Even though your ISP doesn't allow you to run a public webserver, there's no reason not to run one locally!

It's fun to do, the software can be had for free (the best price), and the response time is as good as it gets.

Like I said: Running a local webserver is real easy, and there's no better way to learn... You can do CGI to your hearts content.

• Graph::Template simply needs to have hooks for all the features GD::Graph allows.
• Excel::Template has two major pushes
  1. finishing out the formatting options
  2. allowing back-references that are auto-resolved in formulas.
• PDF::Template has two major pushes
  1. adding in iterative formatting (ala Excel::Template)
  2. removing the need for the most common context calls.
  Plus, I'd love to remove the requirement of using PDFLib and allow you use use PDF::API2 as well.

The main sticking point in E::T and P::T is the design of the template layout. It's not that I don't know how to add the capabilities, it's that I can't figure out how to get the capabilities to be easily used by the template writer.

In addition, there are a ton of commonalities with how I've built the three distributions (PDF::Template was the base for the other two), so I'd like to pull that out into a common distribution that all three depend on. (I just had to fix the same bug in all three cause it was in some shared code, then I had to fix the bug I introduced in all three.)

Plus, the documentation and testing needs a lot of work to bring it up to some set of usefulness.

In other words, I'd love some help. And, even though the distributions were originally designed to be used with HTML::Template, they're not CGI-specific distributions.

but I need a project to work on with Perl in order to keep up my interest in it

Just look around Trag. There are opportunities everywhere! Think of a problem that needs a solution and write some code to solve it. Grab e broken module from CPAN and fix it. (Make sure you let the author know you fixed it)

If you download something from Source Forge most projects have a TODO file in them with a list of things that need doing. Jump in.

I can't do work on CGI, as my ISP doesn't allow you to run webservers, which limits my options somewhat.

Nowadays I wouldn't accept an answer like that from an ISP. I'd take my business elsewhere. Vote with your wallet and find a new provider. (just my opinion and advise of course) There are plenty of ISPs that are inexpensive, allow CGI and some even provide MySQL or other database access. If your current provider isn't answering your needs (and it sounds like your current one is not) then I'd move on.

Specific project?

Cheers - L~R

I have learned the most by attempting to apply Perl to various tasks I perform at work. I've had the chance to use Perl for data-munging, reporting, web-scraping, XML generation, job-scheduling and many other things. I've learned the use modules like YAML, XML::Simple, Spreadsheet::WriteExcel, HTML::TokeParser, Net::SSH::Perl, GD::Graph, PDF::API2, and many others just by solving problems that I had at work. My scripts are not extraordinary, but they get the job done and that is what counts.

So if you are looking to expand your Perl knowledge, start small and look for problems to solve in your immediate sphere or responsiblity. Not only can you make your job easier but your boss will recognize your initiative and ingenuity.

Later

When I am new to languages, I typically write Conway's game of life as a first program, mainly because it offers similar challenges of (how do I manipulate these efficiently? how do I do graphics? etc). Chess is another good big project. Ok, so everyone reinvents the Chess wheel every now and again, but doing something from the ground up (often without the help of domain-specific modules -- if you want to learn) is a great way to keep interest.

Other good ideas might include web spiders that comb your favorite message board, or something to play with algorithmic musical composition (see MIDI::Simple), Neural Nets, or anything that is off on the edge and is unlike anything you'd have to do for work and/or school.

Shake things up. Live dangerously. Don't stop short and pick easy problems. Pick something impossible -- and achieve it. I'm still begging for hero status myself, yeah, it's hard to find time to play after work, but there are an infinite supply of projects as long as your imagination is there. This is why I like games more than business/useful stuff -- imagination is fun.

Algorithmic music composition sounds pretty neat, but I don't know where to start. Do you have any suggestions?

Well, you could always look into some FTP Proxy. I'd like to see a FTP client that speaks b0rked evox FTP better than a proxy though, but a proxy might be more challenging ;)

My main advice is: go onto the net and get exposed to as many concepts and ideas as you can, when you know about a variety of computing fields you can either work on one of them or combine two to create something brand new.
To get your spirits up with Perl download a file containing a lot of English words ( a "Dictionary file" ) and write some small scripts to do statistics on the words etc. quick and fun.

The Phalanx effort is a good example. Following their suggestions, pick a module from the list of 100 target CPAN modules, study it, and look for ways to improve its documentation or tests.

Many modules don't have sufficient testing, and so you can just review the documentation, and write new tests that confirm that the module does what the documentation says it will. Writing tests can serve as a good exercise to ensure you've understood the piece of code you're working on.

Plus, you'll be working on a genuinely helpful community effort.

One I'm working on right now is a Stock ticker using Perl/Tk and eventually I want to use the Win32::GUI. I'm not particularly strong in Tk, so I figured it was a good opportunity to play with it, and I've never used the Win32::GUI, so even better.

The reason I'm doing this is that I used to use a freeware program that did the same thing, but for some reason it doesn't work anymore, and the author's web page is down. So after looking at a few freeware solutions, I rolled up my sleeves and decided to do it myself.

Currently I've got it refreshing cleanly, so now it's off to a more elegant interface and a few pop up windows for looking up symbol names and adding/deleting stocks.

With any luck, it's going to be in CUFP in a week or so. :)

The world could use much more connectivity between Perl and a wide range of USB devices. In some cases drivers exist, but there is not easy access to them from Perl. This is somewhat OS dependent so don't expect high portability. A TK based tool for scraping data from an interesting web site, with frequent updates might be fun. (weather, stocks, news, Mars Rover updates...)

Diskcrash

It can be hard to get these ideas, because we often "subconciously" dismiss them as IMPOSSIBLE. But there is nothing impossible with Perl...(given enough time and energy :-) )

OOOOH OOOH, I just had another good one. How about a GUI to display your position on a map based on GPS data?

OOOOH OOOH, I just had another good one. How about a GUI to display your position on a map based on GPS data?

Do you need such a program? I can provide something which runs with a Garmin eTrex and iPAQ 3650 under Linux and Perl/Tk...

No, I don't need it, but it would be cool. :-) I wonder if those failed Robotic vehicle racers last week were using Perl. They could use it. :-)

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I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. flash japh

That would be cool, but I'd need a GPS unit first (and I would have to switch to linux). Thanks anyways though