I had never met Randal Schwartz before, but when I reached out to him about contributing to year 25 of the Perl Advent Calendar, he immediately agreed. This year I wanted to try some new things and Randal suggested giving a Perl-specific talk which he had given once before, but which was lacking in recording quality. This gave Randal a chance to re-record his talk and it gave the Perl communities a chance to watch in real time. We've never before had a video recording as a Perl Advent article, but I believe quite strongly that this is in the spirit of the Advent Calendar project, which is about giving something back. Also, when I mentioned it to Mark Fowler back in October, he didn't object, so I'll take that as a seal of approval.

-- Olaf Alders

Randal's advance summary of this talk:

    Having been there, at the beginning with Perl, I will recount the early
    days through the modern era (or as much as I can cover in the time
    provided). I’ll deliver first-hand experience of the creation of the Camel
    Book, the Llama book, and the way I invaded comp.unix.questions with Perl 2
    answers so often that people would post “no Perl please”. Oh, and my
    version of the story of the Schwartzian Transform.

If you enjoyed the video below, you may also enjoy the next in the series, which will be presented by Dave Cross: Still Munging Data with Perl. If you are at all interested, please register now, even if you cannot attend, as that will allow us to share the recording URL with you after the fact.

Now, please enjoy Randal Schwartz's "Half My Life with Perl":