After spending most of Saturday to catch up on sleep, I can now finally publish my notes on the German Perl Workshop 2015 in Dresden. I joined Pepl, Nicholas & Gargamel (Team Geizhals) on the sleeper train, which luckily was not affected by the strike of the German train drivers.

I did two proper talks and one lightning talk:

Picture of the day, including a live demo resulting in this potd (can you spot the Moose?)

OAuth2, REST y API s, Microservices, the second half was not too well prepared, because my talk was moved from Friday to Thursday and I (badly!) planned to prepare the code examples Thursday night

y s, Microservices, the second half was not too well prepared, because my talk was moved from Friday to Thursday and I (badly!) planned to prepare the code examples Thursday night lib::projectroot

It seems that the orgas did not ask Barbie for surveys, so I assume I won't get any automated talk feedback. Of course I'd still like some feedback (esp. as I'm giving the talks again at YAPC::Europe in Granada). So if you have any feedback, please leave it in the comments section, or send it to me via email etc.

Here's the list of things I learned. Not a lot of actual technical stuff (either I already know ALL of the things, or I was not interested enough in some of the topics to pay proper attention..)

Things I learned on Wednesday

Max does not want to be responsible for "breaking the Internet", so he gets Perl running on Android

SawyerX does not like the word "sein", but has no problem with "Han cock " on his T-shirt

" on his T-shirt Delayed responses in Dancer look nice

curl oneliners tend to get much longer than one line

it is possible(-ish) to handle the internet needs of an entire workshop by tethering through the organisers smartphones (and a few sticks..)

I'm very happy to NOT need to know all the details of how to compile all the Perls

need to know all the details of how to compile all the Perls panda --notests install Foo installs without running the tests. Helpful if a test fails. (I learned this while not paying attention to perlall & SSL, and porting a small script to Perl6 instead)

installs without running the tests. Helpful if a test fails. (I learned this while not paying attention to perlall & and porting a small script to Perl6 instead) You get more questions about your talk by bribing the audience with a free USB stick for each question asked

stick for each question asked You can get one of those USB stick by asking how big it is :-)

stick by asking how big it is :-) paper handouts cannot save a talk that does not provide any context whatsoever, and during which the speaker mentioned a few times that the concepts presented cannot be explained in 40 minutes.

I'm very happy to NOT need to know all the details of how to embed C in Perl

need to know all the details of how to embed C in Perl There is always one way to do it better

RTFRFCS - Read The Fucking RFC s

- Read The Fucking s It's very unlikely that you get a table for 8 people in a small vegan restaurant in the hip area of Dresden.

Things I learned on Thursday

The two "o"s in Moose (and Moo) stand for slooooow

To get 0, subtract whatever you have from itself. To get 1, take whatever you have to the zeroth power

It's easy to learn enough English to not sound like an idiot. It's nearly impossible to learn enough German to not sound like an idiot.

I still did not learn to talk slowly.

a tool to analyze your SSL config (Ha, I did pay attention in the other SSL talk)

config (Ha, I did pay attention in the other talk) It's very easy to port a simple script to Perl 6

And it helps to let a Perl 6 pro have a glance at the result

We can make cool games using Perl & SDL (well, I knew that since ages, but it's nice to learn it again from time to time)

(well, I knew that since ages, but it's nice to learn it again from time to time) Tourist bus tours can be fun.

The meaning of "Straight Edge" is not common knowledge

Things I learned on Friday

(I had to do some work on Friday, so I payed even less attention to some of the talks. Sorry..)

I'm not only one who uses API Blueprint

Blueprint But I agree with Theo (and disagree with David) that you should use HTTP headers and not URI parameters for setting things like client language - even though I detest content negotiation.

headers and not parameters for setting things like client language - even though I detest content negotiation. Blue text on black slides does not work too well. But if you use a proper slide generator and can quickly changed the style, not all is lost.

People still automatically clap anytime somebody says "Thank you" after a talk.

Always use your own laptop for presentations. Even if the orgas want you to use the "official" laptop. Your presentation will not work on that laptop.

And it's very easy to use vlc to capture your screen (and thus your slides) during your presentation, which is the only reason the orgas want you to use their laptop.

Emacs is not an IDE, it's an IDE construction set

it's an construction set It's good to arrive at the railway station half an hour before your train leaves. It's better to check online if the train is one hour delayed.

Amassing a massive sleep deficit during the workshop leads to much better sleep on the sleeper train back home.

Summary

I was a tiny bit disappointed by the topics (and sometimes quality) of the talks. There weren't a lot talks covering new technologies, so I either already knew about the topics, or just wasn't interested that much. For example, the two SSL talks where very good by themselves, but I'm just not really interested in SSL setup etc (I'm not a sysadmin).

But it was still nice to spend a few days with old Perl friends, make a few new ones, walk around Dresden and drink way to much Club Mate.

Thanks to the orgas, the speakers, the attendees and of course the sponsors!