A bit of "perl.com" cleanup.

[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / pod / perlfaq4.pod

diff --git a/pod/perlfaq4.pod b/pod/perlfaq4.pod
index 0196407..abbb9a0 100644 (file)
--- a/pod/perlfaq4.pod
+++ b/pod/perlfaq4.pod
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 =head1 NAME
 
-perlfaq4 - Data Manipulation ($Revision: 1.8 $, $Date: 2001/11/09 08:06:04 $)
+perlfaq4 - Data Manipulation ($Revision: 1.10 $, $Date: 2002/01/01 22:26:45 $)
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
@@ -136,8 +136,6 @@ functions is that it works with numbers of ANY size, that it is
 optimized for speed on some operations, and for at least some
 programmers the notation might be familiar.
 
-=over 4
-
 =item B<How do I convert Hexadecimal into decimal:>
 
 Using perl's built in conversion of 0x notation:
@@ -249,7 +247,6 @@ Using Bit::Vector:
 The remaining transformations (e.g. hex -> oct, bin -> hex, etc.)
 are left as an exercise to the inclined reader.
 
-=back
 
 =head2 Why doesn't & work the way I want it to?
 
@@ -336,10 +333,11 @@ call C<srand> more than once--you make your numbers less random, rather
 than more.
 
 Computers are good at being predictable and bad at being random
-(despite appearances caused by bugs in your programs :-).
-http://www.cpan.org/doc/FMTEYEWTK/random , courtesy of Tom
-Phoenix, talks more about this.  John von Neumann said, ``Anyone who
-attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of
+(despite appearances caused by bugs in your programs :-).  see the
+F<random> artitcle in the "Far More Than You Ever Wanted To Know"
+collection in http://www.cpan.org/olddoc/FMTEYEWTK.tgz , courtesy of
+Tom Phoenix, talks more about this.  John von Neumann said, ``Anyone
+who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of
 course, living in a state of sin.''
 
 If you want numbers that are more random than C<rand> with C<srand>
@@ -1476,8 +1474,9 @@ If you need to sort on several fields, the following paradigm is useful.
 This can be conveniently combined with precalculation of keys as given
 above.
 
-See http://www.cpan.org/doc/FMTEYEWTK/sort.html for more about
-this approach.
+See the F<sort> artitcle article in the "Far More Than You Ever Wanted
+To Know" collection in http://www.cpan.org/olddoc/FMTEYEWTK.tgz for
+more about this approach.
 
 See also the question below on sorting hashes.
 
@@ -1638,13 +1637,13 @@ worry you, you can always reverse the hash into a hash of arrays instead:
 =head2 How can I know how many entries are in a hash?
 
 If you mean how many keys, then all you have to do is
-take the scalar sense of the keys() function:
+use the keys() function in a scalar context:
 
-    $num_keys = scalar keys %hash;
+    $num_keys = keys %hash;
 
-The keys() function also resets the iterator, which in void context is
-faster for tied hashes than would be iterating through the whole 
-hash, one key-value pair at a time.
+The keys() function also resets the iterator, which means that you may 
+see strange results if you use this between uses of other hash operators 
+such as each().
 
 =head2 How do I sort a hash (optionally by value instead of key)?
 
@@ -1922,10 +1921,10 @@ respectively.
 =head2 How do I keep persistent data across program calls?
 
 For some specific applications, you can use one of the DBM modules.
-See L<AnyDBM_File>.  More generically, you should consult the FreezeThaw,
-Storable, or Class::Eroot modules from CPAN.  Starting from Perl 5.8
-Storable is part of the standard distribution.  Here's one example using
-Storable's C<store> and C<retrieve> functions:
+See L<AnyDBM_File>.  More generically, you should consult the FreezeThaw
+or Storable modules from CPAN.  Starting from Perl 5.8 Storable is part
+of the standard distribution.  Here's one example using Storable's C<store>
+and C<retrieve> functions:
 
     use Storable; 
     store(\%hash, "filename");