Highlighting members of the Perl family
Tags: perl, community, cpan, twitter
Published: 2022-01-11 18:01:08

---
title: Highlighting members of the Perl family
published: true
date: 2022-01-11 15:00:00 UTC
tags: Perl,community,CPAN,Twitter
canonical_url: https://phoenixtrap.com/2022/01/11/highlighting-members-of-the-perl-family/
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/vfckg2ekrq6mqqpbnb1j.jpeg
---

This past year of [blogging](https://phoenixtrap.com/tag/perl) has introduced me to a wide variety of people in the [Perl community](https://www.perl.org/community.html). Some I’ve admired from afar for years due to their published work, and even more I’ve “met” interacting on social media and other forums. So this will be the first in an occasional series highlighting not just the code, but the people that make up the Perl family.

## [Paul “LeoNerd” Evans](http://www.leonerd.org.uk/)

I first came across Paul’s work during his series last year on [writing a core Perl feature](https://phoenixtrap.com/2021/02/01/paul-evans-writing-a-core-perl-feature/); he’s responsible for [Perl v5.32’s `isa` operator](https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5320delta#The-isa-Operator) and [v5.34’s experimental `try`/`catch` exception handling syntax](https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5340delta#Experimental-Try/Catch-Syntax). I [interviewed him about the latter](https://www.perl.com/article/interview-trying-to-catch-paul-leonerd-evans/) for Perl.com in March 2021. He’s been [active on CPAN](https://metacpan.org/author/PEVANS) for so much longer, though, and [joined the Perl Steering Council in July](https://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2021/07/msg260858.html). He’s also often a helpful voice on [IRC](https://web.libera.chat/#perl).

## [Elliot Holden](https://www.urbanguitarlegend.com/)

Renowned author and trainer [Randal L. “merlyn” Schwartz](http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/) linked over the weekend in a private Facebook group to Elliot’s impassioned [YouTube video about his day job as a Perl web application developer](https://youtu.be/FQXjLG0DjPo). Through his alter ego [Urban Guitar Legend](https://www.urbanguitarlegend.com/) Elliot is also a passionate musician; besides gigging and recording he’s been [posting videos for nine years](https://youtube.com/c/Urbanguitarlegend). (I’m a bit envious since I took a break from [music](https://phoenixtrap.com/music/) almost twenty years ago and haven’t managed to recapture it.) Elliot seems like the quintessential needs-to-get-shit-done developer, and Perl is perfect for that.

## [Gábor Szabó](https://szabgab.com)

Gábor is a polyglot (both in human and computer languages) trainer, consultant, and author, writing about programming and devops on his [Code Maven](https://code-maven.com/) and [Perl Maven](https://perlmaven.com/) websites. He’s also the founder and co-editor of [Perl Weekly](https://perlweekly.com/) and recipient of a [Perl White Camel award in 2008](https://www.perl.org/advocacy/white_camel/2008.html) thanks to his organizational and support contributions. Last year he [introduced me to the world of live pair programming](https://perlmaven.com/course-management-app-in-mojolicious), working on a web application using the [Mojolicious framework](https://mojolicious.org/).

* * *

If you’re on Twitter and looking to connect with other Perl developers, please consider participating in [the Perl community](https://twitter.com/i/communities/1471579416216145924) I’ve set up there. [Twitter Communities](https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/communities) are topic-specific moderated discussion groups, unlike the freewheeling [#hashtags](https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/how-to-use-hashtags) system that can be diluted by spam or topics that share the same name. Unfortunately, they’re still read-only on the [Twitter Android app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.twitter.android), but you can participate fully on [iOS/iPadOS](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271) and [the website](https://twitter.com).