=head1 NAME
-perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.32 $, $Date: 1999/10/14 18:46:09 $)
+perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.20 $, $Date: 2003/01/26 17:50:56 $)
=head1 DESCRIPTION
Some URLs that might help you are:
http://www.cpan.org/ports/
- http://language.perl.com/info/software.html
+ http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/software.html
Someone looking for a Perl for Win16 might look to Laszlo Molnar's djgpp
port in http://www.cpan.org/ports/#msdos , which comes with clear
=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
commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web
walking and CGI scripts. The master web site for CPAN is
http://www.cpan.org/ and there is the CPAN Multiplexer at
-http://www.perl.com/CPAN/CPAN.html which will choose a mirror near you
+http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html which will choose a mirror near you
via DNS. See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the
end) for how this process works. Also, http://mirror.cpan.org/
has a nice interface to the http://www.cpan.org/MIRRORED.BY
See http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html or
http://search.cpan.org/ for a more complete list of modules by category.
+CPAN is not affiliated with O'Reilly and Associates.
=head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl?
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-The now defunct comp.lang.perl newsgroup has been superseded by the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 Usenet gateway to the mailing list used by the crack
-Perl development team (perl5-porters) at
-news://news.perl.com/perl.porters-gw/ .
+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?
feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to cross-post
to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards,
including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT include alt.sources;
-see their FAQ (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-sources-intro/) for details.
+see their FAQ ( http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-sources-intro/ ) for details.
If you're just looking for software, first use Google
-(http://www.google.com), Deja (http://www.deja.com), and
-CPAN Search (http://search.cpan.org). This is faster and more
-productive than just posting a request.
+( http://www.google.com ), Google's usenet search interface
+( 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 hard-core systems programmer, then the Camel Book
-might suffice for you to learn Perl from. If you're not, check out
+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
+Llama book:
- Learning Perl (the "Llama Book"):
- by Randal Schwartz and Tom Christiansen
- with Foreword by Larry Wall
- ISBN 1-56592-284-0 [2nd Edition July 1997]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/
+ Learning Perl (the "Llama Book")
+ by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix
+ ISBN 0-596-00132-0 [3rd edition July 2001]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/
-Despite the picture at the URL above, the second edition of "Llama
-Book" really has a blue cover and was updated for the 5.004 release
-of Perl. Various foreign language editions are available, including
-I<Learning Perl on Win32 Systems> (the "Gecko Book").
+If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and
+possibly even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much
+hand-holding as we try to provide in the Llama, please check out the
+delightful book
-If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and possibly
-even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much hand-holding as
-we try to provide in the Llama or its defurred cousin the Gecko, please
-check out the delightful book, I<Perl: The Programmer's Companion>,
-written by Nigel Chapman.
+ Perl: The Programmer's Companion
+ by Nigel Chapman
+ ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998]
+ http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm
+ http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc)
-Addison-Wesley (http://www.awlonline.com/) and Manning
-(http://www.manning.com/) are also publishers of some fine Perl books
-such as Object Oriented Programming with Perl by Damian Conway and
-Network Programming with Perl by Lincoln Stein.
+If you are more at home in Windows the following is available
+(though unfortunately rather dated).
+
+ Learning Perl on Win32 Systems (the "Gecko Book")
+ by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
+ with foreword by Larry Wall
+ ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/
+
+Addison-Wesley ( http://www.awlonline.com/ ) and Manning
+( http://www.manning.com/ ) are also publishers of some fine Perl books
+such as I<Object Oriented Programming with Perl> by Damian Conway and
+I<Network Programming with Perl> by Lincoln Stein.
An excellent technical book discounter is Bookpool at
http://www.bookpool.com/ where a 30% discount or more is not unusual.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
Perl 5 Pocket Reference
- by Johan Vromans
+ by Johan Vromans
ISBN 0-596-00032-4 [3rd edition May 2000]
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr3/
Perl in a Nutshell
- by Ellen Siever, Stephan Spainhour, and Nathan Patwardhan
+ by Ellen Siever, Stephan Spainhour, and Nathan Patwardhan
ISBN 1-56592-286-7 [1st edition December 1998]
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlnut/
Elements of Programming with Perl
by Andrew L. Johnson
- ISBN 1884777805 [1st edition October 1999]
+ ISBN 1-884777-80-5 [1st edition October 1999]
http://www.manning.com/Johnson/
Learning Perl
- by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen
- with foreword by Larry Wall
- ISBN 1-56592-284-0 [2nd edition July 1997]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/
+ by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix
+ ISBN 0-596-00132-0 [3rd edition July 2001]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/
Learning Perl on Win32 Systems
by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
Perl: The Programmer's Companion
by Nigel Chapman
- ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1st edition October 1997]
- http://catalog.wiley.com/title.cgi?isbn=047197563X
+ ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998]
+ http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm
+ http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc)
Cross-Platform Perl
by Eric Foster-Johnson
Object Oriented Perl
Damian Conway
with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz
- ISBN 1884777791 [1st edition August 1999]
+ ISBN 1-884777-79-1 [1st edition August 1999]
http://www.manning.com/Conway/
Data Munging with Perl
- Dave Cross
- ISBN 1930110006 [1st edition 2001]
- http://www.manning.com/cross
+ Dave Cross
+ ISBN 1-930110-00-6 [1st edition 2001]
+ http://www.manning.com/cross
- Learning Perl/Tk
- by Nancy Walsh
- ISBN 1-56592-314-6 [1st edition January 1999]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperltk/
+ Mastering Perl/Tk
+ by Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh
+ ISBN 1-56592-716-8 [1st edition January 2002]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk/
=back
=head2 Perl in Magazines
-The first and only periodical devoted to All Things Perl, I<The
-Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies,
+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
-expressions, and networking, and sponsored the Obfuscated Perl
-Contest. For more details on I<The Perl Journal>, see
-http://www.tpj.com/
-
-Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry high-quality articles
-on Perl are I<Web Techniques> (see http://www.webtechniques.com/),
-I<Performance Computing> (http://www.performance-computing.com/), and Usenix's
-newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:>, at http://www.usenix.org/.
-Randal's Web Technique's columns are available on the web at
-http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ .
+expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl Contest
+and the Perl Poetry Contests. As of mid-2001, the dead tree version
+of TPJ will be published as a quarterly supplement of SysAdmin
+magazine ( http://www.sysadminmag.com/ ) For more details on TPJ,
+see http://www.tpj.com/
+
+Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry quality articles on
+Perl are I<The Perl Review> ( http://www.theperlreview.com ),
+I<Unix Review> ( http://www.unixreview.com/ ),
+I<Linux Magazine> ( http://www.linuxmagazine.com/ ),
+and Usenix's newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:>
+( http://www.usenix.org/ )
+
+The Perl columns of Randal L. Schwartz are available on the web at
+http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ ,
+http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/UnixReview/ , and
+http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/ .
=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://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/perl/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?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&group=comp.lang.perl.misc
+http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.perl.misc
If you have a question, you can be sure someone has already asked the
same question at some point on c.l.p.m. It requires some time and patience
user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.*
newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your
questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by
-Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriads of
+Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriad
programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life
better for everyone.
Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information.
-=head2 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org?
+=head2 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org?
-The Perl Home Page at http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted on a
-T3 line courtesy of The O'Reilly Network, a subsidiary of
-O'Reilly and Associates. Other starting points include
-
- http://language.perl.com/
- http://conference.perl.com/
- http://reference.perl.com/
+The Perl Home Page at http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted by
+The O'Reilly Network, a subsidiary of O'Reilly and Associates.
Perl Mongers is an advocacy organization for the Perl language which
maintains the web site http://www.perl.org/ as a general advocacy
http://bugs.perl.org/
http://history.perl.org/
http://lists.perl.org/
- http://news.perl.org/
http://use.perl.org/
+http://www.cpan.org/ is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network,
+a replicated worlwide repository of Perl software, see
+the I<What is CPAN?> question earlier in this document.
+
=head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
All rights reserved.
-When included as an integrated part of the Standard Distribution
-of Perl or of its documentation (printed or otherwise), this works is
-covered under Perl's Artistic License. For separate distributions of
-all or part of this FAQ outside of that, see L<perlfaq>.
+This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+under the same terms as Perl itself.
Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public
domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff