X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;f=pod%2Fperlintro.pod;h=7429dfb233e61c6e1d0d99b6d5b1c6d4cdd71c1c;hb=ab1db26f7811bf020db962c2e9f51e9af45f1a8f;hp=db3081068593068477e27e3cd04feaa5b07b61e3;hpb=bfe16a1a9da3d6943a43492946f841e0774c6221;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git diff --git a/pod/perlintro.pod b/pod/perlintro.pod index db30810..7429dfb 100644 --- a/pod/perlintro.pod +++ b/pod/perlintro.pod @@ -14,13 +14,13 @@ write your own simple scripts. This introductory document does not aim to be complete. It does not even aim to be entirely accurate. In some cases perfection has been sacrificed in the goal of getting the general idea across. You are -B advised to follow this introduction with more information +I advised to follow this introduction with more information from the full Perl manual, the table of contents to which can be found in L. Throughout this document you'll see references to other parts of the Perl documentation. You can read that documentation using the C -command or using whatever method you're using to read this document. +command or whatever method you're using to read this document. =head2 What is Perl? @@ -29,12 +29,12 @@ text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including system administration, web development, network programming, GUI development, and more. -The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, -complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). Its major -features are that it's easy to use, supports both procedural and OO -programming, has powerful built-in support for text processing, and -has one of the world's most impressive collections of third-party -modules. +The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, +complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). Its major +features are that it's easy to use, supports both procedural and +object-oriented (OO) programming, has powerful built-in support for text +processing, and has one of the world's most impressive collections of +third-party modules. Different definitions of Perl are given in L, L and no doubt other places. From this we can determine that Perl is different @@ -55,14 +55,14 @@ Alternatively, put this as the first line of your script: to be executable first, so C (under Unix). For more information, including instructions for other platforms such as -Windows and MacOS, read L. +Windows and Mac OS, read L. =head2 Basic syntax overview A Perl script or program consists of one or more statements. These statements are simply written in the script in a straightforward -fashion. There is no need to have a main() function or anything of that -kind. +fashion. There is no need to have a C function or anything of +that kind. Perl statements end in a semi-colon: @@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ The elements we're getting from the array start with a C<$> because we're getting just a single value out of the array -- you ask for a scalar, you get a scalar. -To get multiple values from a array: +To get multiple values from an array: @animals[0,1]; # gives ("camel", "llama"); @animals[0..2]; # gives ("camel", "llama", "owl"); @@ -285,9 +285,9 @@ running the program. Using C is highly recommended. =head2 Conditional and looping constructs Perl has most of the usual conditional and looping constructs except for -case/switch (but you can find a Switch module on CPAN, if you really -want one -- see the section on modules, below, for more information -about modules and CPAN). +case/switch (but if you really want it, there is a Switch module in Perl +5.8 and newer, and on CPAN. See the section on modules, below, for more +information about modules and CPAN). The conditions can be any Perl expression. See the list of operators in the next section for information on comparison and boolean logic operators, @@ -311,7 +311,7 @@ There's also a negated version of it: ... } -This is provided as a more readable version of C. +This is provided as a more readable version of C)>. Note that the braces are required in Perl, even if you've only got one line in the block. However, there is a clever way of making your one-line @@ -351,7 +351,7 @@ Exactly like C: } The C style for loop is rarely needed in Perl since Perl provides -the the more friendly list scanning C loop. +the more friendly list scanning C loop. =item foreach @@ -374,7 +374,7 @@ this overview) see L. Perl comes with a wide selection of builtin functions. Some of the ones we've already seen include C, C and C. A list of them is given at the start of L and you can easily read -about any given function by using C. +about any given function by using C>. Perl operators are documented in full in L, but here are a few of the most common ones: @@ -560,7 +560,7 @@ The results end up in C<$1>, C<$2> and so on. # a cheap and nasty way to break an email address up into parts - if ($email =~ /([^@]+@(.+)/) { + if ($email =~ /([^@])+@(.+)/) { print "Username is $1\n"; print "Hostname is $2\n"; } @@ -616,7 +616,7 @@ in using third-party modules, which are documented below. =head2 Using Perl modules Perl modules provide a range of features to help you avoid reinventing -the wheel, and can be downloaded from CPAN (http://www.cpan.org). A +the wheel, and can be downloaded from CPAN ( http://www.cpan.org/ ). A number of popular modules are included with the Perl distribution itself. @@ -627,9 +627,9 @@ also available from CPAN. To learn how to install modules you download from CPAN, read L -To learn how to use a particular module, use C. -Typically you will want to C, which will then give you -access to exported functions or an OO interface to the module. +To learn how to use a particular module, use C>. +Typically you will want to C>, which will then give +you access to exported functions or an OO interface to the module. L contains questions and answers related to many common tasks, and often provides suggestions for good CPAN modules to use.