approaches are doomed to failure.
One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out
-the hard-coded @INC which perl is looking for.
+the hard-coded @INC that perl looks through for libraries:
% perl -e 'print join("\n",@INC)'
-If this command lists any paths which don't exist on your system, then you
+If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you
may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create
symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. @INC is also printed as
part of the output of
% perl -V
-You might also want to check out L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own
-module/library directory?">.
+You might also want to check out
+L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own module/library directory?">.
=head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work?
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
+will be different; for example, documentation might only be in HTML format. All
proper Perl installations have fully-accessible documentation.
You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system 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.
-Many good books have been written about Perl -- see the section below
+Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section below
for more details.
Tutorial documents are included in current or upcoming Perl releases
-include L<perltoot> for objects, L<perlopentut> for file opening
-semantics, L<perlreftut> for managing references, and L<perlxstut>
-for linking C and Perl together. There may be more by the
-time you read this. The following URLs might also be of
+include L<perltoot> for objects or L<perlboot> for a beginner's
+approach to objects, L<perlopentut> for file opening semantics,
+L<perlreftut> for managing references, L<perlretut> for regular
+expressions, L<perlthrtut> for threads, L<perldebtut> for debugging,
+and L<perlxstut> for linking C and Perl together. There may be more
+by the time you read this. The following URLs might also be of
assistance:
http://language.perl.com/info/documentation.html
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.
+reviews, at http://www.perl.com/perl/critiques/index.html .
The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by
-the creator of Perl, is now in its second edition:
+the creator of Perl, is now (July 2000) in its third edition:
Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"):
- by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal Schwartz
- ISBN 1-56592-149-6 (English)
- ISBN 4-89052-384-7 (Japanese)
- URL: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl2/
- (French, German, Italian, and Hungarian translations also
- available)
+ by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant
+ 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
+ (English, translations to several languages are also available)
The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands
of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs
-(first premiering at the 1998 Perl Conference), is:
+(first premiered at the 1998 Perl Conference), is:
The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"):
by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
- with Foreword by Larry Wall
- ISBN: 1-56592-243-3
- URL: http://perl.oreilly.com/cookbook/
+ with Foreword by Larry Wall
+ ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st Edition August 1998]
+ http://perl.oreilly.com/cookbook/
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:
+might suffice for you to learn Perl from. If you're not, check
+out
Learning Perl (the "Llama Book"):
by Randal Schwartz and Tom Christiansen
with Foreword by Larry Wall
- ISBN: 1-56592-284-0
- URL: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/
+ ISBN 1-56592-284-0 [2nd Edition July 1997]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/
Despite the picture at the URL above, the second edition of "Llama
-Book" really has a blue cover, and is updated for the 5.004 release
+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).
+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
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.
-Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow; those marked with
-a star may be ordered from O'Reilly.
+Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow.
-=over
+=over 4
=item References
- *Programming Perl
- by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal L. Schwartz
+ Programming Perl
+ by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant
+ ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
- *Perl 5 Desktop Reference
+ Perl 5 Pocket Reference
by Johan Vromans
+ ISBN 0-596-00032-4 [3rd edition May 2000]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr3/
- *Perl in a Nutshell
+ Perl in a Nutshell
by Ellen Siever, Stephan Spainhour, and Nathan Patwardhan
+ ISBN 1-56592-286-7 [1st edition December 1998]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlnut/
=item Tutorials
- *Learning Perl [2nd edition]
+ Elements of Programming with Perl
+ by Andrew L. Johnson
+ ISBN 1884777805 [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/
- *Learning Perl on Win32 Systems
+ Learning Perl on Win32 Systems
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/
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
- Cross-Platform Perl
- by Eric F. Johnson
+ Cross-Platform Perl
+ by Eric Foster-Johnson
+ ISBN 1-55851-483-X [2nd edition September 2000]
+ http://www.pconline.com/~erc/perlbook.htm
- MacPerl: Power and Ease
- by Vicki Brown and Chris Nandor, foreword by Matthias Neeracher
+ MacPerl: Power and Ease
+ by Vicki Brown and Chris Nandor,
+ with foreword by Matthias Neeracher
+ ISBN 1-881957-32-2 [1st edition May 1998]
+ http://www.macperl.com/ptf_book/
=item Task-Oriented
- *The Perl Cookbook
+ The Perl Cookbook
by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington
with foreword by Larry Wall
+ ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/
- Perl5 Interactive Course [2nd edition]
+ Perl5 Interactive Course
by Jon Orwant
+ ISBN 1571690646 [1st edition June 1997]
- *Advanced Perl Programming
+ Advanced Perl Programming
by Sriram Srinivasan
+ ISBN 1-56592-220-4 [1st edition August 1997]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/advperl/
Effective Perl Programming
by Joseph Hall
+ ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998]
+ http://www.awl.com/
=item Special Topics
- *Mastering Regular Expressions
- by Jeffrey Friedl
+ Mastering Regular Expressions
+ by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl
+ ISBN 1-56592-257-3 [1st edition January 1997]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/
- How to Set up and Maintain a World Wide Web Site [2nd edition]
+ How to Set up and Maintain a World Wide Web Site
by Lincoln Stein
+ ISBN 0-201-63389-2 [1st edition 1995]
+ http://www.awl.com/
+
+ Object Oriented Perl
+ Damian Conway
+ with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz
+ ISBN 1884777791 [1st edition August 1999]
+ http://www.manning.com/Conway/
- *Learning Perl/Tk
+ Learning Perl/Tk
by Nancy Walsh
+ ISBN 1-56592-314-6 [1st edition January 1999]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperltk/
=back
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
+announcements, contests, and much more. I<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 under the gentle hand of its
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/.
+http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ .
=head2 Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access
-To get the best (and possibly cheapest) performance, pick a site from
+To get the best performance, pick a site from
the list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites.
From there you can find the quickest site for you. Remember, the
-following list is I<not> the complete list of CPAN mirrors.
-
- http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local
- http://www.perl.com/CPAN (redirects to an ftp mirror)
- ftp://cpan.valueclick.com/pub/CPAN/
+following list is I<not> the complete list of CPAN mirrors
+(the complete list contains 136 sites as of July 2000):
+
+ http://www.perl.com/CPAN/
+ http://www.cpan.org/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/
- http://www.cs.ruu.nl/pub/PERL/CPAN/
- ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/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/
=head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl?
http://www.deja.com/dnquery.xp?QRY=&DBS=2&ST=PS&defaultOp=AND&LNG=ALL&format=terse&showsort=date&maxhits=25&subjects=&groups=*perl*&authors=&fromdate=&todate=
-You'll probably want to trim that down a bit, though.
-
-ftp.cis.ufl.edu:/pub/perl/comp.lang.perl.*/monthly has an almost
-complete collection dating back to 12/89 (missing 08/91 through
-12/93). They are kept as one large file for each month.
+You might want to trim that down a bit, though.
You'll probably want more a sophisticated query and retrieval mechanism
than a file listing, preferably one that allows you to retrieve
=head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?
-In a real sense, Perl already I<is> commercial software: It has a license
+In a real sense, Perl already I<is> commercial software: it has a license
that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed
in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large
user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.*
purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry.
Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations.
Shrink-wrapped CDs with Perl on them are available from several sources if
-that will help. For example, many Perl books carry a Perl distribution
-on them, as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor
+that will help. For example, many Perl books include a distribution of Perl,
+as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor
and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix distributions
also all come with Perl.
-Or you can purchase commercial incidence based support through the Perl
-Clinic. The following is a commercial from them:
+Alternatively, you can purchase commercial incidence based support
+through the Perl Clinic. The following is a commercial from them:
"The Perl Clinic is a commercial Perl support service operated by
ActiveState Tool Corp. and The Ingram Group. The operators have many
we will put our best effort into understanding your problem, providing an
explanation of the situation, and a recommendation on how to proceed."
-Contact The Perl Clinic at:
+Contact The Perl Clinic at
www.PerlClinic.com
If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules
shipped with Perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the Perl distribution or
-mail your report to perlbug@perl.com .
+mail your report to perlbug@perl.org .
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
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff