 is now posted on the Homeworks page

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Homework 3 is now posted.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

HW2 FAQ now available. It will be updated as more questions are sent to us.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Sample I/O has been posted for HW2.

The duedate for Homework 2 has been extended to Friday, February 27, 2009.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Homework 2 is now available.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Sample output and a FAQ are available now for HW1, on the Homeworks page.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Those of you who did not have CS Accounts at the start of the semester should have just received an email from labstaff about your new account. Please follow the directions contained therein immediately. Specifically, log in and change your temporary password. It WILL EXPIRE if you do not.

Those of you who have a CS Account and do not know the password, please email labstaff@cs.rpi.edu and ask them to reset your password for you.

Starting with ICA3 and HW2 next week, we will begin using the CS Accounts exclusively, and no longer connecting to rcs-sun4.rpi.edu at all. Please make sure you are ready for this transition.

Part B of Homework 1 is now available.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Part A of Homework 1 is now available.

The schedule for all remaining Homeworks has also now been posted.

ICA 0 has been corrected. You can view your ICA grades on the Check Grades link above. My solution is also available on the Syllabus.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Your first ICA will be given today at the end of lecture. While these assignments are usually due at the end of the class, this first assignment will be due next Tuesday night at 11:59:59pm.

If you have not already done so, please complete the Sign Up Form. You will need it to submit your assignment.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Welcome to Spring 2009's Programming in Perl course webpage. This website is a work-in-progress. All information, dates, and policies should be considered tentative and subject to change.

There will be no class on the first week of the semester, Wednesday January 14, 2009. Class will commence on January 21.

Before the end of the first class, please fill out This Signup Form. This will add you to the course grading sheet and mailing list. The password you choose will be used for checking your grades and submitting the assignments.

You will need your laptop computers in every class of this course. While it will be technically optional for the first class, it is strongly suggested. We will cover connecting to your RCS accounts, editing a file in Unix, and starting the perl interpreter.

Perl

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