use Perl

Back last year, I had the idea that it would nice to do a talk for YAPC::Europe. I bottled it in the end as I couldn't think of anything worthwhile to talk about. Also seeing as a lot of people who come along are very competent programmers, the thought of getting up and doing something which someone can poke holes in, scared the life out of me.

However, having gone through the experiences of The LEA Intranet with Questions, from a mishmash of scripts and files to a fully mod_perl (and SSL) version with a more structured templating system, I did think it would be good to do a case study talk.

I've now made a proper start on writing a full blown talk, rather than just hot air. My only problem is figuring what to put and what to leave out. Some of the stuff is potentially copyrighted, so I'll have to get clearance for those bits, but I've not seen anyone do a talk like this. I saw a couple of case study talks at TPC4 in 2000 and got inspired to take ideas further or in different directions, so perhaps now it's my turn to give back.

In addition, if I can finish my Perl Auctioneer (talk and product), then that might be a worthwhile talk too. Basic screenscraping and object-oriented Perl stuff at the very least.

I have approximately one month to get these talks into some sort of shape, to know whether they'll be viable or not. Then perhaps I'll be able to take my first tentative steps towards being on the speakers role call :)