=head1 NAME
-perlfaq - frequently asked questions about Perl ($Date: 2001/09/20 03:03:00 $)
+perlfaq - frequently asked questions about Perl ($Date: 2002/11/13 06:23:50 $)
=head1 DESCRIPTION
=head2 L<perlfaq1>: General Questions About Perl
-Very general, high-level information about Perl.
+Very general, high-level questions about Perl.
=over 4
=item *
-How can I convince my sysadmin/supervisor/employees to use version 5/5.005/Perl instead of some other language?
+How can I convince my sysadmin/supervisor/employees to use version 5/5.6.1/Perl instead of some other language?
=back
=head2 L<perlfaq2>: Obtaining and Learning about Perl
-Where to find source and documentation to Perl, support,
+Where to find source and documentation for Perl, support,
and related matters.
=over 4
=item *
-What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org?
+What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org?
=back
=item *
+How do I find which modules are installed on my system?
+
+=item *
+
How do I debug my Perl programs?
=item *
=item *
-What is undump?
-
-=item *
-
How can I make my Perl program run faster?
=item *
=item *
-Is it unsafe to return a pointer to local data?
+Is it safe to return a reference to local or lexical data?
=item *
=item *
-When I tried to run my script, I got this message. What does it
-mean?
+When I tried to run my script, I got this message. What does it mean?
=item *
=item *
-How do I convert bits into ints?
+How do I convert between numeric representations?
=item *
=item *
+How do I get a random number between X and Y?
+
+=item *
+
How do I find the week-of-the-year/day-of-the-year?
=item *
=item *
-How can I access/change the first N letters of a string?
+How can I access or change N characters of a string?
=item *
=item *
-How can I split a [character] delimited string except when inside
-[character]? (Comma-separated files)
+How can I split a [character] delimited string except when inside [character]?
=item *
=item *
-How can I tell whether a list or array contains a certain element?
+How can I tell whether a certain element is contained in a list or array?
=item *
=head2 L<perlfaq5>: Files and Formats
-I/O and the "f" issues: filehandles, flushing, formats and footers.
+I/O and the "f" issues: filehandles, flushing, formats, and footers.
=over 4
=item *
+How can I use Perl's C<-i> option from within a program?
+
+=item *
+
How do I make a temporary file name?
=item *
=back
-=head2 L<perlfaq6>: Regexps
+=head2 L<perlfaq6>: Regular Expressions
Pattern matching and regular expressions.
=item *
-How can I catch accesses to undefined variables/functions/methods?
+How can I catch accesses to undefined variables, functions, or methods?
=item *
=head2 L<perlfaq9>: Networking
-Networking, the Internet, and a few on the web.
+Networking, the internet, and a few on the web.
=over 4
=item *
+What is the correct form of response from a CGI script?
+
+=item *
+
My CGI script runs from the command line but not the browser. (500 Server Error)
=item *
=item *
+How do I use MIME to make an attachment to a mail message?
+
+=item *
+
How do I read mail?
=item *
=head2 Where to get the perlfaq
This document is posted regularly to comp.lang.perl.announce and
-several other related newsgroups. It is available in a variety of
-formats from CPAN in the /CPAN/doc/FAQs/FAQ/ directory or on the web
-at http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/ .
+several other related newsgroups. It is available on many
+web sites: http://www.perldoc.com/ and http://perlfaq.cpan.org/ .
=head2 How to contribute to the perlfaq
You may mail corrections, additions, and suggestions to
-perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com . This alias should not be
+perlfaq-workers@perl.org . This alias should not be
used to I<ask> FAQs. It's for fixing the current FAQ.
Send questions to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup.
Your questions will probably go unread, unless they're suggestions of
new questions to add to the FAQ, in which case they should have gone
-to the perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com instead.
+to the perlfaq-workers@perl.org instead.
You should have read section 2 of this faq. There you would have
learned that comp.lang.perl.misc is the appropriate place to go for
=head1 Author and Copyright Information
-Copyright (c) 1997-1999 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
+Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
All rights reserved.
=head2 Bundled Distributions
for any particular purpose whatsoever. The authors accept no liability
in respect of this information or its use.
-=head1 Changes
-
-=over 4
-
-=item 1/November/2000
-
-A few grammatical fixes and updates implemented by John Borwick.
-
-=item 23/May/99
-
-Extensive updates from the net in preparation for 5.6 release.
-
-=item 13/April/99
-
-More minor touch-ups. Added new question at the end
-of perlfaq7 on variable names within variables.
-
-=item 7/January/99
-
-Small touchups here and there. Added all questions in this
-document as a sort of table of contents.
-
-=item 22/June/98
-
-Significant changes throughout in preparation for the 5.005
-release.
-
-=item 24/April/97
-
-Style and whitespace changes from Chip, new question on reading one
-character at a time from a terminal using POSIX from Tom.
-
-=item 23/April/97
-
-Added http://www.oasis.leo.org/perl/ to L<perlfaq2>. Style fix to
-L<perlfaq3>. Added floating point precision, fixed complex number
-arithmetic, cross-references, caveat for Text::Wrap, alternative
-answer for initial capitalizing, fixed incorrect regexp, added example
-of Tie::IxHash to L<perlfaq4>. Added example of passing and storing
-filehandles, added commify to L<perlfaq5>. Restored variable suicide,
-and added mass commenting to L<perlfaq7>. Added Net::Telnet, fixed
-backticks, added reader/writer pair to telnet question, added FindBin,
-grouped module questions together in L<perlfaq8>. Expanded caveats
-for the simple URL extractor, gave LWP example, added CGI security
-question, expanded on the mail address answer in L<perlfaq9>.
-
-=item 25/March/97
-
-Added more info to the binary distribution section of L<perlfaq2>.
-Added Net::Telnet to L<perlfaq6>. Fixed typos in L<perlfaq8>. Added
-mail sending example to L<perlfaq9>. Added Merlyn's columns to
-L<perlfaq2>.
-
-=item 18/March/97
-
-Added the DATE to the NAME section, indicating which sections have
-changed.
-
-Mentioned SIGPIPE and L<perlipc> in the forking open answer in
-L<perlfaq8>.
-
-Fixed description of a regular expression in L<perlfaq4>.
-
-=item 17/March/97 Version
-
-Various typos fixed throughout.
-
-Added new question on Perl BNF on L<perlfaq7>.
-
-=item Initial Release: 11/March/97
-
-This is the initial release of version 3 of the FAQ; consequently there
-have been no changes since its initial release.
-
=back