3 perlfaq - frequently asked questions about Perl ($Date: 1997/03/25 18:20:48 $)
7 This document is structured into the following sections:
11 =item perlfaq: Structural overview of the FAQ.
15 =item L<perlfaq1>: General Questions About Perl
17 Very general, high-level information about Perl.
19 =item L<perlfaq2>: Obtaining and Learning about Perl
21 Where to find source and documentation to Perl, support and training,
24 =item L<perlfaq3>: Programming Tools
26 Programmer tools and programming support.
28 =item L<perlfaq4>: Data Manipulation
30 Manipulating numbers, dates, strings, arrays, hashes, and
31 miscellaneous data issues.
33 =item L<perlfaq5>: Files and Formats
35 I/O and the "f" issues: filehandles, flushing, formats and footers.
37 =item L<perlfaq6>: Regexps
39 Pattern matching and regular expressions.
41 =item L<perlfaq7>: General Perl Language Issues
43 General Perl language issues that don't clearly fit into any of the
46 =item L<perlfaq8>: System Interaction
48 Interprocess communication (IPC), control over the user-interface
49 (keyboard, screen and pointing devices).
51 =item L<perlfaq9>: Networking
53 Networking, the Internet, and a few on the web.
57 =head2 Where to get this document
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/ .
64 =head2 How to contribute to this document
66 You may mail corrections, additions, and suggestions to
67 perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com. Mail sent to the old perlfaq alias will
68 merely cause the FAQ to be sent to you.
70 =head2 What will happen if you mail your Perl programming problems to the authors
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.
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.
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
89 =head1 Author and Copyright Information
91 Copyright (c) 1997 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
94 =head2 Noncommercial Reproduction
96 Permission is granted to distribute this document, in part or in full,
97 via electronic means or printed copy providing that (1) that all credits
98 and copyright notices be retained, (2) that no charges beyond reproduction
99 be involved, and (3) that a reasonable attempt be made to use the most
100 current version available.
102 Furthermore, you may include this document in any distribution of the
103 full Perl source or binaries, in its verbatim documentation, or on a
104 complete dump of the CPAN archive, providing that the three stipulations
105 given above continue to be met.
107 =head2 Commercial Reproduction
109 Requests for all other distribution rights, including the incorporation
110 in part or in full of this text or its code into commercial products
111 such as but not limited to books, magazine articles, or CD-ROMs, must
112 be made to perlfaq-legal@perl.com. Any commercial use of any portion
113 of this document without prior written authorization by its authors
114 will be subject to appropriate action.
118 This information is offered in good faith and in the hope that it may
119 be of use, but is not guaranteed to be correct, up to date, or suitable
120 for any particular purpose whatsoever. The authors accept no liability
121 in respect of this information or its use.
129 Added more info to the binary distribution section of L<perlfaq2>.
130 Added Net::Telnet to L<perlfaq6>. Fixed typos in L<perlfaq8>. Added
131 mail sending example to L<perlfaq9>. Added Merlyn's columns to
136 Added the DATE to the NAME section, indicating which sections have
139 Mentioned SIGPIPE and L<perlipc> in the forking open answer in
142 Fixed description of a regular expression in L<perlfaq4>.
144 =item 17/March/97 Version
146 Various typos fixed throughout.
148 Added new question on Perl BNF on L<perlfaq7>.
150 =item Initial Release: 11/March/97
152 This is the initial release of version 3 of the FAQ; consequently there
153 have been no changes since its initial release.