=head1 NAME
-perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.15 $, $Date: 1997/03/25 18:15:48 $)
+perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.24 $, $Date: 1998/07/20 23:40:28 $)
=head1 DESCRIPTION
This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find
-source and documentation for Perl, support and training, and
+source and documentation for Perl, support, and
related matters.
=head2 What machines support Perl? Where do I get it?
=head2 Where can I get information on Perl?
-The complete Perl documentation is available with the perl
-distribution. If you have perl installed locally, you probably have
-the documentation installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a
-system resembling Unix. This will lead you to other important man
-pages. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation
-will be different; for example, it might be only in HTML format. But
-all proper perl installations have fully-accessible documentation.
+The complete Perl documentation is available with the perl distribution.
+If you have perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation
+installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a system resembling Unix.
+This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your
+$MANPATH. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation
+will be different; for example, it might be only in HTML format. But all
+proper perl installations have fully-accessible documentation.
You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system doesn't
have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't
troff, html, and plain text. There's also a web page at
http://www.perl.com/perl/info/documentation.html that might help.
-It's also worth noting that there's a PDF version of the complete
-documentation for perl available in the CPAN/authors/id/BMIDD
-directory.
-
Many good books have been written about Perl -- see the section below
for more details.
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.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.
+Actually, the moderated group hasn't passed yet, but we're
+keeping our fingers crossed.
+
There is also USENET gateway to the mailing list used by the crack
Perl development team (perl5-porters) at
-news://genetics.upenn.edu/perl.porters-gw/ .
+news://news.perl.com/perl.porters-gw/ .
=head2 Where should I post source code?
standards, including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT
include alt.sources; see their FAQ for details.
+If you're just looking for software, first use Alta Vista, Deja News, and
+search CPAN. This is faster and more productive than just posting
+a request.
+
=head2 Perl Books
-A number books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few of
+A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few of
these are good, some are ok, but many aren't worth your money. Tom
Christiansen maintains a list of these books, some with extensive
reviews, at http://www.perl.com/perl/critiques/index.html.
Authors: Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal Schwartz
ISBN 1-56592-149-6 (English)
ISBN 4-89052-384-7 (Japanese)
- (French and German translations in progress)
+ (French, German, and Italian translations also available)
Note that O'Reilly books are color-coded: turquoise (some would call
it teal) covers indicate perl5 coverage, while magenta (some would
call it pink) covers indicate perl4 only. Check the cover color
before you buy!
+If you're already a hard-core systems programmer, then the Camel Book
+might suffice for you to learn Perl from. But if you're not, check
+out I<Learning Perl> by Randal and Tom. The second edition of "Llama
+Book" has a blue cover, and is updated for the 5.004 release of Perl.
+
+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.
+
+You can order O'Reilly books directly from O'Reilly & Associates,
+1-800-998-9938. Local/overseas is 1-707-829-0515. If you can
+locate an O'Reilly order form, you can also fax to 1-707-829-0104.
+See http://www.ora.com/ on the Web.
+
What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally
useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary.
-If you're already a hard-core systems programmer, then the Camel Book
-just might suffice for you to learn Perl from. But if you're not,
-check out the "Llama Book". It currently doesn't cover perl5, but the
-2nd edition is nearly done and should be out by summer 97:
+Recommended books on (or muchly on) Perl are the following.
+Those marked with a star may be ordered from O'Reilly.
- Learning Perl (the Llama Book):
- Author: Randal Schwartz, with intro by Larry Wall
- ISBN 1-56592-042-2 (English)
- ISBN 4-89502-678-1 (Japanese)
- ISBN 2-84177-005-2 (French)
- ISBN 3-930673-08-8 (German)
+=over
-Another stand-out book in the turquoise O'Reilly Perl line is the "Hip
-Owls" book. It covers regular expressions inside and out, with quite a
-bit devoted exclusively to Perl:
+=item References
- Mastering Regular Expressions (the Cute Owls Book):
- Author: Jeffrey Friedl
- ISBN 1-56592-257-3
+ *Programming Perl
+ by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal L. Schwartz
-You can order any of these books from O'Reilly & Associates,
-1-800-998-9938. Local/overseas is 1-707-829-0515. If you can locate
-an O'Reilly order form, you can also fax to 1-707-829-0104. See
-http://www.ora.com/ on the Web.
+ *Perl 5 Desktop Reference
+ By Johan Vromans
-Recommended Perl books that are not from O'Reilly are the following:
+=item Tutorials
+
+ *Learning Perl [2nd edition]
+ by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen
- Cross-Platform Perl, (for Unix and Windows NT)
- Author: Eric F. Johnson
- ISBN: 1-55851-483-X
+ *Learning Perl on Win32 Systems
+ by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
+ with foreword by Larry Wall
- How to Set up and Maintain a World Wide Web Site, (2nd edition)
- Author: Lincoln Stein, M.D., Ph.D.
- ISBN: 0-201-63462-7
+ Perl: The Programmer's Companion
+ by Nigel Chapman
- CGI Programming in C & Perl,
- Author: Thomas Boutell
- ISBN: 0-201-42219-0
+ Cross-Platform Perl
+ by Eric F. Johnson
-Note that some of these address specific application areas (e.g. the
-Web) and are not general-purpose programming books.
+ MacPerl: Power and Ease
+ by Vicki Brown and Chris Nandor, foreword by Matthias Neeracher
-=head2 Perl in Magazines
+=item Task-Oriented
+
+ *The Perl Cookbook
+ by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington
+ with foreword by Larry Wall
+
+ Perl5 Interactive Course [2nd edition]
+ by Jon Orwant
+
+ *Advanced Perl Programming
+ by Sriram Srinivasan
+
+ Effective Perl Programming
+ by Joseph Hall
+
+=item Special Topics
-The Perl Journal is the first and only magazine dedicated to Perl.
-It is published (on paper, not online) quarterly by Jon Orwant
-(orwant@tpj.com), editor. Subscription information is at http://tpj.com
-or via email to subscriptions@tpj.com.
+ *Mastering Regular Expressions
+ by Jeffrey Friedl
-Beyond this, two other magazines that frequently carry high-quality
-articles on Perl are Web Techniques (see
-http://www.webtechniques.com/) and Unix Review
-(http://www.unixreview.com/). Randal Schwartz's Web Technique's
-columns are available on the web at
-http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ .
+ How to Set up and Maintain a World Wide Web Site [2nd edition]
+ by Lincoln Stein
+
+=back
+
+=head2 Perl in Magazines
+
+The first and only periodical devoted to All Things Perl, I<The
+Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies,
+announcements, contests, and much more. TPJ has columns on web
+development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular
+expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl Contest.
+It is published quarterly by Jon Orwant. See http://www.tpj.com/ or
+send mail to subscriptions@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/.
=head2 Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access
http://www.cs.ruu.nl/pub/PERL/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/
+http:/www.oasis.leo.org/perl/ has, amongst other things, source to
+versions 1 through 5 of Perl.
+
=head2 What mailing lists are there for perl?
Most of the major modules (tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own
=item NTPerl
This list is used to discuss issues involving Win32 Perl 5 (Windows NT
-and Win95). Subscribe by emailing ListManager@ActiveWare.com with the
+and Win95). Subscribe by mailing ListManager@ActiveWare.com with the
message body:
subscribe Perl-Win32-Users
The list software, also written in perl, will automatically determine
-your address, and subscribe you automatically. To unsubscribe, email
+your address, and subscribe you automatically. To unsubscribe, mail
the following in the message body to the same address like so:
unsubscribe Perl-Win32-Users
=item Perl-Packrats
Discussion related to archiving of perl materials, particularly the
-Comprehensive PerlArchive Network (CPAN). Subscribe by emailing
+Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Subscribe by emailing
majordomo@cis.ufl.edu:
subscribe perl-packrats
If you have, or know where can be found, the missing sections, please
let perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com know.
-=head2 Perl Training
-
-While some large training companies offer their own courses on Perl,
-you may prefer to contact individuals near and dear to the heart of
-Perl development. Two well-known members of the Perl development team
-who offer such things are Tom Christiansen <perl-classes@perl.com>
-and Randal Schwartz <perl-training-info@stonehenge.com>, plus their
-respective minions, who offer a variety of professional tutorials
-and seminars on Perl. These courses include large public seminars,
-private corporate training, and fly-ins to Colorado and Oregon.
-See http://www.perl.com/perl/info/training.html for more details.
-
=head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?
In a sense, Perl already I<is> commercial software: It has a licence
=head2 Where do I send bug reports?
If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules
-shipped with perl, use the perlbug program in the perl distribution or
-email your report to perlbug@perl.com.
+shipped with perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the perl distribution or
+mail your report to perlbug@perl.com.
If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to
"What platforms is Perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a
documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post
bugs.
-Read the perlbug man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information.
+Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information.
=head2 What is perl.com? perl.org? The Perl Institute?
+The perl.com domain is Tom Christiansen's domain. He created it as a
+public service long before perl.org came about. Despite the name, it's a
+pretty non-commercial site meant to be a clearinghouse for information
+about all things Perlian, accepting no paid advertisements, bouncy
+happy gifs, or silly java applets on its pages. The Perl Home Page at
+http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted on a T3 line courtesy of Songline
+Systems, a software-oriented subsidiary of O'Reilly and Associates.
+
perl.org is the official vehicle for The Perl Institute. The motto of
TPI is "helping people help Perl help people" (or something like
that). It's a non-profit organization supporting development,
include Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal Schwartz, whom you
may have heard of somewhere else around here.
-The perl.com domain is Tom Christiansen's domain. He created it as a
-public service long before perl.org came about. It's the original PBS
-of the Perl world, a clearinghouse for information about all things
-Perlian, accepting no paid advertisements, glossy gifs, or (gasp!)
-java applets on its pages.
-
=head2 How do I learn about object-oriented Perl programming?
L<perltoot> (distributed with 5.004 or later) is a good place to start.
=head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
-Copyright (c) 1997 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
-All rights reserved. See L<perlfaq> for distribution information.
+Copyright (c) 1997, 1998 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 Licence. For separate distributions of
+all or part of this FAQ outside of that, see L<perlfaq>.
+
+Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are public
+domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any
+derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you
+see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would
+be courteous but is not required.
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff