Welcome to the weekly series “Meet The Champion”.

Last week we spoke to Prajith P., the winner of Perl Weekly Challenge - 032.

Today we are talking to the Perl Weekly Challenge - 033 winner Ulrich Rieke. I hope you are going to enjoy the interview.

Mohammad: Tell us about your technical background?

Ulrich: There not so much a technical background. In fact, I do have a long-standing interest in rule-based syntactical systems and languages, starting from Latin at school. Then, computers in generaland programming languages in particular became of hobby of mine which I pursue for the sheer intellectual fun of it. It’s not a way to earn a living which I do in the field of medicine. To bring together medicine and computer science in areas like bioinformatics certainly is particularly interesting.

Mohammad: How/When did you start using Perl/Raku?

Ulrich: First, I turned to C++ as a rich, high-performing and widespread language close to the hardware. I had heard about Perl as a widely-used “glue language” to help run distributions of my favourite operating system Linux. So, around the turn of the century, I took a closer look at Perl. What I like most about the language is its expressiveness, text orientation and the relative ease you can get useful results. In 2009, during a sick leave, I first came across Raku when a computer magazine I like encouraged its readers to give it a try. Ever since then I’ve been installing the latest Rakudo versions and am still impressed by the almost barocque richness of Raku‘s syntax and operators.

Mohammad: How did you come to know about “Perl Weekly Challenge”?

Ulrich: Although it’s not yet a long time ago, I do not remember exactly. I think I was scanning the Web in search of some sites related to programming exercises.

Mohammad: What do you like the most about “Perl Weekly Challenge”?

Ulrich: It’s the opportunity for learning and delving into the depths of Perl and Raku documentation. There is enough time to solve the tasks, no need to hurry and give up early, and if you don’t find a solution you can look up what others shared and suggested.

Mohammad: How much time you dedicate every week to “Perl Weekly Challenge”?

Ulrich: That depends on the tasks, it can be anywhere from 2 to 7 hours.

Mohammad: Do you checkout others solutions and who is your favourite?

Ulrich: Yes, sometimes I do, particularly when I found it hard to arrive at a solution or didn’t find one at all. As I’m still fairly new to the site I do not yet have a favourite.

Mohammad: What do you suggest someone just started the weekly challenge?

Ulrich: Feel encouraged to recollect your own knowledge of Perl and / or Raku, use the rich documentation of the languages to learn something new, be aware that usually you have enough time to solve the tasks, don’t forget about the fun of it and, if you so decide, feel free to skip a language or a week.

Mohammad: Anything else you would to like share with us?

Ulrich: None.

That brings the end of the conversation with Ulrich Rieke. Please do let us know your view. We will come back next week with another champion.