=head1 NAME
-perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.13 $, $Date: 2002/04/26 16:56:35 $)
+perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.20 $, $Date: 2003/01/26 17:50:56 $)
=head1 DESCRIPTION
=head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean?
-CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a ~700mb archive
+CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a ~1.2Gb archive
replicated on nearly 200 machines all over the world. CPAN contains
source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many
third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from
http://perldoc.cpan.org/
http://www.perldoc.com/
- http://reference.perl.com/query.cgi?tutorials
http://bookmarks.cpan.org/search.cgi?cat=Training%2FTutorials
=head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions?
-The now defunct comp.lang.perl newsgroup has been superseded by the
-following groups:
+Several groups devoted to the Perl language are on Usenet:
comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group
- comp.lang.perl.misc Very busy group about Perl in general
- comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group
+ comp.lang.perl.misc High traffic general Perl discussion
+ comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group
comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules
comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web.
-There is also a Usenet gateway to Perl mailing lists sponsored by perl.org at
-nntp://nntp.perl.org , or a web interface to the same lists at
-http://nntp.perl.org/group/ . Other groups are listed at
-http://lists.perl.org/ .
+Some years ago, comp.lang.perl was divided into those groups, and
+comp.lang.perl itself officially removed. While that group may still
+be found on some news servers, it is unwise to use it, because
+postings there will not appear on news servers which honour the
+official list of group names. Use comp.lang.perl.misc for topics
+which do not have a more-appropriate specific group.
+
+There is also a Usenet gateway to Perl mailing lists sponsored by
+perl.org at nntp://nntp.perl.org , a web interface to the same lists
+at http://nntp.perl.org/group/ and these lists are also available
+under the C<perl.*> hierarchy at http://groups.google.com . Other
+groups are listed at http://lists.perl.org/ ( also known as
+http://lists.cpan.org/ ).
+
+A nice place to ask questions is the PerlMonks site,
+http://www.perlmonks.org/ , or the Perl Beginners mailing list
+http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=beginners .
+
+Note that none of the above are supposed to write your code for you:
+asking questions about particular problems or general advice is fine,
+but asking someone to write your code for free is not very cool.
=head2 Where should I post source code?
If you're just looking for software, first use Google
( http://www.google.com ), Google's usenet search interface
-( http://groups.google.com ), and CPAN Search ( http://search.cpan.org ).
+( http://groups.google.com ), and CPAN Search ( http://search.cpan.org ).
This is faster and more productive than just posting a request.
=head2 Perl Books
by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
with Foreword by Larry Wall
ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st Edition August 1998]
- http://perl.oreilly.com/cookbook/
+ http://perl.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/
If you're already a seasoned programmer, then the Camel Book might
suffice for you to learn Perl from. If you're not, check out the
ISBN 1-930110-00-6 [1st edition 2001]
http://www.manning.com/cross
- Mastering Perl/Tk
+ Mastering Perl/Tk
by Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh
ISBN 1-56592-716-8 [1st edition January 2002]
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk/
=head2 Perl in Magazines
-The first and only periodical devoted to All Things Perl,
+The first (and for a long time, only) periodical devoted to All Things Perl,
I<The Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies,
announcements, contests, and much more. I<TPJ> has columns on web
development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular
=head2 Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access
-To get the best performance, pick a site from
-the list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites
-which is at /CPAN/MIRRORED.BY or at http://mirror.cpan.org/ .
-From there you can find the quickest site for you. Remember, the
-following list is I<not> the complete list of CPAN mirrors
-(the complete list contains 165 sites as of January 2001):
-
- http://www.cpan.org/
- http://www.perl.com/CPAN/
- http://download.sourceforge.net/mirrors/CPAN/
- ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/plan/perl/CPAN/
- ftp://ftp.flirble.org/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
- ftp://ftp.uvsq.fr/pub/perl/CPAN/
- ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
- ftp://ftp.dti.ad.jp/pub/lang/CPAN/
- ftp://cpan.if.usp.br/pub/mirror/CPAN/
-
-One may also use xx.cpan.org where "xx" is the 2-letter country code
-for your domain; e.g. Australia would use au.cpan.org.
-[Note: This only applies to countries that host at least one mirror.]
+To get the best performance, pick a site from the list at
+http://www.cpan.org/SITES.html . From there you can find the quickest
+site for you.
+
+You may also use xx.cpan.org where "xx" is the 2-letter country code
+for your domain; e.g. Australia would use au.cpan.org. [Note: This
+only applies to countries that host at least one mirror.]
=head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl?
mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for
subscription information.
- http://lists.cpan.org/
+A comprehensive list of Perl related mailing lists can be found at:
+
+ http://lists.perl.org/
=head2 Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc
The Google search engine now carries archived and searchable newsgroup
-content.
+content.
http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.perl.misc
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