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1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | |
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3 | perlfaq - frequently asked questions about Perl ($Date: 1998/06/22 15:15:57 $) |
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4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
6 | |
7 | This document is structured into the following sections: |
8 | |
9 | =over |
10 | |
11 | =item perlfaq: Structural overview of the FAQ. |
12 | |
13 | This document. |
14 | |
15 | =item L<perlfaq1>: General Questions About Perl |
16 | |
17 | Very general, high-level information about Perl. |
18 | |
19 | =item L<perlfaq2>: Obtaining and Learning about Perl |
20 | |
21 | Where to find source and documentation to Perl, support and training, |
22 | and related matters. |
23 | |
24 | =item L<perlfaq3>: Programming Tools |
25 | |
26 | Programmer tools and programming support. |
27 | |
28 | =item L<perlfaq4>: Data Manipulation |
29 | |
30 | Manipulating numbers, dates, strings, arrays, hashes, and |
31 | miscellaneous data issues. |
32 | |
33 | =item L<perlfaq5>: Files and Formats |
34 | |
35 | I/O and the "f" issues: filehandles, flushing, formats and footers. |
36 | |
37 | =item L<perlfaq6>: Regexps |
38 | |
39 | Pattern matching and regular expressions. |
40 | |
41 | =item L<perlfaq7>: General Perl Language Issues |
42 | |
43 | General Perl language issues that don't clearly fit into any of the |
44 | other sections. |
45 | |
46 | =item L<perlfaq8>: System Interaction |
47 | |
48 | Interprocess communication (IPC), control over the user-interface |
49 | (keyboard, screen and pointing devices). |
50 | |
51 | =item L<perlfaq9>: Networking |
52 | |
53 | Networking, the Internet, and a few on the web. |
54 | |
55 | =back |
56 | |
57 | =head2 Where to get this document |
58 | |
59 | This document is posted regularly to comp.lang.perl.announce and |
60 | several other related newsgroups. It is available in a variety of |
61 | formats from CPAN in the /CPAN/doc/FAQs/FAQ/ directory, or on the web |
62 | at http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/ . |
63 | |
64 | =head2 How to contribute to this document |
65 | |
66 | You may mail corrections, additions, and suggestions to |
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67 | perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com . This alias should not be |
68 | used to I<ask> FAQs. It's for fixing the current FAQ. |
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69 | |
70 | =head2 What will happen if you mail your Perl programming problems to the authors |
71 | |
72 | Your questions will probably go unread, unless they're suggestions of |
73 | new questions to add to the FAQ, in which case they should have gone |
74 | to the perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com instead. |
75 | |
76 | You should have read section 2 of this faq. There you would have |
77 | learned that comp.lang.perl.misc is the appropriate place to go for |
78 | free advice. If your question is really important and you require a |
79 | prompt and correct answer, you should hire a consultant. |
80 | |
81 | =head1 Credits |
82 | |
83 | When I first began the Perl FAQ in the late 80s, I never realized it |
84 | would have grown to over a hundred pages, nor that Perl would ever become |
85 | so popular and widespread. This document could not have been written |
86 | without the tremendous help provided by Larry Wall and the rest of the |
87 | Perl Porters. |
88 | |
89 | =head1 Author and Copyright Information |
90 | |
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91 | Copyright (c) 1997, 1998 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. |
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92 | All rights reserved. |
93 | |
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94 | =head2 Bundled Distributions |
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95 | |
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96 | When included as part of the Standard Version of Perl, or as part of |
97 | its complete documentation whether printed or otherwise, this work |
98 | may be distributed only under the terms of Perl's Artistic License. |
99 | Any distribution of this file or derivatives thereof I<outside> |
100 | of that package require that special arrangements be made with |
101 | copyright holder. |
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102 | |
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103 | Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples in these files |
104 | are hereby placed into the public domain. You are permitted and |
105 | encouraged to use this code in your own programs for fun |
106 | or for profit as you see fit. A simple comment in the code giving |
107 | credit would be courteous but is not required. |
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108 | |
109 | =head2 Disclaimer |
110 | |
111 | This information is offered in good faith and in the hope that it may |
112 | be of use, but is not guaranteed to be correct, up to date, or suitable |
113 | for any particular purpose whatsoever. The authors accept no liability |
114 | in respect of this information or its use. |
115 | |
116 | =head1 Changes |
117 | |
118 | =over 4 |
119 | |
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120 | =item 22/June/98 |
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121 | |
122 | Significant changes throughout in preparation for the 5.005 |
123 | release. |
124 | |
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125 | =item 24/April/97 |
126 | |
127 | Style and whitespace changes from Chip, new question on reading one |
128 | character at a time from a terminal using POSIX from Tom. |
129 | |
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130 | =item 23/April/97 |
131 | |
132 | Added http://www.oasis.leo.org/perl/ to L<perlfaq2>. Style fix to |
133 | L<perlfaq3>. Added floating point precision, fixed complex number |
134 | arithmetic, cross-references, caveat for Text::Wrap, alternative |
135 | answer for initial capitalizing, fixed incorrect regexp, added example |
136 | of Tie::IxHash to L<perlfaq4>. Added example of passing and storing |
137 | filehandles, added commify to L<perlfaq5>. Restored variable suicide, |
138 | and added mass commenting to L<perlfaq7>. Added Net::Telnet, fixed |
139 | backticks, added reader/writer pair to telnet question, added FindBin, |
140 | grouped module questions together in L<perlfaq8>. Expanded caveats |
141 | for the simple URL extractor, gave LWP example, added CGI security |
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142 | question, expanded on the mail address answer in L<perlfaq9>. |
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143 | |
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144 | =item 25/March/97 |
145 | |
146 | Added more info to the binary distribution section of L<perlfaq2>. |
147 | Added Net::Telnet to L<perlfaq6>. Fixed typos in L<perlfaq8>. Added |
148 | mail sending example to L<perlfaq9>. Added Merlyn's columns to |
149 | L<perlfaq2>. |
150 | |
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151 | =item 18/March/97 |
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152 | |
153 | Added the DATE to the NAME section, indicating which sections have |
154 | changed. |
155 | |
156 | Mentioned SIGPIPE and L<perlipc> in the forking open answer in |
157 | L<perlfaq8>. |
158 | |
159 | Fixed description of a regular expression in L<perlfaq4>. |
160 | |
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161 | =item 17/March/97 Version |
162 | |
163 | Various typos fixed throughout. |
164 | |
165 | Added new question on Perl BNF on L<perlfaq7>. |
166 | |
167 | =item Initial Release: 11/March/97 |
168 | |
169 | This is the initial release of version 3 of the FAQ; consequently there |
170 | have been no changes since its initial release. |
171 | |
172 | =back |