1 | =head1 NAME
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2 |
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3 | perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.39 $, $Date: 2006/01/08 14:27:07 $)
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4 |
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5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION
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6 |
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7 | This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find
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8 | source and documentation for Perl, support, and
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9 | related matters.
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10 |
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11 | =head2 What machines support perl? Where do I get it?
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12 |
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13 | The standard release of perl (the one maintained by the perl
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14 | development team) is distributed only in source code form. You
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15 | can find this at http://www.cpan.org/src/latest.tar.gz , which
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16 | is in a standard Internet format (a gzipped archive in POSIX tar format).
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17 |
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18 | Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually
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19 | all known and current Unix derivatives are supported (perl's native
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20 | platform), as are other systems like VMS, DOS, OS/2, Windows,
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21 | QNX, BeOS, OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga.
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22 |
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23 | Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms, including
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24 | Apple systems, can be found http://www.cpan.org/ports/ directory.
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25 | Because these are not part of the standard distribution, they may
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26 | and in fact do differ from the base perl port in a variety of ways.
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27 | You'll have to check their respective release notes to see just
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28 | what the differences are. These differences can be either positive
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29 | (e.g. extensions for the features of the particular platform that
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30 | are not supported in the source release of perl) or negative (e.g.
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31 | might be based upon a less current source release of perl).
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32 |
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33 | =head2 How can I get a binary version of perl?
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34 |
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35 | If you don't have a C compiler because your vendor for whatever
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36 | reasons did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is
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37 | grab a binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl
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38 | with. CPAN only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to
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39 | get free compilers for, not for Unix systems.
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40 |
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41 | Some URLs that might help you are:
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42 |
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43 | http://www.cpan.org/ports/
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44 | http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/software.html
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45 |
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46 | Someone looking for a perl for Win16 might look to Laszlo Molnar's djgpp
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47 | port in http://www.cpan.org/ports/#msdos , which comes with clear
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48 | installation instructions. A simple installation guide for MS-DOS using
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49 | Ilya Zakharevich's OS/2 port is available at
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50 | http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perl5dos.html
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51 | and similarly for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perlwin3.html .
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52 |
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53 | =head2 I don't have a C compiler. How can I build my own Perl interpreter?
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54 |
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55 | Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor
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56 | should be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you.
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57 |
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58 | What you need to do is get a binary version of gcc for your system
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59 | first. Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for
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60 | information on where to get such a binary version.
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61 |
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62 | =head2 I copied the perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work.
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63 |
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64 | That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ.
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65 | You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will
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66 | eventually live on, and then type C<make install>. Most other
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67 | approaches are doomed to failure.
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68 |
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69 | One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out
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70 | the hard-coded @INC that perl looks through for libraries:
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71 |
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72 | % perl -le 'print for @INC'
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73 |
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74 | If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you
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75 | may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create
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76 | symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. @INC is also printed as
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77 | part of the output of
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78 |
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79 | % perl -V
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80 |
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81 | You might also want to check out
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82 | L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own module/library directory?">.
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83 |
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84 | =head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work?
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85 |
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86 | Read the F<INSTALL> file, which is part of the source distribution.
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87 | It describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncrasies that the
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88 | Configure script can't work around for any given system or
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89 | architecture.
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90 |
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91 | =head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean?
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92 |
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93 | CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a ~1.2Gb archive
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94 | replicated on nearly 200 machines all over the world. CPAN contains
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95 | source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many
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96 | third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from
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97 | commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web
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98 | walking and CGI scripts. The master web site for CPAN is
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99 | http://www.cpan.org/ and there is the CPAN Multiplexer at
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100 | http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html which will choose a mirror near you
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101 | via DNS. See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the
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102 | end) for how this process works. Also, http://mirror.cpan.org/
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103 | has a nice interface to the http://www.cpan.org/MIRRORED.BY
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104 | mirror directory.
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105 |
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106 | See the CPAN FAQ at http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html for
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107 | answers to the most frequently asked questions about CPAN
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108 | including how to become a mirror.
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109 |
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110 | CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN
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111 | sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the
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112 | rest of the path is the path from that directory to the file. For
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113 | instance, if you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN
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114 | as your CPAN site, the file CPAN/misc/japh is downloadable as
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115 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh .
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116 |
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117 | Considering that there are close to two thousand existing modules in
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118 | the archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of.
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119 | Current categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ include Perl core
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120 | modules; development support; operating system interfaces; networking,
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121 | devices, and interprocess communication; data type utilities; database
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122 | interfaces; user interfaces; interfaces to other languages; filenames,
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123 | file systems, and file locking; internationalization and locale; world
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124 | wide web support; server and daemon utilities; archiving and
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125 | compression; image manipulation; mail and news; control flow
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126 | utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft Windows modules; and
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127 | miscellaneous modules.
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128 |
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129 | See http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html or
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130 | http://search.cpan.org/ for a more complete list of modules by category.
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131 |
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132 | CPAN is not affiliated with O'Reilly Media.
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133 |
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134 | =head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl?
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135 |
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136 | Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is.
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137 |
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138 | =head2 Where can I get information on Perl?
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139 |
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140 | The complete Perl documentation is available with the Perl distribution.
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141 | If you have Perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation
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142 | installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a system resembling Unix.
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143 | This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your
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144 | $MANPATH. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation
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145 | will be different; for example, documentation might only be in HTML format. All
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146 | proper perl installations have fully-accessible documentation.
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147 |
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148 | You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system doesn't
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149 | have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't
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150 | work, try looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation.
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151 |
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152 | If all else fails, consult http://perldoc.perl.org/ which has the
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153 | complete documentation in HTML and PDF format.
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154 |
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155 | Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section below
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156 | for more details.
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157 |
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158 | Tutorial documents are included in current or upcoming Perl releases
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159 | include L<perltoot> for objects or L<perlboot> for a beginner's
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160 | approach to objects, L<perlopentut> for file opening semantics,
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161 | L<perlreftut> for managing references, L<perlretut> for regular
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162 | expressions, L<perlthrtut> for threads, L<perldebtut> for debugging,
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163 | and L<perlxstut> for linking C and Perl together. There may be more
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164 | by the time you read this. These URLs might also be useful:
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165 |
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166 | http://perldoc.perl.org/
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167 | http://bookmarks.cpan.org/search.cgi?cat=Training%2FTutorials
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168 |
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169 | =head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions?
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170 |
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171 | Several groups devoted to the Perl language are on Usenet:
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172 |
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173 | comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group
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174 | comp.lang.perl.misc High traffic general Perl discussion
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175 | comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group
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176 | comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules
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177 | comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl
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178 |
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179 | comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web.
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180 |
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181 | Some years ago, comp.lang.perl was divided into those groups, and
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182 | comp.lang.perl itself officially removed. While that group may still
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183 | be found on some news servers, it is unwise to use it, because
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184 | postings there will not appear on news servers which honour the
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185 | official list of group names. Use comp.lang.perl.misc for topics
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186 | which do not have a more-appropriate specific group.
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187 |
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188 | There is also a Usenet gateway to Perl mailing lists sponsored by
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189 | perl.org at nntp://nntp.perl.org , a web interface to the same lists
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190 | at http://nntp.perl.org/group/ and these lists are also available
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191 | under the C<perl.*> hierarchy at http://groups.google.com . Other
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192 | groups are listed at http://lists.perl.org/ ( also known as
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193 | http://lists.cpan.org/ ).
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194 |
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195 | A nice place to ask questions is the PerlMonks site,
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196 | http://www.perlmonks.org/ , or the Perl Beginners mailing list
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197 | http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=beginners .
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198 |
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199 | Note that none of the above are supposed to write your code for you:
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200 | asking questions about particular problems or general advice is fine,
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201 | but asking someone to write your code for free is not very cool.
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202 |
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203 | =head2 Where should I post source code?
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204 |
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205 | You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate, but
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206 | feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to cross-post
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207 | to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards,
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208 | including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT include alt.sources;
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209 | see their FAQ ( http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-sources-intro/ ) for details.
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210 |
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211 | If you're just looking for software, first use Google
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212 | ( http://www.google.com ), Google's usenet search interface
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213 | ( http://groups.google.com ), and CPAN Search ( http://search.cpan.org ).
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214 | This is faster and more productive than just posting a request.
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215 |
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216 | =head2 Perl Books
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217 |
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218 | A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few
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219 | of these are good, some are OK, but many aren't worth your money.
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220 | There is a list of these books, some with extensive reviews, at
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221 | http://books.perl.org/ . If you don't see your book listed here, you
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222 | can write to [email protected] .
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223 |
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224 | The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by
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225 | the creator of Perl, is Programming Perl:
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226 |
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227 | Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"):
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228 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant
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229 | ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000]
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230 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
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231 | (English, translations to several languages are also available)
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232 |
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233 | The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands
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234 | of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs is:
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235 |
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236 | The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"):
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237 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
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238 | with Foreword by Larry Wall
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239 | ISBN 0-596-00313-7 [2nd Edition August 2003]
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240 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlckbk2/
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241 |
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242 | If you're already a seasoned programmer, then the Camel Book might
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243 | suffice for you to learn Perl. If you're not, check out the
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244 | Llama book:
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245 |
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246 | Learning Perl
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247 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy
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248 | ISBN 0-596-10105-8 [4th edition July 2005]
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249 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/
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250 |
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251 | And for more advanced information on writing larger programs,
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252 | presented in the same style as the Llama book, continue your education
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253 | with the Alpaca book:
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254 |
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255 | Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules (the "Alpaca Book")
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256 | by Randal L. Schwartz, with Tom Phoenix (foreword by Damian Conway)
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257 | ISBN 0-596-00478-8 [1st edition June 2003]
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258 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lrnperlorm/
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259 |
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260 | If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and
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261 | possibly even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much
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262 | hand-holding as we try to provide in the Llama, please check out the
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263 | delightful book
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264 |
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265 | Perl: The Programmer's Companion
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266 | by Nigel Chapman
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267 | ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998]
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268 | http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm
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269 | http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc)
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270 |
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271 | If you are more at home in Windows the following is available
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272 | (though unfortunately rather dated).
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273 |
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274 | Learning Perl on Win32 Systems (the "Gecko Book")
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275 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
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276 | with foreword by Larry Wall
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277 | ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997]
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278 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/
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279 |
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280 | Addison-Wesley ( http://www.awlonline.com/ ) and Manning
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281 | ( http://www.manning.com/ ) are also publishers of some fine Perl books
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282 | such as I<Object Oriented Programming with Perl> by Damian Conway and
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283 | I<Network Programming with Perl> by Lincoln Stein.
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284 |
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285 | An excellent technical book discounter is Bookpool at
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286 | http://www.bookpool.com/ where a 30% discount or more is not unusual.
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287 |
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288 | What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally
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289 | useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary.
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290 |
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291 | Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow.
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292 |
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293 | =over 4
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294 |
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295 | =item References
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296 |
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297 | Programming Perl
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298 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant
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299 | ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000]
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300 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
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301 |
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302 | Perl 5 Pocket Reference
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303 | by Johan Vromans
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304 | ISBN 0-596-00032-4 [3rd edition May 2000]
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305 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr3/
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306 |
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307 | =item Tutorials
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308 |
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309 | Beginning Perl
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310 | by James Lee
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311 | ISBN 1-59059-391-X [2nd edition August 2004]
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312 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=344
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313 |
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314 | Elements of Programming with Perl
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315 | by Andrew L. Johnson
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316 | ISBN 1-884777-80-5 [1st edition October 1999]
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317 | http://www.manning.com/Johnson/
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318 |
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319 | Learning Perl
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320 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy
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321 | ISBN 0-596-10105-8 [4th edition July 2005]
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322 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/
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323 |
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324 | Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules
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325 | by Randal L. Schwartz, with Tom Phoenix (foreword by Damian Conway)
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326 | ISBN 0-596-00478-8 [1st edition June 2003]
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327 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lrnperlorm/
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328 |
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329 | =item Task-Oriented
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330 |
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331 | Writing Perl Modules for CPAN
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332 | by Sam Tregar
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333 | ISBN 1-59059-018-X [1st edition Aug 2002]
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334 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=14
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335 |
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336 | The Perl Cookbook
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337 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington
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338 | with foreword by Larry Wall
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339 | ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998]
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340 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/
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341 |
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342 | Effective Perl Programming
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343 | by Joseph Hall
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344 | ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998]
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345 | http://www.awl.com/
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346 |
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347 | Real World SQL Server Administration with Perl
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348 | by Linchi Shea
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349 | ISBN 1-59059-097-X [1st edition July 2003]
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350 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=171
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351 |
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352 | =item Special Topics
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353 |
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354 | Perl Best Practices
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355 | by Damian Conway
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356 | ISBN: 0-596-00173-8 [1st edition July 2005]
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357 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlbp/
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358 |
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359 | Higher Order Perl
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360 | by Mark-Jason Dominus
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361 | ISBN: 1558607013 [1st edition March 2005]
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362 | http://hop.perl.plover.com/
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363 |
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364 | Perl 6 Now: The Core Ideas Illustrated with Perl 5
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365 | by Scott Walters
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366 | ISBN 1-59059-395-2 [1st edition December 2004]
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367 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=355
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368 |
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369 | Mastering Regular Expressions
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370 | by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl
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371 | ISBN 0-596-00289-0 [2nd edition July 2002]
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372 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex2/
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373 |
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374 | Network Programming with Perl
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375 | by Lincoln Stein
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376 | ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001]
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377 | http://www.awlonline.com/
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378 |
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379 | Object Oriented Perl
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380 | Damian Conway
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381 | with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz
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382 | ISBN 1-884777-79-1 [1st edition August 1999]
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383 | http://www.manning.com/Conway/
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384 |
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385 | Data Munging with Perl
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386 | Dave Cross
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387 | ISBN 1-930110-00-6 [1st edition 2001]
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388 | http://www.manning.com/cross
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389 |
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390 | Mastering Perl/Tk
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391 | by Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh
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392 | ISBN 1-56592-716-8 [1st edition January 2002]
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393 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk/
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394 |
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395 | Extending and Embedding Perl
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396 | by Tim Jenness and Simon Cozens
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397 | ISBN 1-930110-82-0 [1st edition August 2002]
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398 | http://www.manning.com/jenness
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399 |
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400 | Perl Debugger Pocket Reference
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401 | by Richard Foley
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402 | ISBN 0-596-00503-2 [1st edition January 2004]
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403 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perldebugpr/
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404 |
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405 | =back
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406 |
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407 | =head2 Which magazines have Perl content?
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408 |
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409 | The first (and for a long time, only) periodical devoted to All Things Perl,
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410 | I<The Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies,
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411 | announcements, contests, and much more. I<TPJ> has columns on web
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412 | development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular
|
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413 | expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl Contest
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414 | and the Perl Poetry Contests. Beginning in November 2002, TPJ moved to a
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415 | reader-supported monthly e-zine format in which subscribers can download
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416 | issues as PDF documents. For more details on TPJ, see http://www.tpj.com/
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417 |
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418 | Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry quality articles on
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419 | Perl are I<The Perl Review> ( http://www.theperlreview.com ),
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420 | I<Unix Review> ( http://www.unixreview.com/ ),
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421 | I<Linux Magazine> ( http://www.linuxmagazine.com/ ),
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422 | and Usenix's newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:>
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423 | ( http://www.usenix.org/ )
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424 |
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425 | The Perl columns of Randal L. Schwartz are available on the web at
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426 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ ,
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427 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/UnixReview/ , and
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428 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/ .
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429 |
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430 | =head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl?
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431 |
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432 | Most of the major modules (Tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own
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433 | mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for
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434 | subscription information.
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435 |
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436 | A comprehensive list of Perl related mailing lists can be found at:
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437 |
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438 | http://lists.perl.org/
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439 |
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440 | =head2 Where are the archives for comp.lang.perl.misc?
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441 |
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442 | The Google search engine now carries archived and searchable newsgroup
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443 | content.
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444 |
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445 | http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.perl.misc
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446 |
|
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447 | If you have a question, you can be sure someone has already asked the
|
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448 | same question at some point on c.l.p.m. It requires some time and patience
|
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449 | to sift through all the content but often you will find the answer you
|
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450 | seek.
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451 |
|
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452 | =head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of perl?
|
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453 |
|
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454 | In a real sense, perl already I<is> commercial software: it has a license
|
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455 | that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed
|
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456 | in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large
|
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457 | user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.*
|
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458 | newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your
|
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459 | questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by
|
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460 | Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriad
|
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461 | programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life
|
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462 | better for everyone.
|
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463 |
|
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464 | However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a
|
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465 | purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry.
|
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466 | Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations.
|
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467 | Shrink-wrapped CDs with perl on them are available from several sources if
|
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468 | that will help. For example, many Perl books include a distribution of perl,
|
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469 | as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor
|
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470 | and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix distributions
|
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471 | also all come with perl.
|
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472 |
|
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473 | =head2 Where do I send bug reports?
|
---|
474 |
|
---|
475 | If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules
|
---|
476 | shipped with Perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the Perl distribution or
|
---|
477 | mail your report to [email protected] or at http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ .
|
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478 |
|
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479 | For Perl modules, you can submit bug reports to the Request Tracker set
|
---|
480 | up at http://rt.cpan.org .
|
---|
481 |
|
---|
482 | If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to
|
---|
483 | "What platforms is perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a
|
---|
484 | non-standard module (such as Tk, CGI, etc), then please see the
|
---|
485 | documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post
|
---|
486 | bugs.
|
---|
487 |
|
---|
488 | Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information.
|
---|
489 |
|
---|
490 | =head2 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org?
|
---|
491 |
|
---|
492 | Perl.com at http://www.perl.com/ is part of the O'Reilly Network, a
|
---|
493 | subsidiary of O'Reilly Media.
|
---|
494 |
|
---|
495 | The Perl Foundation is an advocacy organization for the Perl language
|
---|
496 | which maintains the web site http://www.perl.org/ as a general
|
---|
497 | advocacy site for the Perl language. It uses the domain to provide
|
---|
498 | general support services to the Perl community, including the hosting
|
---|
499 | of mailing lists, web sites, and other services. The web site
|
---|
500 | http://www.perl.org/ is a general advocacy site for the Perl language,
|
---|
501 | and there are many other sub-domains for special topics, such as
|
---|
502 |
|
---|
503 | http://learn.perl.org/
|
---|
504 | http://use.perl.org/
|
---|
505 | http://jobs.perl.org/
|
---|
506 | http://lists.perl.org/
|
---|
507 |
|
---|
508 | Perl Mongers uses the pm.org domain for services related to Perl user
|
---|
509 | groups, including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites. See the
|
---|
510 | Perl user group web site at http://www.pm.org/ for more information about
|
---|
511 | joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl user group.
|
---|
512 |
|
---|
513 | http://www.cpan.org/ is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network,
|
---|
514 | a replicated worldwide repository of Perl software, see
|
---|
515 | the I<What is CPAN?> question earlier in this document.
|
---|
516 |
|
---|
517 | =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
|
---|
518 |
|
---|
519 | Copyright (c) 1997-2006 Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington, and
|
---|
520 | other authors as noted. All rights reserved.
|
---|
521 |
|
---|
522 | This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
|
---|
523 | under the same terms as Perl itself.
|
---|
524 |
|
---|
525 | Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public
|
---|
526 | domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any
|
---|
527 | derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you
|
---|
528 | see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would
|
---|
529 | be courteous but is not required.
|
---|