Use MakeMaker's uninstalled version of a package
-=item caller
+=item bytes
-Inherit pragmatic attributes from caller's context
+Force byte semantics rather than character semantics
=item charnames
=item diagnostics
-Force verbose warning diagnostics
+Perl compiler pragma to force verbose warning diagnostics
=item fields
-Declare a class's attribute fields at compile-time
+Compile-time class fields
=item filetest
-Control the filetest operators like C<-r>, C<-w> for AFS, etc.
+Control the filetest permission operators
=item integer
=item less
-Request less of something from the compiler (unimplemented)
+Request less of something from the compiler
=item lib
=item locale
-Use or avoid POSIX locales for built-in operations
+Use and avoid POSIX locales for built-in operations
+
+=item open
+
+Set default disciplines for input and output
=item ops
=item overload
-Overload Perl operations
+Package for overloading perl operations
=item re
-Alter regular expression behavior
+Alter regular expression behaviour
=item sigtrap
=item subs
-Predeclare subroutine names
+Predeclare sub names
=item utf8
-Turn on UTF-8 and Unicode support
+Enable/disable UTF-8 in source code
=item vars
-Predeclare global variable names (obsoleted by our())
+Predeclare global variable names (obsolete)
=item warnings
=item AnyDBM_File
-Provide framework for multiple DBM libraries
+Provide framework for multiple DBMs
=item AutoLoader
=item B
-Guts of the Perl code generator (aka compiler)
+The Perl Compiler
=item B::Asmdata
=item B::Deparse
-Perl compiler backend to produce Perl code
+Perl compiler backend to produce perl code
=item B::Disassembler
=item B::Lint
-Module to catch dubious constructs
+Perl lint
=item B::Showlex
Helper module for CC backend
-B::Stash -- XXX NFI XXX
-
=item B::Terse
Walk Perl syntax tree, printing terse info about ops
=item Benchmark
-Benchmark running times of code
+Benchmark running times of Perl code
=item ByteLoader
-Load byte-compiled Perl code
+Load byte compiled perl code
=item CGI
-Simple Common Gateway Interface class
+Simple Common Gateway Interface Class
=item CGI::Apache
-Make things work with CGI.pm against Perl-Apache API
+Backward compatibility module for CGI.pm
=item CGI::Carp
=item CGI::Switch
-Try more than one constructors and return the first object available
+Backward compatibility module for defunct CGI::Switch
=item CPAN
-Query, download, and build Perl modules from CPAN sites
+Query, download and build perl modules from CPAN sites
=item CPAN::FirstTime
-Utility for CPAN::Config file initialization
+Utility for CPAN::Config file Initialization
=item CPAN::Nox
=item Carp
-Act like warn/die from perspective of caller
+Warn of errors (from perspective of caller)
=item Carp::Heavy
Declare struct-like datatypes as Perl classes
-=item Config
-
-Access Perl configuration information
-
=item Cwd
Get pathname of current working directory
=item DB
-Programmatic interface to the Perl debugging API (experimental)
+Programmatic interface to the Perl debugging API (draft, subject to
=item DB_File
Perl5 access to Berkeley DB version 1.x
-=item Data::Dumper
-
-Serialize Perl data structures
-
-=item Devel::DProf
-
-A Perl execution profiler
-
-=item Devel::Peek
-
-A data debugging tool for the XS programmer
-
=item Devel::SelfStubber
Generate stubs for a SelfLoading module
=item Dumpvalue
-Provide screen dump of Perl data
-
-=item DynaLoader
-
-Dynamically load C libraries into Perl code
+Provides screen dump of Perl data.
=item English
-Use English (or awk) names for ugly punctuation variables
+Use nice English (or awk) names for ugly punctuation variables
=item Env
-Access environment variables as regular ones
-
-=item Errno
-
-Load the libc errno.h defines
+Perl module that imports environment variables as scalars or arrays
=item Exporter
-Implement default import method for modules
+Implements default import method for modules
=item Exporter::Heavy
=item ExtUtils::Command
-Utilities to replace common Unix commands in Makefiles etc.
+Utilities to replace common UNIX commands in Makefiles etc.
=item ExtUtils::Embed
-Utilities for embedding Perl in C/C++ programs
+Utilities for embedding Perl in C/C++ applications
=item ExtUtils::Install
=item ExtUtils::MM_Cygwin
-Methods to override Unix behavior in ExtUtils::MakeMaker
+Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker
=item ExtUtils::MM_OS2
-Methods to override Unix behavior in ExtUtils::MakeMaker
+Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker
=item ExtUtils::MM_Unix
=item ExtUtils::MM_VMS
-Methods to override Unix behavior in ExtUtils::MakeMaker
+Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker
=item ExtUtils::MM_Win32
-Methods to override Unix behavior in ExtUtils::MakeMaker
+Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker
=item ExtUtils::MakeMaker
Utilities to write and check a MANIFEST file
-ExtUtils::Miniperl, writemain - Write the C code for perlmain.c
-
=item ExtUtils::Mkbootstrap
Make a bootstrap file for use by DynaLoader
=item Fcntl
-Load the libc fcntl.h defines
+Load the C Fcntl.h defines
=item File::Basename
=item File::DosGlob
-DOS-like globbing and then some
+DOS like globbing and then some
=item File::Find
-Traverse a file tree
-
-=item File::Glob
-
-Perl extension for BSD filename globbing
+Traverse a file tree
=item File::Path
-Create or remove a series of directories
+Create or remove directory trees
=item File::Spec
Methods for Win32 file specs
+=item File::Temp
+
+Return name and handle of a temporary file safely
+
=item File::stat
By-name interface to Perl's built-in stat() functions
=item FindBin
-Locate installation directory of running Perl program
-
-=item GDBM_File
-
-Access to the gdbm library
+Locate directory of original perl script
=item Getopt::Long
=item I18N::Collate
-Compare 8-bit scalar data according to current locale
+Compare 8-bit scalar data according to the current locale
=item IO
-Front-end to load various IO modules
-
-=item IO::Dir
-
-Supply object methods for directory handles
-
-=item IO::File
-
-Supply object methods for filehandles
-
-=item IO::Handle
-
-Supply object methods for I/O handles
-
-=item IO::Pipe
-
-Supply object methods for pipes
-
-=item IO::Poll
-
-Object interface to system poll call
-
-=item IO::Seekable
-
-Supply seek based methods for I/O objects
-
-=item IO::Select
-
-OO interface to the select system call
-
-=item IO::Socket
-
-Object interface to socket communications
-
-=item IO::Socket::INET
-
-Object interface for AF_INET domain sockets
-
-=item IO::Socket::UNIX
-
-Object interface for AF_UNIX domain sockets
-
-=item IPC::Msg
-
-SysV Msg IPC object class
+Load various IO modules
=item IPC::Open2
Open a process for reading, writing, and error handling
-=item IPC::Semaphore
-
-SysV Semaphore IPC object class
-
-=item IPC::SysV
-
-SysV IPC constants
-
=item Math::BigFloat
Arbitrary length float math package
Trigonometric functions
+=item NDBM_File
+
+Tied access to ndbm files
+
=item Net::Ping
Check a remote host for reachability
Generic interface to Perl Compiler backends
-=item Opcode
+=item ODBM_File
-Disable named opcodes when compiling Perl code
+Tied access to odbm files
-=item POSIX
+=item Opcode
-Perl interface to IEEE Std 1003.1
+Disable named opcodes when compiling perl code
=item Pod::Checker
Check pod documents for syntax errors
+=item Pod::Find
+
+Find POD documents in directory trees
+
=item Pod::Html
Module to convert pod files to HTML
=item Pod::InputObjects
-Manage POD objects
+Objects representing POD input paragraphs, commands, etc.
=item Pod::Man
Convert POD data to formatted *roff input
+=item Pod::ParseUtils
+
+Helpers for POD parsing and conversion
+
=item Pod::Parser
Base class for creating POD filters and translators
+=item Pod::Plainer
+
+Perl extension for converting Pod to old style Pod.
+
=item Pod::Select
Extract selected sections of POD from input
Convert POD data to formatted color ASCII text
+=item Pod::Text::Termcap
+
+Convert POD data to ASCII text with format escapes
+
=item Pod::Usage
Print a usage message from embedded pod documentation
=item Shell
-Run shell commands transparently within Perl
+Run shell commands transparently within perl
=item Socket
-Load the libc socket.h defines and structure manipulators
+Load the C socket.h defines and structure manipulators
=item Symbol
Manipulate Perl symbols and their names
-=item Sys::Hostname
-
-Try every conceivable way to get hostname
+=item Term::ANSIColor
-=item Sys::Syslog
-
-Interface to the libc syslog(3) calls
+Color screen output using ANSI escape sequences
=item Term::Cap
-Termcap interface
+Perl termcap interface
=item Term::Complete
-Word completion module
+Perl word completion module
=item Term::ReadLine
-Interface to various `readline' packages.
+Perl interface to various C<readline> packages. If
=item Test
=item Test::Harness
-Run Perl standard test scripts with statistics
+Run perl standard test scripts with statistics
=item Text::Abbrev
=item Text::ParseWords
-Parse text into a list of tokens or array of arrays
+Parse text into an array of tokens or array of arrays
=item Text::Soundex
-Implementation of the Soundex Algorithm as described by Knuth
-
-Text::Tabs -- expand and unexpand tabs per expand(1) and unexpand(1)
+Implementation of the Soundex Algorithm as Described by Knuth
=item Text::Wrap
=back
To find out I<all> modules installed on your system, including
-those without documentation or outside the standard release,
-just do this:
+those without documentation or outside the standard release,
+jus tdo this:
% find `perl -e 'print "@INC"'` -name '*.pm' -print
-To get a log of all module distributions which have been installed
-since perl was installed, just do:
-
- % perldoc perllocal
-
-Modules should all have their own documentation installed and accessible
-via your system man(1) command, or via the C<perldoc> program. If you do
-not have a B<find>
+They should all have their own documentation installed and accessible
+via your system man(1) command. If you do not have a B<find>
program, you can use the Perl B<find2perl> program instead, which
generates Perl code as output you can run through perl. If you
have a B<man> program but it doesn't find your modules, you'll have
-to fix your manpath. See L<perl> for details.
+to fix your manpath. See L<perl> for details. If you have no
+system B<man> command, you might try the B<perldoc> program.
=head2 Extension Modules
CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network; it's a globally
replicated trove of Perl materials, including documentation, style
-guides, tricks and trap, alternate ports to non-Unix systems and
+guides, tricks and traps, alternate ports to non-Unix systems and
occasional binary distributions for these. Search engines for
CPAN can be found at http://cpan.perl.com/ and at
http://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/mod_perl/cpan-search.pl .
ftp://ftp.freenet.de/pub/ftp.cpan.org/pub/
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/packages/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
- ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/general/programming/languages/script/perl/CPAN/
+
+ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/general/programming/languages/script/perl/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.mpi-sb.mpg.de/pub/perl/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pub/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/source/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.freenet.de/pub/ftp.cpan.org/pub/
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/packages/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
- ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/general/programming/languages/script/perl/CPAN/
+
+ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/general/programming/languages/script/perl/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.mpi-sb.mpg.de/pub/perl/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pub/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/source/CPAN/
Turkey ftp://sunsite.bilkent.edu.tr/pub/languages/CPAN/
United Kingdom ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/mirrors/perl/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.flirble.org/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
- ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
+
+ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.plig.org/pub/CPAN/
ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/
Kentucky ftp://ftp.uky.edu/CPAN/
Manitoba ftp://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/pub/CPAN/
- Massachusetts ftp://ftp.ccs.neu.edu/net/mirrors/ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
+ Massachusetts
+ftp://ftp.ccs.neu.edu/net/mirrors/ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.iguide.com/pub/mirrors/packages/perl/CPAN/
Mexico ftp://ftp.msg.com.mx/pub/CPAN/
New York ftp://ftp.deao.net/pub/CPAN/
totally transparent to the user of the module. Likewise, the module
might set up an AUTOLOAD function to slurp in subroutine definitions on
demand, but this is also transparent. Only the F<.pm> file is required to
-exist. See L<perlsub>, L<perltoot>, and L<AutoLoader> for details about
+exist. See L<perlsub>, L<perltoot>, and L<AutoLoader> for details about
the AUTOLOAD mechanism.
=head2 Guidelines for Module Creation
Try to C<use warnings;> (or C<use warnings qw(...);>).
Remember that you can add C<no warnings qw(...);> to individual blocks
-of code that need less warnings.
+of code that need less warnings.
Use blessed references. Use the two argument form of bless to bless
into the class name given as the first parameter of the constructor,
e.g.,:
sub new {
- my $class = shift;
- return bless {}, $class;
+ my $class = shift;
+ return bless {}, $class;
}
or even this if you'd like it to be used as either a static
or a virtual method.
sub new {
- my $self = shift;
- my $class = ref($self) || $self;
- return bless {}, $class;
+ my $self = shift;
+ my $class = ref($self) || $self;
+ return bless {}, $class;
}
Pass arrays as references so more parameters can be added later
difficult for multiple other packages to use yours. Keep state
information in objects.
-Always use B<-w>.
+Always use B<-w>.
Try to C<use strict;> (or C<use strict qw(...);>).
Remember that you can add C<no strict qw(...);> to individual blocks
-of code that need less strictness.
+of code that need less strictness.
-Always use B<-w>.
+Always use B<-w>.
Follow the guidelines in the perlstyle(1) manual.
Usenet newsgroup. This will at least ensure very wide once-off
distribution.
-If possible, register the module with CPAN. You should
+If possible, register the module with CPAN. You should
include details of its location in your announcement.
Some notes about ftp archives: Please use a long descriptive file