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STORY

Writing 254 Magazine Columns Across Four Landmark Publications

Type: story
Title: Writing 254 Magazine Columns Across Four Landmark Publications
Date: 1995-03-01
Alias: Writing 254 Magazine Columns Across Four Landmark Publications, Magazine Columns, Magazine Columns, 250 Magazine Columns
Category: Perl, Writing, Stonehenge

  • Writing 254 Magazine Columns Across Four Landmark Publications

  • Between March 1995 and October 2007, I wrote and published 254 print magazine columns spanning over twelve uninterrupted years of tech publishing.
  • Every single column was built around complete, working, production-quality source code—introducing hundreds of thousands of system administrators, web developers, and software engineers to modern Perl, Unix automation, Apache HTTP Server, and early web architectures.
  • The columns were written across four distinct publications (representing five distinct magazine titles due to a historical renaming):
    • Linux Magazine (98 columns, June 1999 – October 2007):
      • Covered everything from CPAN fundamentals and daemon scripting to modern web frameworks like Catalyst and advanced object-oriented programming with Moose.
      • Top-level archive: Linux Magazine Columns Archive
    • Unix Review / Performance Computing (71 columns, March 1995 – July 2007):
      • Started under Unix Review in March 1995 as the "Perl Advisor" column, continued through the publication's mid-run rebranding as Performance Computing (1998–2000), and returned to Unix Review. Covered parsing, systems administration, process management, and automated test harnesses.
      • Top-level archive: Unix Review Columns Archive
    • Web Techniques (71 columns, 1996 – February 2002):
      • Focused on the bleeding edge of the World Wide Web, including CGI programming, mod_perl performance acceleration, web scraping, caching architectures (Apache::CacheContent), RSS feeds, and dynamic content generation.
      • Top-level archive: Web Techniques Columns Archive
    • The Perl Journal (14 columns, May 2003 – July 2004):
      • Deep-dive technical articles written for Jon Orwant's legendary publication, focusing on Template Toolkit, log management, and advanced Perl idioms.
      • Top-level archive: The Perl Journal Columns Archive

  • The Relentless Monthly Cadence

    • During the height of this period in the early 2000s, I maintained a master calendar juggling up to four simultaneous magazine deadlines every single month while traveling the world teaching Stonehenge Perl training courses and speaking at conferences.
    • Every column had to include thoroughly tested, bug-free, copy-pasteable source code along with detailed narrative explanation, published monthly without missing an issue.

  • Complete Online Archive

    • All 254 full column texts along with their original downloadable source code listings are permanently indexed and searchable on the live website:

What links here

🔗Jon Orwant 🔗Linux Magazine 🔗Performance Computing 🔗Randal Schwartz 🔗The Perl Journal 🔗Unix Review 🔗Web Techniques
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.