Perl is a fantastic programming language. It has all the essential elements for doing almost any kind of work. With the CPAN, Perl has unlimited uses. That's why using Perl as a foundation for writing your own single purpose programming language makes sense.
Most professional Perl programmers stand to learn a lot of new and interesting things about Perl. The nuances of syntax and the malleability of the language are astounding and often offer new, deeper understanding to the most seasoned practitioners. We will journey through rarely used features of the language and expose them in practical applications.
In this session you will learn techniques for creating elegant, new programming languages. We'll cover:
* Manipulating Perl's syntax with prototypes, attributes, lvalue functions, AUTOLOAD, and more.
* Simplifying syntax, making Perl look like something new.
* Writing custom interpreters (#!/bin/your-language).
* Advanced MakeMaker techniques.
* Using testing tools such as prove with your new language.
A minor word of caution: If you are new to Perl this talk may confuse you. If you still want to attend, please watch Jesse Vincent's fantastic primer on Domain Specific Languages. He presented this talk last year at YAPC::Asia. Here's a link (with video): http://tokyo2007.yapcasia.org/sessions/2007/02/abusing_domain_specific_langua.html
And just in case, whatever we can't cover in the session time will be available in the provided materials.
