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1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | |
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3 | perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 7996 $) |
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4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
6 | |
7 | This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find |
92c2ed05 |
8 | source and documentation for Perl, support, and |
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9 | related matters. |
10 | |
b68463f7 |
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 | |
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 | |
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 |
28 | what the differences are. These differences can be either positive |
29 | (e.g. extensions for the features of the particular platform that |
30 | are not supported in the source release of perl) or negative (e.g. |
31 | might be based upon a less current source release of perl). |
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32 | |
b68463f7 |
33 | =head2 How can I get a binary version of perl? |
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34 | |
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35 | For Windows, ActiveState provides a pre-built Perl for free: |
36 | |
37 | http://www.activestate.com/ |
38 | |
39 | Sunfreeware.com provides binaries for many utilities, including |
40 | Perl, for Solaris on both Intel and SPARC hardware: |
41 | |
42 | http://www.sunfreeware.com/ |
43 | |
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44 | If you don't have a C compiler because your vendor for whatever |
45 | reasons did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is |
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46 | grab a binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl |
47 | with. CPAN only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to |
48 | get free compilers for, not for Unix systems. |
49 | |
65acb1b1 |
50 | Some URLs that might help you are: |
51 | |
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52 | http://www.cpan.org/ports/ |
53 | http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/software.html |
65acb1b1 |
54 | |
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55 | Someone looking for a perl for Win16 might look to Laszlo Molnar's |
56 | djgpp port in http://www.cpan.org/ports/#msdos , which comes with |
57 | clear installation instructions. A simple installation guide for |
58 | MS-DOS using Ilya Zakharevich's OS/2 port is available at |
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59 | http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perl5dos.html |
60 | and similarly for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perlwin3.html . |
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61 | |
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62 | =head2 I don't have a C compiler. How can I build my own Perl interpreter? |
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63 | |
64 | Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor |
65 | should be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you. |
66 | |
67 | What you need to do is get a binary version of gcc for your system |
68 | first. Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for |
69 | information on where to get such a binary version. |
70 | |
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71 | =head2 I copied the perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work. |
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72 | |
73 | That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ. |
74 | You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will |
75 | eventually live on, and then type C<make install>. Most other |
76 | approaches are doomed to failure. |
77 | |
78 | One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out |
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79 | the hard-coded @INC that perl looks through for libraries: |
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80 | |
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81 | % perl -le 'print for @INC' |
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82 | |
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83 | If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you |
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84 | may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create |
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85 | symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. @INC is also printed as |
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86 | part of the output of |
87 | |
88 | % perl -V |
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89 | |
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90 | You might also want to check out |
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91 | L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own module/library directory?">. |
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92 | |
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93 | =head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work? |
94 | |
95 | Read the F<INSTALL> file, which is part of the source distribution. |
65acb1b1 |
96 | It describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncrasies that the |
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97 | Configure script can't work around for any given system or |
98 | architecture. |
99 | |
100 | =head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean? |
101 | |
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102 | CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a multi-gigabyte |
103 | archive replicated on hundreds of machines all over the world. CPAN |
104 | contains source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and |
105 | many third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from |
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106 | commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web |
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107 | walking and CGI scripts. The master web site for CPAN is |
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108 | http://www.cpan.org/ and there is the CPAN Multiplexer at |
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109 | http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html which will choose a mirror near you via |
110 | DNS. See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the end) for |
111 | how this process works. Also, http://mirror.cpan.org/ has a nice |
112 | interface to the http://www.cpan.org/MIRRORED.BY mirror directory. |
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113 | |
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114 | See the CPAN FAQ at http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html for answers |
115 | to the most frequently asked questions about CPAN including how to |
116 | become a mirror. |
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117 | |
118 | CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN |
119 | sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the |
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120 | rest of the path is the path from that directory to the file. For |
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121 | instance, if you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN |
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122 | as your CPAN site, the file CPAN/misc/japh is downloadable as |
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123 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh . |
124 | |
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125 | Considering that, as of 2006, there are over ten thousand existing |
126 | modules in the archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you |
127 | can think of. Current categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ |
128 | include Perl core modules; development support; operating system |
129 | interfaces; networking, devices, and interprocess communication; data |
130 | type utilities; database interfaces; user interfaces; interfaces to |
131 | other languages; filenames, file systems, and file locking; |
132 | internationalization and locale; world wide web support; server and |
133 | daemon utilities; archiving and compression; image manipulation; mail |
134 | and news; control flow utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft |
135 | Windows modules; and miscellaneous modules. |
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136 | |
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137 | See http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html or |
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138 | http://search.cpan.org/ for a more complete list of modules by |
139 | category. |
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140 | |
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141 | CPAN is a free service and is not affiliated with O'Reilly Media. |
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142 | |
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143 | =head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl? |
144 | |
145 | Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is. |
146 | |
147 | =head2 Where can I get information on Perl? |
148 | |
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149 | The complete Perl documentation is available with the Perl distribution. |
150 | If you have Perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation |
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151 | installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a system resembling Unix. |
152 | This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your |
153 | $MANPATH. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation |
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154 | will be different; for example, documentation might only be in HTML format. All |
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155 | proper perl installations have fully-accessible documentation. |
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156 | |
157 | You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system doesn't |
158 | have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't |
159 | work, try looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation. |
160 | |
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161 | If all else fails, consult http://perldoc.perl.org/ which has the |
162 | complete documentation in HTML and PDF format. |
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163 | |
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164 | Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section later in |
165 | L<perlfaq2> for more details. |
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166 | |
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167 | Tutorial documents are included in current or upcoming Perl releases |
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168 | include L<perltoot> for objects or L<perlboot> for a beginner's |
169 | approach to objects, L<perlopentut> for file opening semantics, |
170 | L<perlreftut> for managing references, L<perlretut> for regular |
171 | expressions, L<perlthrtut> for threads, L<perldebtut> for debugging, |
172 | and L<perlxstut> for linking C and Perl together. There may be more |
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173 | by the time you read this. These URLs might also be useful: |
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174 | |
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175 | http://perldoc.perl.org/ |
c355f4f4 |
176 | http://bookmarks.cpan.org/search.cgi?cat=Training%2FTutorials |
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177 | |
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178 | =head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions? |
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179 | |
04d666b1 |
180 | Several groups devoted to the Perl language are on Usenet: |
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181 | |
182 | comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group |
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183 | comp.lang.perl.misc High traffic general Perl discussion |
184 | comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group |
68dc0745 |
185 | comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules |
186 | comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl |
187 | |
188 | comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web. |
189 | |
04d666b1 |
190 | Some years ago, comp.lang.perl was divided into those groups, and |
191 | comp.lang.perl itself officially removed. While that group may still |
192 | be found on some news servers, it is unwise to use it, because |
193 | postings there will not appear on news servers which honour the |
194 | official list of group names. Use comp.lang.perl.misc for topics |
195 | which do not have a more-appropriate specific group. |
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196 | |
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197 | There is also a Usenet gateway to Perl mailing lists sponsored by |
198 | perl.org at nntp://nntp.perl.org , a web interface to the same lists |
199 | at http://nntp.perl.org/group/ and these lists are also available |
200 | under the C<perl.*> hierarchy at http://groups.google.com . Other |
201 | groups are listed at http://lists.perl.org/ ( also known as |
202 | http://lists.cpan.org/ ). |
203 | |
6670e5e7 |
204 | A nice place to ask questions is the PerlMonks site, |
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205 | http://www.perlmonks.org/ , or the Perl Beginners mailing list |
206 | http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=beginners . |
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207 | |
208 | Note that none of the above are supposed to write your code for you: |
209 | asking questions about particular problems or general advice is fine, |
210 | but asking someone to write your code for free is not very cool. |
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211 | |
212 | =head2 Where should I post source code? |
213 | |
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214 | You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate, but |
215 | feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to cross-post |
216 | to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards, |
217 | including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT include alt.sources; |
f224927c |
218 | see their FAQ ( http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-sources-intro/ ) for details. |
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219 | |
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220 | If you're just looking for software, first use Google |
f05bbc40 |
221 | ( http://www.google.com ), Google's usenet search interface |
197aec24 |
222 | ( http://groups.google.com ), and CPAN Search ( http://search.cpan.org ). |
0bc0ad85 |
223 | This is faster and more productive than just posting a request. |
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224 | |
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225 | =head2 Perl Books |
226 | |
c98c5709 |
227 | A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few |
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228 | of these are good, some are OK, but many aren't worth your money. |
c98c5709 |
229 | There is a list of these books, some with extensive reviews, at |
9e72e4c6 |
230 | http://books.perl.org/ . If you don't see your book listed here, you |
231 | can write to perlfaq-workers@perl.org . |
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232 | |
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233 | The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by |
9e72e4c6 |
234 | the creator of Perl, is Programming Perl: |
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235 | |
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236 | Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"): |
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237 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant |
c98c5709 |
238 | ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000] |
c2e66d9e |
239 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ |
c98c5709 |
240 | (English, translations to several languages are also available) |
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241 | |
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242 | The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands |
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243 | of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs is: |
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244 | |
c98c5709 |
245 | The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"): |
c355f4f4 |
246 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington, |
c2e66d9e |
247 | with Foreword by Larry Wall |
c98c5709 |
248 | ISBN 0-596-00313-7 [2nd Edition August 2003] |
249 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlckbk2/ |
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250 | |
8fc9651a |
251 | If you're already a seasoned programmer, then the Camel Book might |
9e72e4c6 |
252 | suffice for you to learn Perl. If you're not, check out the |
8fc9651a |
253 | Llama book: |
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254 | |
9e72e4c6 |
255 | Learning Perl |
256 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy |
257 | ISBN 0-596-10105-8 [4th edition July 2005] |
258 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/ |
8fc9651a |
259 | |
16073f15 |
260 | And for more advanced information on writing larger programs, |
261 | presented in the same style as the Llama book, continue your education |
262 | with the Alpaca book: |
263 | |
ac9dac7f |
264 | Intermediate Perl (the "Alpaca Book") |
265 | by Randal L. Schwartz and brian d foy, with Tom Phoenix (foreword by Damian Conway) |
266 | ISBN 0-596-10206-2 [1st edition March 2006] |
c98c5709 |
267 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lrnperlorm/ |
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268 | |
f224927c |
269 | Addison-Wesley ( http://www.awlonline.com/ ) and Manning |
270 | ( http://www.manning.com/ ) are also publishers of some fine Perl books |
8fc9651a |
271 | such as I<Object Oriented Programming with Perl> by Damian Conway and |
272 | I<Network Programming with Perl> by Lincoln Stein. |
c355f4f4 |
273 | |
274 | An excellent technical book discounter is Bookpool at |
275 | http://www.bookpool.com/ where a 30% discount or more is not unusual. |
5a964f20 |
276 | |
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277 | What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally |
278 | useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary. |
279 | |
c2e66d9e |
280 | Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow. |
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281 | |
13a2d996 |
282 | =over 4 |
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283 | |
5a964f20 |
284 | =item References |
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285 | |
c98c5709 |
286 | Programming Perl |
c2e66d9e |
287 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant |
288 | ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000] |
289 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ |
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290 | |
c98c5709 |
291 | Perl 5 Pocket Reference |
292 | by Johan Vromans |
c2e66d9e |
293 | ISBN 0-596-00032-4 [3rd edition May 2000] |
294 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr3/ |
87275199 |
295 | |
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296 | =item Tutorials |
c47ff5f1 |
297 | |
7678cced |
298 | Beginning Perl |
299 | by James Lee |
300 | ISBN 1-59059-391-X [2nd edition August 2004] |
301 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=344 |
302 | |
c98c5709 |
303 | Elements of Programming with Perl |
c2e66d9e |
304 | by Andrew L. Johnson |
ed8cf1fe |
305 | ISBN 1-884777-80-5 [1st edition October 1999] |
ac9dac7f |
306 | http://www.manning.com/johnson/ |
c2e66d9e |
307 | |
c98c5709 |
308 | Learning Perl |
9e72e4c6 |
309 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy |
310 | ISBN 0-596-10105-8 [4th edition July 2005] |
311 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/ |
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312 | |
ac9dac7f |
313 | Intermediate Perl (the "Alpaca Book") |
314 | by Randal L. Schwartz and brian d foy, with Tom Phoenix (foreword by Damian Conway) |
315 | ISBN 0-596-10206-2 [1st edition March 2006] |
c98c5709 |
316 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lrnperlorm/ |
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317 | |
c355f4f4 |
318 | =item Task-Oriented |
5a964f20 |
319 | |
7678cced |
320 | Writing Perl Modules for CPAN |
321 | by Sam Tregar |
322 | ISBN 1-59059-018-X [1st edition Aug 2002] |
323 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=14 |
324 | |
c98c5709 |
325 | The Perl Cookbook |
5a964f20 |
326 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington |
327 | with foreword by Larry Wall |
c2e66d9e |
328 | ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998] |
329 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/ |
5a964f20 |
330 | |
c98c5709 |
331 | Effective Perl Programming |
5a964f20 |
332 | by Joseph Hall |
c2e66d9e |
333 | ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998] |
334 | http://www.awl.com/ |
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335 | |
7678cced |
336 | Real World SQL Server Administration with Perl |
337 | by Linchi Shea |
338 | ISBN 1-59059-097-X [1st edition July 2003] |
339 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=171 |
340 | |
5a964f20 |
341 | =item Special Topics |
342 | |
58103a2e |
343 | Perl Best Practices |
344 | by Damian Conway |
345 | ISBN: 0-596-00173-8 [1st edition July 2005] |
346 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlbp/ |
347 | |
348 | Higher Order Perl |
349 | by Mark-Jason Dominus |
350 | ISBN: 1558607013 [1st edition March 2005] |
351 | http://hop.perl.plover.com/ |
352 | |
7678cced |
353 | Perl 6 Now: The Core Ideas Illustrated with Perl 5 |
354 | by Scott Walters |
58103a2e |
355 | ISBN 1-59059-395-2 [1st edition December 2004] |
7678cced |
356 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=355 |
6670e5e7 |
357 | |
c98c5709 |
358 | Mastering Regular Expressions |
c2e66d9e |
359 | by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl |
02d51d12 |
360 | ISBN 0-596-00289-0 [2nd edition July 2002] |
361 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex2/ |
5a964f20 |
362 | |
7678cced |
363 | Network Programming with Perl |
5a964f20 |
364 | by Lincoln Stein |
c355f4f4 |
365 | ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001] |
366 | http://www.awlonline.com/ |
5a964f20 |
367 | |
7678cced |
368 | Object Oriented Perl |
c2e66d9e |
369 | Damian Conway |
370 | with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz |
ed8cf1fe |
371 | ISBN 1-884777-79-1 [1st edition August 1999] |
ac9dac7f |
372 | http://www.manning.com/conway/ |
c2e66d9e |
373 | |
7678cced |
374 | Data Munging with Perl |
ed8cf1fe |
375 | Dave Cross |
376 | ISBN 1-930110-00-6 [1st edition 2001] |
377 | http://www.manning.com/cross |
c355f4f4 |
378 | |
7678cced |
379 | Mastering Perl/Tk |
ed8cf1fe |
380 | by Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh |
381 | ISBN 1-56592-716-8 [1st edition January 2002] |
382 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk/ |
87275199 |
383 | |
c98c5709 |
384 | Extending and Embedding Perl |
385 | by Tim Jenness and Simon Cozens |
386 | ISBN 1-930110-82-0 [1st edition August 2002] |
387 | http://www.manning.com/jenness |
c74d0ee8 |
388 | |
c98c5709 |
389 | Perl Debugger Pocket Reference |
390 | by Richard Foley |
391 | ISBN 0-596-00503-2 [1st edition January 2004] |
6670e5e7 |
392 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perldebugpr/ |
024e7d0c |
393 | |
5a964f20 |
394 | =back |
395 | |
fcd1fd07 |
396 | =head2 Which magazines have Perl content? |
5a964f20 |
397 | |
ac9dac7f |
398 | I<The Perl Review> ( http://www.theperlreview.com ) focuses on Perl |
399 | almost completely (although it sometimes sneaks in an article about |
400 | another language). |
401 | |
402 | Magazines that frequently carry quality articles on Perl include I<The |
403 | Perl Review> ( http://www.theperlreview.com ), I<Unix Review> ( |
404 | http://www.unixreview.com/ ), I<Linux Magazine> ( |
405 | http://www.linuxmagazine.com/ ), and Usenix's newsletter/magazine to |
406 | its members, I<login:> ( http://www.usenix.org/ ) |
41eb6b36 |
407 | |
ae6d88cb |
408 | The Perl columns of Randal L. Schwartz are available on the web at |
41eb6b36 |
409 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ , |
410 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/UnixReview/ , and |
411 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/ . |
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412 | |
ac9dac7f |
413 | The first (and for a long time, only) periodical devoted to All Things |
414 | Perl, I<The Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case |
415 | studies, announcements, contests, and much more. I<TPJ> has columns |
416 | on web development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, |
417 | regular expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl |
418 | Contest and the Perl Poetry Contests. Beginning in November 2002, TPJ |
419 | moved to a reader-supported monthly e-zine format in which subscribers |
420 | can download issues as PDF documents. In 2006, TPJ merged with Dr. |
421 | Dobbs Journal (online edition). To read old TPJ articles, see |
422 | http://www.ddj.com/ . |
423 | |
87275199 |
424 | =head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl? |
68dc0745 |
425 | |
87275199 |
426 | Most of the major modules (Tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own |
68dc0745 |
427 | mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for |
c355f4f4 |
428 | subscription information. |
68dc0745 |
429 | |
ccbb3b41 |
430 | A comprehensive list of Perl related mailing lists can be found at: |
431 | |
49d635f9 |
432 | http://lists.perl.org/ |
83a70550 |
433 | |
fcd1fd07 |
434 | =head2 Where are the archives for comp.lang.perl.misc? |
68dc0745 |
435 | |
b0bd3af0 |
436 | The Google search engine now carries archived and searchable newsgroup |
197aec24 |
437 | content. |
68dc0745 |
438 | |
83ded9ee |
439 | http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.perl.misc |
68dc0745 |
440 | |
b0bd3af0 |
441 | If you have a question, you can be sure someone has already asked the |
442 | same question at some point on c.l.p.m. It requires some time and patience |
443 | to sift through all the content but often you will find the answer you |
444 | seek. |
68dc0745 |
445 | |
b68463f7 |
446 | =head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of perl? |
68dc0745 |
447 | |
b68463f7 |
448 | In a real sense, perl already I<is> commercial software: it has a license |
65acb1b1 |
449 | that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed |
450 | in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large |
451 | user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.* |
452 | newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your |
453 | questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by |
8305e449 |
454 | Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriad |
65acb1b1 |
455 | programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life |
456 | better for everyone. |
68dc0745 |
457 | |
458 | However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a |
65acb1b1 |
459 | purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry. |
460 | Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations. |
b68463f7 |
461 | Shrink-wrapped CDs with perl on them are available from several sources if |
462 | that will help. For example, many Perl books include a distribution of perl, |
a6dd486b |
463 | as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor |
65acb1b1 |
464 | and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix distributions |
b68463f7 |
465 | also all come with perl. |
68dc0745 |
466 | |
68dc0745 |
467 | =head2 Where do I send bug reports? |
468 | |
469 | If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules |
87275199 |
470 | shipped with Perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the Perl distribution or |
b68463f7 |
471 | mail your report to perlbug@perl.org or at http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . |
472 | |
473 | For Perl modules, you can submit bug reports to the Request Tracker set |
474 | up at http://rt.cpan.org . |
68dc0745 |
475 | |
46fc3d4c |
476 | If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to |
b68463f7 |
477 | "What platforms is perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a |
46fc3d4c |
478 | non-standard module (such as Tk, CGI, etc), then please see the |
68dc0745 |
479 | documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post |
480 | bugs. |
481 | |
5a964f20 |
482 | Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information. |
68dc0745 |
483 | |
06a5f41f |
484 | =head2 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org? |
68dc0745 |
485 | |
c98c5709 |
486 | Perl.com at http://www.perl.com/ is part of the O'Reilly Network, a |
487 | subsidiary of O'Reilly Media. |
68dc0745 |
488 | |
c98c5709 |
489 | The Perl Foundation is an advocacy organization for the Perl language |
490 | which maintains the web site http://www.perl.org/ as a general |
491 | advocacy site for the Perl language. It uses the domain to provide |
492 | general support services to the Perl community, including the hosting |
493 | of mailing lists, web sites, and other services. The web site |
494 | http://www.perl.org/ is a general advocacy site for the Perl language, |
495 | and there are many other sub-domains for special topics, such as |
496 | |
497 | http://learn.perl.org/ |
498 | http://use.perl.org/ |
499 | http://jobs.perl.org/ |
500 | http://lists.perl.org/ |
90bb42f6 |
501 | |
502 | Perl Mongers uses the pm.org domain for services related to Perl user |
74078192 |
503 | groups, including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites. See the |
504 | Perl user group web site at http://www.pm.org/ for more information about |
505 | joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl user group. |
90bb42f6 |
506 | |
06a5f41f |
507 | http://www.cpan.org/ is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, |
d7f8936a |
508 | a replicated worldwide repository of Perl software, see |
06a5f41f |
509 | the I<What is CPAN?> question earlier in this document. |
510 | |
500071f4 |
511 | =head1 REVISION |
512 | |
322be77c |
513 | Revision: $Revision: 7996 $ |
500071f4 |
514 | |
322be77c |
515 | Date: $Date: 2006-11-01 09:24:38 +0100 (mer, 01 nov 2006) $ |
500071f4 |
516 | |
517 | See L<perlfaq> for source control details and availability. |
518 | |
68dc0745 |
519 | =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT |
520 | |
58103a2e |
521 | Copyright (c) 1997-2006 Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington, and |
7678cced |
522 | other authors as noted. All rights reserved. |
5a964f20 |
523 | |
5a7beb56 |
524 | This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it |
525 | under the same terms as Perl itself. |
c8db1d39 |
526 | |
87275199 |
527 | Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public |
c8db1d39 |
528 | domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any |
529 | derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you |
530 | see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would |
531 | be courteous but is not required. |