3.1. Beginning

Before you turn your ideas into code, describe them in natural language.

If you can't say it in natural language, you won't be able to say it in Perl.

The Extreme Programming methodology (mentioned in more detail in Chapter 6) is helpful in this respect in that by insisting that tests be written before the code they test, and requiring programming in pairs, it encourages this kind of conversation.

I've seen this too many times: someone is having horrible difficulties doing an exercise and the code is bleeding all over the screen. Yet ...

Get Perl Debugged now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.