Perl Programming Assignment 1

I finally finished my Perl programming assignment! I thought that the first two problems for the assignment were really straightforward. They only took me a few hours each and I felt like I was really starting to better understand Perl as I worked on them. However, the last problem stymied me for the previous 4 days. Seriously, FOUR DAYS!!! I knew how I wanted to solve the problem but I was struggling to figure out how to write the final expression and crafting an expression that would work with the appropriate loop was giving me a headache. Eventually I talked to enough people that I was able to work through the problem and come up with a satisfactory solution.

Unfortunately none of my other homework got done this weekend, and so I will spend the rest of the week playing catch up :( And I really need to get started on my field study applications for the spring. The first one is due October 1st. Yikes!!!

In an effort to try to improve my understanding of programming I signed up for another coursera.org course. This one is titled "Learn to Program: The Fundamentals." But it is Python, rather than Perl. So I'm not sure if it will be helpful or confusing right now. Probably confusing, but I figure I will participate this week (in all my spare time) and then decide. Though I see Python in more job announcements than Perl even if it is currently declining in popularity. I really wanted to improve my (incredibly limited) php or start learning some Ruby on Rails since that's what all the Digital Humanities seem to be using just now. Oh well. My purpose in INFM 743 is to understand just as much programming as I need to to get hired doing Digital Humanities somewhere.