Ten years ago, I was teaching languages like Shell Scripting and C, but the requirement faded. As computers became steadily more powerful, standard applications were developed by a few, to be used by the many, rather than each of the many having specific code written for them.

So now, I'm teaching languages like Perl and PHP which are being used as "glueware" to connect data that's going in and out of other pieces of software and is in other standard formats. I finished a Perl course yesterday evening and there we were talking CGI, HTML, XML, SQL, Apache. POD, Makefiles and other such components and using Perl as the link. What would have taken a week to write, test and develop 10 years ago now takes just a morning.

But if goes further - is there really a need to write a great deal of code at all? The web site on which I'm publishing this article is using a standard (Perl) package for the purpose, and a standard (Perl) package for the Forum that's also here. We're using a standard (PHP) piece of code to identify which country a user is located in when they visit the site .... and a standard database to hold library book information.

So is a programming knowledge and skill still useful? Yes, utterly. In interfacing the different applications. In providing "mods" and tailorings for them. I've just written a short piece of code to allow posters on "opentalk" to use the same email address to post comments to "The Horse's Mouth" without having to await approval, and another bit of special code added mean that new articles here are automatically referred to be relevant pages on our main site.

Looking ahead, I see myself teaching more and more "interfacing" type courses, and getting involved with pieces of code / modules that talk to more and more standard packages. SMB, OS Commerce, Moveabletype, YaBB, Maxmind, Plone ...
(written 2004-11-13, updated 2006-06-05)

 H050 - PHP - General
  [3530] A typical weekend?? - (2011-11-28)
  [3025] Learning to Program ... in PHP. Course examples. - (2010-11-01)
  [2663] Improve your PHP on a weekend away - (2010-03-05)
  [2589] Your PHP code does not work? Here is where to start looking. - (2010-01-18)
  [2559] Moving the product forward - ours, and MySQL, Perl, PHP and Python too - (2010-01-01)
  [2504] Learning to program in ... - (2009-11-15)
  [2430] Not just a PHP program - a good web application - (2009-09-29)
  [2400] Are you wanting to learn PHP? - (2009-09-08)
  [2227] Learning PHP, Ruby, Lua and Python - upcoming courses - (2009-06-11)
  [2222] A (biased?) comparison of PHP courses in the UK - (2009-06-07)
  [2097] PHP Course - for hobby / club / charity users. - (2009-03-22)
  [1722] PHP examples - source code and try it out too - (2008-07-26)
  [235] Preparation for a day's work - (2005-03-04)

P050 - Perl - General
  [3407] Perl - a quick reminder and revision. Test yourself! - (2011-08-26)
  [3332] DNA to Amino Acid - a sample Perl script - (2011-06-24)
  [3322] How much has Perl (and other languages) changed? - (2011-06-10)
  [3093] How many toilet rolls - hotel inventory and useage - (2010-12-18)
  [2971] Should the public sector compete with businesses? and other deep questions - (2010-09-26)
  [2825] Perl course - is it tailored to Linux, or Microsoft Windows? - (2010-06-25)
  [2783] The Perl Survey - (2010-05-27)
  [2736] Perl Course FAQ - (2010-04-23)
  [2374] Lead characters on Perl variable names - (2009-08-24)
  [2242] So what is this thing called Perl that I keep harping on about? - (2009-06-15)
  [2228] Where do I start when writing a program? - (2009-06-11)
  [1897] Keeping on an even keel - (2008-11-21)
  [1750] Glorious (?) 12th August - what a Pe(a)rl! - (2008-08-12)
  [743] How to debug a Perl program - (2006-06-04)
  [400] New in the shops - (2005-08-01)

G907 - Well House Consultants - Recruitment and Career Development
  [3594] Back to Uni - (2012-01-26)
  [3490] How not to call when job seeking ... - (2011-10-20)
  [3440] Research is exciting. But should routine be automated? - (2011-09-14)
  [2294] Can you learn to program in 4 days? - (2009-07-16)
  [2255] Past PHP delegates / others - coding help needed for next 3 months - (2009-06-23)
  [2109] Why most training fails ... - (2009-03-30)
  [1967] LinkedIn - Thrice Asked, and joined. - (2008-12-30)
  [1963] Best source to learn Java (or Perl or PHP or Python) - (2008-12-28)
  [849] Staff Meeting - (2006-08-30)
  [759] Watch your Google profile - (2006-06-13)
  [751] Want to be a technical trainer in the UK? - (2006-06-08)
  [729] Career development advice - (2006-05-23)
  [722] I'm answering a job applicant - (2006-05-16)
  [587] Job vacancy - double agent wanted - (2006-02-02)
  [585] Looking for Python staff - (2006-02-01)
  [503] 10 years C# knowledge please - (2005-11-23)
  [408] Can an older person learn a programming language - (2005-08-10)
  [389] Tough Love - (2005-07-25)
  [285] What career opportunities for web designers - (2005-04-20)
  [253] Finding the right holes - (2005-03-21)
  [198] A new skill may not be quick and easy - (2005-02-02)

Q100 - Object Orientation and General technical topics - Learning to Progam
  [3551] Some terms used in programming (Biased towards Python) - (2011-12-12)
  [3120] Learning to write good programs in C and C++ - separating out repeated code - (2011-01-04)
  [2973] Learning to program - where to start if you have never programmed before - (2010-09-28)
  [2898] Programming Standards from the start! - (2010-08-02)
  [2505] I almost put the bins out this morning - (2009-11-16)
  [2326] Learn a new programming language this summer. - (2009-08-06)
  [2286] New to programming? It is natural (but needless) for you to be nervous - (2009-07-14)
  [2092] Tracking difficult bugs, the programmer / customer relationship - (2009-03-20)
  [2048] Learning to program in PHP, Python, Java or Lua ... - (2009-02-19)
  [2001] I have not programmed before, and need to learn - (2009-01-19)
  [1985] Learning to program as a part of your job - (2009-01-10)
  [1605] Learning and understanding scripting programming techniques - (2008-04-08)

A050 - Web Deployment - General
  [2595] Twelve skills / knowledges needed for the design of a web site - (2010-01-24)
  [2568] Forums for your Melksham and open source discussions - (2010-01-09)
  [2099] Should I maintain the programming code on my own website? - (2009-03-23)
  [2072] Copyright, Portability and other nontechnical web site issues - (2009-03-09)

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Good early morning
PHP course. Come by train.
History around you
A case of case
The next generation of programmer
Expiration dates or times on web pages
Relative or absolute milkman
A Parallel for Perl 6
Avoid the wheel being re-invented by using Perl modules
Training notes available under Open Distribution license