Let's not assume how much memory has been allocated
[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README
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8d063cd8 1
79072805 2 Perl Kit, Version 5.0
8d063cd8 3
bc89e66f 4 Copyright 1989-2001, Larry Wall
79072805 5 All rights reserved.
a687059c 6
7 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
d48672a2 8 it under the terms of either:
8e07c86e 9
d48672a2 10 a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
11 Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any
12 later version, or
13
14 b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this Kit.
a687059c 15
16 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
17 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
d48672a2 18 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See either
19 the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License for more details.
20
21 You should have received a copy of the Artistic License with this
22 Kit, in the file named "Artistic". If not, I'll be glad to provide one.
a687059c 23
d48672a2 24 You should also have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
fa6f71e9 25 along with this program in the file named "Copying". If not, write to the
26 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
27 02111-1307, USA or visit their web page on the internet at
28 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
8d063cd8 29
d48672a2 30 For those of you that choose to use the GNU General Public License,
31 my interpretation of the GNU General Public License is that no Perl
32 script falls under the terms of the GPL unless you explicitly put
33 said script under the terms of the GPL yourself. Furthermore, any
748a9306 34 object code linked with perl does not automatically fall under the
d48672a2 35 terms of the GPL, provided such object code only adds definitions
79220ce3 36 of subroutines and variables, and does not otherwise impair the
37 resulting interpreter from executing any standard Perl script. I
38 consider linking in C subroutines in this manner to be the moral
39 equivalent of defining subroutines in the Perl language itself. You
40 may sell such an object file as proprietary provided that you provide
41 or offer to provide the Perl source, as specified by the GNU General
42 Public License. (This is merely an alternate way of specifying input
43 to the program.) You may also sell a binary produced by the dumping of
44 a running Perl script that belongs to you, provided that you provide or
d48672a2 45 offer to provide the Perl source as specified by the GPL. (The
79220ce3 46 fact that a Perl interpreter and your code are in the same binary file
47 is, in this case, a form of mere aggregation.) This is my interpretation
d48672a2 48 of the GPL. If you still have concerns or difficulties understanding
49 my intent, feel free to contact me. Of course, the Artistic License
50 spells all this out for your protection, so you may prefer to use that.
79220ce3 51
8d063cd8 52--------------------------------------------------------------------------
53
79072805 54Perl is a language that combines some of the features of C, sed, awk
8b87c192 55and shell. See the manual page for more hype. There are also many Perl
56books available, covering a wide variety of topics, from various publishers.
57See pod/perlbook.pod for more information.
8d063cd8 58
59Please read all the directions below before you proceed any further, and
a687059c 60then follow them carefully.
8d063cd8 61
62After you have unpacked your kit, you should have all the files listed
63in MANIFEST.
64
65Installation
66
8b87c192 671) Detailed instructions are in the file "INSTALL", which you should
68read if you are either installing on a system resembling Unix
69or porting perl to another platform. For non-Unix platforms, see the
70corresponding README.
8e07c86e 71
722) Read the manual entries before running perl.
73
743) IMPORTANT! Help save the world! Communicate any problems and suggested
7f2de2d2 75patches to perlbug@perl.org so we can keep the world in sync.
02c45c47 76If you have a problem, there's someone else out there who either has had
77or will have the same problem. It's usually helpful if you send the
78output of the "myconfig" script in the main perl directory.
8e07c86e 79
8b87c192 80If you've succeeded in compiling perl, the perlbug script in the "utils"
c07a80fd 81subdirectory can be used to help mail in a bug report.
82
8e07c86e 83If possible, send in patches such that the patch program will apply them.
84Context diffs are the best, then normal diffs. Don't send ed scripts--
85I've probably changed my copy since the version you have.
86
8b87c192 87The latest versions of perl are always available on the various CPAN
88(Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites around the world.
468f45d5 89See <URL:http://www.cpan.org/src/>.
8d063cd8 90
a687059c 91
92Just a personal note: I want you to know that I create nice things like this
93because it pleases the Author of my story. If this bothers you, then your
94notion of Authorship needs some revision. But you can use perl anyway. :-)
95
96 The author.