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)

 Q100 - Object Orientation and General technical topics - Learning to Progam
  [1605] Learning and understanding scripting programming techniques - (2008-04-08)
  [1963] Best source to learn Java (or Perl or PHP or Python) - (2008-12-28)
  [1985] Learning to program as a part of your job - (2009-01-10)
  [2001] I have not programmed before, and need to learn - (2009-01-19)
  [2048] Learning to program in PHP, Python, Java or Lua ... - (2009-02-19)
  [2092] Tracking difficult bugs, the programmer / customer relationship - (2009-03-20)
  [2286] New to programming? It is natural (but needless) for you to be nervous - (2009-07-14)
  [2294] Can you learn to program in 4 days? - (2009-07-16)
  [2326] Learn a new programming language this summer. - (2009-08-06)
  [2504] Learning to program in ... - (2009-11-15)
  [2505] I almost put the bins out this morning - (2009-11-16)
  [2898] Programming Standards from the start! - (2010-08-02)
  [2973] Learning to program - where to start if you have never programmed before - (2010-09-28)
  [3120] Learning to write good programs in C and C++ - separating out repeated code - (2011-01-04)
  [3551] Some terms used in programming (Biased towards Python) - (2011-12-12)
  [3895] Flowchart to program - learning to program with Well House - (2012-10-14)
  [4008] Reading and checking user inputs - first lessons - Ruby - (2013-02-17)
  [4318] Learning to Program - how we start to teach you at Well House Consultants - (2014-11-16)
  [4322] Learning to Program - the conditional statement (if) - (2014-11-21)
  [4323] Learning to program - Loop statements such as while - (2014-11-22)
  [4324] Learning to program - variables and constants - (2014-11-22)
  [4325] Learning to program - what are algorithms and design patterns? - (2014-11-22)
  [4326] Learning to program - comments, documentation and test code - (2014-11-22)
  [4337] Learning to program sample program - past its prime, but still useful - (2014-12-02)
  [4575] Learning not just what a program does, but how to design it in the first place. - (2015-11-06)

P050 - Perl - General
  [400] New in the shops - (2005-08-01)
  [743] How to debug a Perl program - (2006-06-04)
  [1750] Glorious (?) 12th August - what a Pe(a)rl! - (2008-08-12)
  [1897] Keeping on an even keel - (2008-11-21)
  [2228] Where do I start when writing a program? - (2009-06-11)
  [2242] So what is this thing called Perl that I keep harping on about? - (2009-06-15)
  [2374] Lead characters on Perl variable names - (2009-08-24)
  [2736] Perl Course FAQ - (2010-04-23)
  [2783] The Perl Survey - (2010-05-27)
  [2825] Perl course - is it tailored to Linux, or Microsoft Windows? - (2010-06-25)
  [2971] Should the public sector compete with businesses? and other deep questions - (2010-09-26)
  [3093] How many toilet rolls - hotel inventory and useage - (2010-12-18)
  [3322] How much has Perl (and other languages) changed? - (2011-06-10)
  [3332] DNA to Amino Acid - a sample Perl script - (2011-06-24)
  [3407] Perl - a quick reminder and revision. Test yourself! - (2011-08-26)
  [3823] Know Python or PHP? Want to learn Perl too? - (2012-07-31)
  [3902] Shell - Grep - Sed - Awk - Perl - Python - which to use when? - (2012-10-22)
  [3911] How well do you know Perl and / or Python? - (2012-11-04)
  [4296] Polishing the Perl courses - updated training - (2014-09-17)
  [4301] Perl - still a very effective language indeed for extracting and reporting - (2014-09-20)

H050 - PHP - General
  [235] Preparation for a day's work - (2005-03-04)
  [1722] PHP examples - source code and try it out too - (2008-07-26)
  [2097] PHP Course - for hobby / club / charity users. - (2009-03-22)
  [2222] A (biased?) comparison of PHP courses in the UK - (2009-06-07)
  [2227] Learning PHP, Ruby, Lua and Python - upcoming courses - (2009-06-11)
  [2400] Are you wanting to learn PHP? - (2009-09-08)
  [2430] Not just a PHP program - a good web application - (2009-09-29)
  [2559] Moving the product forward - ours, and MySQL, Perl, PHP and Python too - (2010-01-01)
  [2589] Your PHP code does not work? Here is where to start looking. - (2010-01-18)
  [2663] Improve your PHP on a weekend away - (2010-03-05)
  [3025] Learning to Program ... in PHP. Course examples. - (2010-11-01)
  [3530] A typical weekend?? - (2011-11-28)
  [3952] PHP revision ... by example. - (2012-12-15)
  [3966] Our examples work with any recent version of PHP - (2013-01-01)
  [4314] PHP training - refreshed modern course, backed up by years of practical experience - (2014-11-16)

G907 - Well House Consultants - Recruitment and Career Development
  [198] A new skill may not be quick and easy - (2005-02-02)
  [253] Finding the right holes - (2005-03-21)
  [285] What career opportunities for web designers - (2005-04-20)
  [389] Tough Love - (2005-07-25)
  [408] Can an older person learn a programming language - (2005-08-10)
  [503] 10 years C# knowledge please - (2005-11-23)
  [585] Looking for Python staff - (2006-02-01)
  [587] Job vacancy - double agent wanted - (2006-02-02)
  [722] I'm answering a job applicant - (2006-05-16)
  [729] Career development advice - (2006-05-23)
  [751] Want to be a technical trainer in the UK? - (2006-06-08)
  [759] Watch your Google profile - (2006-06-13)
  [849] Staff Meeting - (2006-08-30)
  [1967] LinkedIn - Thrice Asked, and joined. - (2008-12-30)
  [2109] Why most training fails ... - (2009-03-30)
  [2255] Past PHP delegates / others - coding help needed for next 3 months - (2009-06-23)
  [3440] Research is exciting. But should routine be automated? - (2011-09-14)
  [3490] How not to call when job seeking ... - (2011-10-20)
  [3594] Back to Uni - (2012-01-26)
  [3740] Looking and Learning - even on Holiday - (2012-05-22)

A050 - Web Deployment - General
  [2072] Copyright, Portability and other nontechnical web site issues - (2009-03-09)
  [2099] Should I maintain the programming code on my own website? - (2009-03-23)
  [2568] Forums for your Melksham and open source discussions - (2010-01-09)
  [2595] Twelve skills / knowledges needed for the design of a web site - (2010-01-24)
  [3891] The components of an Apache httpd / Tomcat / MySQL stack and what each does - (2012-10-13)
  [4434] Public training courses - upcoming dates - (2015-02-21)

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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