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1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | |
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3 | perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.24 $, $Date: 1998/07/20 23:40:28 $) |
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4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
6 | |
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. |
10 | |
11 | =head2 What machines support Perl? Where do I get it? |
12 | |
13 | The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the perl |
14 | development team) is distributed only in source code form. You can |
15 | find this at http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/latest.tar.gz, which is a |
16 | gzipped archive in POSIX tar format. This source builds with no |
17 | porting whatsoever on most Unix systems (Perl's native environment), |
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18 | as well as Plan 9, VMS, QNX, OS/2, and the Amiga. |
19 | |
20 | Although it's rumored that the (imminent) 5.004 release may build |
21 | on Windows NT, this is yet to be proven. Binary distributions |
22 | for 32-bit Microsoft systems and for Apple systems can be found |
23 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/ directory. Because these are not part of |
24 | the standard distribution, they may and in fact do differ from the base |
25 | Perl port in a variety of ways. You'll have to check their respective |
26 | release notes to see just what the differences are. These differences |
27 | can be either positive (e.g. extensions for the features of the particular |
28 | platform that are not supported in the source release of perl) or negative |
29 | (e.g. might be based upon a less current source release of perl). |
30 | |
31 | A useful FAQ for Win32 Perl users is |
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32 | http://www.endcontsw.com/people/evangelo/Perl_for_Win32_FAQ.html |
33 | |
34 | =head2 How can I get a binary version of Perl? |
35 | |
36 | If you don't have a C compiler because for whatever reasons your |
37 | vendor did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is |
38 | grab a binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl |
39 | with. CPAN only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to |
40 | get free compilers for, not for Unix systems. |
41 | |
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42 | Your first stop should be http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports to see what |
43 | information is already available. A simple installation guide for |
44 | MS-DOS is available at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~piet/perl5dos.html , and |
45 | similarly for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~piet/perlwin3.html |
46 | . |
47 | |
48 | =head2 I don't have a C compiler on my system. How can I compile perl? |
49 | |
50 | Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor |
51 | should be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you. |
52 | |
53 | What you need to do is get a binary version of gcc for your system |
54 | first. Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for |
55 | information on where to get such a binary version. |
56 | |
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57 | =head2 I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work. |
58 | |
59 | That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ. |
60 | You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will |
61 | eventually live on, and then type C<make install>. Most other |
62 | approaches are doomed to failure. |
63 | |
64 | One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out |
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65 | the hard-coded @INC which perl is looking for. |
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66 | |
67 | perl -e 'print join("\n",@INC)' |
68 | |
69 | If this command lists any paths which don't exist on your system, then you |
70 | may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create |
71 | symlinks, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. |
72 | |
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73 | You might also want to check out L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own |
74 | module/library directory?">. |
75 | |
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76 | =head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work? |
77 | |
78 | Read the F<INSTALL> file, which is part of the source distribution. |
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79 | It describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncracies that the |
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80 | Configure script can't work around for any given system or |
81 | architecture. |
82 | |
83 | =head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean? |
84 | |
85 | CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a huge archive |
86 | replicated on dozens of machines all over the world. CPAN contains |
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87 | source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many |
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88 | third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from |
89 | commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web |
90 | walking and CGI scripts. The master machine for CPAN is |
91 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/, but you can use the |
92 | address http://www.perl.com/CPAN/CPAN.html to fetch a copy from a |
93 | "site near you". See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the |
94 | end) for how this process works. |
95 | |
96 | CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN |
97 | sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the |
98 | rest of the path is the path from that directory to the file. For |
99 | instance, if you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN |
100 | as your CPAN site, the file CPAN/misc/japh file is downloadable as |
101 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh . |
102 | |
103 | Considering that there are hundreds of existing modules in the |
104 | archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of. |
105 | Current categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ include perl core |
106 | modules; development support; operating system interfaces; networking, |
107 | devices, and interprocess communication; data type utilities; database |
108 | interfaces; user interfaces; interfaces to other languages; filenames, |
109 | file systems, and file locking; internationalization and locale; world |
110 | wide web support; server and daemon utilities; archiving and |
111 | compression; image manipulation; mail and news; control flow |
112 | utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft Windows modules; and |
113 | miscellaneous modules. |
114 | |
115 | =head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl? |
116 | |
117 | Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is. |
118 | |
119 | =head2 Where can I get information on Perl? |
120 | |
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121 | The complete Perl documentation is available with the perl distribution. |
122 | If you have perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation |
123 | installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a system resembling Unix. |
124 | This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your |
125 | $MANPATH. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation |
126 | will be different; for example, it might be only in HTML format. But all |
127 | proper perl installations have fully-accessible documentation. |
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128 | |
129 | You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system doesn't |
130 | have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't |
131 | work, try looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation. |
132 | |
133 | If all else fails, consult the CPAN/doc directory, which contains the |
134 | complete documentation in various formats, including native pod, |
135 | troff, html, and plain text. There's also a web page at |
136 | http://www.perl.com/perl/info/documentation.html that might help. |
137 | |
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138 | Many good books have been written about Perl -- see the section below |
139 | for more details. |
140 | |
141 | =head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on USENET? Where do I post questions? |
142 | |
143 | The now defunct comp.lang.perl newsgroup has been superseded by the |
144 | following groups: |
145 | |
146 | comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group |
147 | comp.lang.perl.misc Very busy group about Perl in general |
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148 | comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group |
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149 | comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules |
150 | comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl |
151 | |
152 | comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web. |
153 | |
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154 | Actually, the moderated group hasn't passed yet, but we're |
155 | keeping our fingers crossed. |
156 | |
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157 | There is also USENET gateway to the mailing list used by the crack |
158 | Perl development team (perl5-porters) at |
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159 | news://news.perl.com/perl.porters-gw/ . |
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160 | |
161 | =head2 Where should I post source code? |
162 | |
163 | You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate, |
164 | but feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to |
165 | cross-post to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting |
166 | standards, including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT |
167 | include alt.sources; see their FAQ for details. |
168 | |
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169 | If you're just looking for software, first use Alta Vista, Deja News, and |
170 | search CPAN. This is faster and more productive than just posting |
171 | a request. |
172 | |
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173 | =head2 Perl Books |
174 | |
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175 | A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few of |
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176 | these are good, some are ok, but many aren't worth your money. Tom |
177 | Christiansen maintains a list of these books, some with extensive |
178 | reviews, at http://www.perl.com/perl/critiques/index.html. |
179 | |
180 | The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by the |
181 | creator of Perl and his apostles, is now in its second edition and |
182 | fourth printing. |
183 | |
184 | Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"): |
185 | Authors: Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal Schwartz |
186 | ISBN 1-56592-149-6 (English) |
187 | ISBN 4-89052-384-7 (Japanese) |
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188 | (French, German, and Italian translations also available) |
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189 | |
190 | Note that O'Reilly books are color-coded: turquoise (some would call |
191 | it teal) covers indicate perl5 coverage, while magenta (some would |
192 | call it pink) covers indicate perl4 only. Check the cover color |
193 | before you buy! |
194 | |
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195 | If you're already a hard-core systems programmer, then the Camel Book |
196 | might suffice for you to learn Perl from. But if you're not, check |
197 | out I<Learning Perl> by Randal and Tom. The second edition of "Llama |
198 | Book" has a blue cover, and is updated for the 5.004 release of Perl. |
199 | |
200 | If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and possibly |
201 | even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much hand-holding as |
202 | we try to provide in the Llama or its defurred cousin the Gecko, please |
203 | check out the delightful book, I<Perl: The Programmer's Companion>, |
204 | written by Nigel Chapman. |
205 | |
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206 | You can order O'Reilly books directly from O'Reilly & Associates, |
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207 | 1-800-998-9938. Local/overseas is 1-707-829-0515. If you can |
208 | locate an O'Reilly order form, you can also fax to 1-707-829-0104. |
209 | See http://www.ora.com/ on the Web. |
210 | |
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211 | What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally |
212 | useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary. |
213 | |
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214 | Recommended books on (or muchly on) Perl are the following. |
215 | Those marked with a star may be ordered from O'Reilly. |
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216 | |
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217 | =over |
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218 | |
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219 | =item References |
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220 | |
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221 | *Programming Perl |
222 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal L. Schwartz |
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223 | |
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224 | *Perl 5 Desktop Reference |
225 | By Johan Vromans |
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226 | |
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227 | =item Tutorials |
228 | |
229 | *Learning Perl [2nd edition] |
230 | by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen |
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231 | |
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232 | *Learning Perl on Win32 Systems |
233 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen, |
234 | with foreword by Larry Wall |
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235 | |
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236 | Perl: The Programmer's Companion |
237 | by Nigel Chapman |
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238 | |
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239 | Cross-Platform Perl |
240 | by Eric F. Johnson |
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241 | |
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242 | MacPerl: Power and Ease |
243 | by Vicki Brown and Chris Nandor, foreword by Matthias Neeracher |
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244 | |
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245 | =item Task-Oriented |
246 | |
247 | *The Perl Cookbook |
248 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington |
249 | with foreword by Larry Wall |
250 | |
251 | Perl5 Interactive Course [2nd edition] |
252 | by Jon Orwant |
253 | |
254 | *Advanced Perl Programming |
255 | by Sriram Srinivasan |
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256 | |
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257 | Effective Perl Programming |
258 | by Joseph Hall |
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259 | |
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260 | =item Special Topics |
261 | |
262 | *Mastering Regular Expressions |
263 | by Jeffrey Friedl |
264 | |
265 | How to Set up and Maintain a World Wide Web Site [2nd edition] |
266 | by Lincoln Stein |
267 | |
268 | =back |
269 | |
270 | =head2 Perl in Magazines |
271 | |
272 | The first and only periodical devoted to All Things Perl, I<The |
273 | Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies, |
274 | announcements, contests, and much more. TPJ has columns on web |
275 | development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular |
276 | expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl Contest. |
277 | It is published quarterly by Jon Orwant. See http://www.tpj.com/ or |
278 | send mail to subscriptions@tpj.com. |
279 | |
280 | Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry high-quality articles |
281 | on Perl are I<Web Techniques> (see http://www.webtechniques.com/), |
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282 | I<Performance Computing> (http://www.performance-computing.com/), and Usenix's |
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283 | newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:>, at http://www.usenix.org/. |
284 | Randal's Web Technique's columns are available on the web at |
285 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/. |
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286 | |
287 | =head2 Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access |
288 | |
289 | To get the best (and possibly cheapest) performance, pick a site from |
290 | the list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites. |
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291 | From there you can find the quickest site for you. Remember, the |
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292 | following list is I<not> the complete list of CPAN mirrors. |
293 | |
294 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN (redirects to another mirror) |
295 | http://www.perl.org/CPAN |
296 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/ |
297 | http://www.cs.ruu.nl/pub/PERL/CPAN/ |
298 | ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/ |
299 | |
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300 | http:/www.oasis.leo.org/perl/ has, amongst other things, source to |
301 | versions 1 through 5 of Perl. |
302 | |
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303 | =head2 What mailing lists are there for perl? |
304 | |
305 | Most of the major modules (tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own |
306 | mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for |
307 | subscription information. The following are a list of mailing lists |
308 | related to perl itself. |
309 | |
310 | If you subscribe to a mailing list, it behooves you to know how to |
311 | unsubscribe from it. Strident pleas to the list itself to get you off |
312 | will not be favorably received. |
313 | |
314 | =over 4 |
315 | |
316 | =item MacPerl |
317 | |
318 | There is a mailing list for discussing Macintosh Perl. Contact |
319 | "mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch". |
320 | |
321 | Also see Matthias Neeracher's (the creator and maintainer of MacPerl) |
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322 | webpage at http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri/macintosh/perl.html for |
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323 | many links to interesting MacPerl sites, and the applications/MPW |
324 | tools, precompiled. |
325 | |
326 | =item Perl5-Porters |
327 | |
328 | The core development team have a mailing list for discussing fixes and |
329 | changes to the language. Send mail to |
330 | "perl5-porters-request@perl.org" with help in the body of the message |
331 | for information on subscribing. |
332 | |
333 | =item NTPerl |
334 | |
335 | This list is used to discuss issues involving Win32 Perl 5 (Windows NT |
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336 | and Win95). Subscribe by mailing ListManager@ActiveWare.com with the |
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337 | message body: |
338 | |
339 | subscribe Perl-Win32-Users |
340 | |
341 | The list software, also written in perl, will automatically determine |
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342 | your address, and subscribe you automatically. To unsubscribe, mail |
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343 | the following in the message body to the same address like so: |
344 | |
345 | unsubscribe Perl-Win32-Users |
346 | |
347 | You can also check http://www.activeware.com/ and select "Mailing Lists" |
348 | to join or leave this list. |
349 | |
350 | =item Perl-Packrats |
351 | |
352 | Discussion related to archiving of perl materials, particularly the |
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353 | Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Subscribe by emailing |
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354 | majordomo@cis.ufl.edu: |
355 | |
356 | subscribe perl-packrats |
357 | |
358 | The list software, also written in perl, will automatically determine |
359 | your address, and subscribe you automatically. To unsubscribe, simple |
360 | prepend the same command with an "un", and mail to the same address |
361 | like so: |
362 | |
363 | unsubscribe perl-packrats |
364 | |
365 | =back |
366 | |
367 | =head2 Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc |
368 | |
369 | Have you tried Deja News or Alta Vista? |
370 | |
371 | ftp.cis.ufl.edu:/pub/perl/comp.lang.perl.*/monthly has an almost |
372 | complete collection dating back to 12/89 (missing 08/91 through |
373 | 12/93). They are kept as one large file for each month. |
374 | |
375 | You'll probably want more a sophisticated query and retrieval mechanism |
376 | than a file listing, preferably one that allows you to retrieve |
377 | articles using a fast-access indices, keyed on at least author, date, |
378 | subject, thread (as in "trn") and probably keywords. The best |
379 | solution the FAQ authors know of is the MH pick command, but it is |
380 | very slow to select on 18000 articles. |
381 | |
382 | If you have, or know where can be found, the missing sections, please |
383 | let perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com know. |
384 | |
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385 | =head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl? |
386 | |
387 | In a sense, Perl already I<is> commercial software: It has a licence |
388 | that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is |
389 | distributed in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a |
390 | very large user community and an extensive literature. The |
391 | comp.lang.perl.* newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide |
392 | free answers to your questions in near real-time. Perl has |
393 | traditionally been supported by Larry, dozens of software designers |
394 | and developers, and thousands of programmers, all working for free |
395 | to create a useful thing to make life better for everyone. |
396 | |
397 | However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a |
398 | purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go |
399 | wrong. Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual |
400 | obligations. Shrink-wrapped CDs with perl on them are available from |
401 | several sources if that will help. |
402 | |
403 | Or you can purchase a real support contract. Although Cygnus historically |
404 | provided this service, they no longer sell support contracts for Perl. |
405 | Instead, the Paul Ingram Group will be taking up the slack through The |
406 | Perl Clinic. The following is a commercial from them: |
407 | |
408 | "Do you need professional support for Perl and/or Oraperl? Do you need |
409 | a support contract with defined levels of service? Do you want to pay |
410 | only for what you need? |
411 | |
412 | "The Paul Ingram Group has provided quality software development and |
413 | support services to some of the world's largest corporations for ten |
414 | years. We are now offering the same quality support services for Perl |
415 | at The Perl Clinic. This service is led by Tim Bunce, an active perl |
416 | porter since 1994 and well known as the author and maintainer of the |
417 | DBI, DBD::Oracle, and Oraperl modules and author/co-maintainer of The |
418 | Perl 5 Module List. We also offer Oracle users support for Perl5 |
419 | Oraperl and related modules (which Oracle is planning to ship as part |
420 | of Oracle Web Server 3). 20% of the profit from our Perl support work |
421 | will be donated to The Perl Institute." |
422 | |
423 | For more information, contact the The Perl Clinic: |
424 | |
425 | Tel: +44 1483 424424 |
426 | Fax: +44 1483 419419 |
427 | Web: http://www.perl.co.uk/ |
428 | Email: perl-support-info@perl.co.uk or Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk |
429 | |
430 | =head2 Where do I send bug reports? |
431 | |
432 | If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules |
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433 | shipped with perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the perl distribution or |
434 | mail your report to perlbug@perl.com. |
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435 | |
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436 | If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to |
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437 | "What platforms is Perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a |
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438 | non-standard module (such as Tk, CGI, etc), then please see the |
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439 | documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post |
440 | bugs. |
441 | |
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442 | Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information. |
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443 | |
444 | =head2 What is perl.com? perl.org? The Perl Institute? |
445 | |
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446 | The perl.com domain is Tom Christiansen's domain. He created it as a |
447 | public service long before perl.org came about. Despite the name, it's a |
448 | pretty non-commercial site meant to be a clearinghouse for information |
449 | about all things Perlian, accepting no paid advertisements, bouncy |
450 | happy gifs, or silly java applets on its pages. The Perl Home Page at |
451 | http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted on a T3 line courtesy of Songline |
452 | Systems, a software-oriented subsidiary of O'Reilly and Associates. |
453 | |
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454 | perl.org is the official vehicle for The Perl Institute. The motto of |
455 | TPI is "helping people help Perl help people" (or something like |
46fc3d4c |
456 | that). It's a non-profit organization supporting development, |
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457 | documentation, and dissemination of perl. Current directors of TPI |
458 | include Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal Schwartz, whom you |
459 | may have heard of somewhere else around here. |
460 | |
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461 | =head2 How do I learn about object-oriented Perl programming? |
462 | |
463 | L<perltoot> (distributed with 5.004 or later) is a good place to start. |
464 | Also, L<perlobj>, L<perlref>, and L<perlmod> are useful references, |
465 | while L<perlbot> has some excellent tips and tricks. |
466 | |
467 | =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT |
468 | |
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469 | Copyright (c) 1997, 1998 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. |
470 | All rights reserved. |
471 | |
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472 | When included as an integrated part of the Standard Distribution |
473 | of Perl or of its documentation (printed or otherwise), this works is |
474 | covered under Perl's Artistic Licence. For separate distributions of |
475 | all or part of this FAQ outside of that, see L<perlfaq>. |
476 | |
477 | Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are public |
478 | domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any |
479 | derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you |
480 | see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would |
481 | be courteous but is not required. |