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68dc0745 | 1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
90bb42f6 | 3 | perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.32 $, $Date: 1999/10/14 18:46:09 $) |
68dc0745 | 4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
7 | This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find | |
92c2ed05 | 8 | source and documentation for Perl, support, and |
68dc0745 | 9 | related matters. |
10 | ||
11 | =head2 What machines support Perl? Where do I get it? | |
12 | ||
13 | The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the perl | |
5e3006a4 | 14 | development team) is distributed only in source code form. You |
65acb1b1 | 15 | can find this at http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/latest.tar.gz , which |
5e3006a4 GS |
16 | in standard Internet format (a gzipped archive in POSIX tar format). |
17 | ||
18 | Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually | |
19 | all known and current Unix derivatives are supported (Perl's native | |
87275199 | 20 | platform), as are other systems like VMS, DOS, OS/2, Windows, |
5e3006a4 GS |
21 | QNX, BeOS, and the Amiga. There are also the beginnings of support |
22 | for MPE/iX. | |
23 | ||
24 | Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms, including | |
65acb1b1 | 25 | Apple systems, can be found http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/ directory. |
5e3006a4 GS |
26 | Because these are not part of the standard distribution, they may |
27 | and in fact do differ from the base Perl port in a variety of ways. | |
28 | You'll have to check their respective release notes to see just | |
29 | what the differences are. These differences can be either positive | |
30 | (e.g. extensions for the features of the particular platform that | |
31 | are not supported in the source release of perl) or negative (e.g. | |
32 | might be based upon a less current source release of perl). | |
92c2ed05 | 33 | |
68dc0745 | 34 | =head2 How can I get a binary version of Perl? |
35 | ||
65acb1b1 TC |
36 | If you don't have a C compiler because your vendor for whatever |
37 | reasons did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is | |
68dc0745 | 38 | grab a binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl |
39 | with. CPAN only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to | |
40 | get free compilers for, not for Unix systems. | |
41 | ||
65acb1b1 TC |
42 | Some URLs that might help you are: |
43 | ||
44 | http://language.perl.com/info/software.html | |
6cecdcac | 45 | http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/software.html#binary |
65acb1b1 TC |
46 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/ |
47 | ||
87275199 | 48 | Someone looking for a Perl for Win16 might look to Laszlo Molnar's djgpp |
d92eb7b0 GS |
49 | port in http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/msdos/ , which comes with clear |
50 | installation instructions. A simple installation guide for MS-DOS using | |
87275199 GS |
51 | Ilya Zakharevich's OS/2 port is available at |
52 | http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perl5dos.html | |
53 | and similarly for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perlwin3.html . | |
3fe9a6f1 | 54 | |
55 | =head2 I don't have a C compiler on my system. How can I compile perl? | |
56 | ||
57 | Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor | |
58 | should be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you. | |
59 | ||
60 | What you need to do is get a binary version of gcc for your system | |
61 | first. Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for | |
62 | information on where to get such a binary version. | |
63 | ||
68dc0745 | 64 | =head2 I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work. |
65 | ||
66 | That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ. | |
67 | You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will | |
68 | eventually live on, and then type C<make install>. Most other | |
69 | approaches are doomed to failure. | |
70 | ||
71 | One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out | |
a6dd486b | 72 | the hard-coded @INC that perl looks through for libraries: |
68dc0745 | 73 | |
65acb1b1 | 74 | % perl -e 'print join("\n",@INC)' |
68dc0745 | 75 | |
a6dd486b | 76 | If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you |
68dc0745 | 77 | may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create |
87275199 | 78 | symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. @INC is also printed as |
65acb1b1 TC |
79 | part of the output of |
80 | ||
81 | % perl -V | |
68dc0745 | 82 | |
13a2d996 SP |
83 | You might also want to check out |
84 | L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own module/library directory?">. | |
3fe9a6f1 | 85 | |
68dc0745 | 86 | =head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work? |
87 | ||
88 | Read the F<INSTALL> file, which is part of the source distribution. | |
65acb1b1 | 89 | It describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncrasies that the |
68dc0745 | 90 | Configure script can't work around for any given system or |
91 | architecture. | |
92 | ||
93 | =head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean? | |
94 | ||
95 | CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a huge archive | |
96 | replicated on dozens of machines all over the world. CPAN contains | |
46fc3d4c | 97 | source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many |
68dc0745 | 98 | third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from |
99 | commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web | |
100 | walking and CGI scripts. The master machine for CPAN is | |
101 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/, but you can use the | |
102 | address http://www.perl.com/CPAN/CPAN.html to fetch a copy from a | |
103 | "site near you". See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the | |
104 | end) for how this process works. | |
105 | ||
106 | CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN | |
107 | sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the | |
108 | rest of the path is the path from that directory to the file. For | |
109 | instance, if you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN | |
110 | as your CPAN site, the file CPAN/misc/japh file is downloadable as | |
111 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh . | |
112 | ||
113 | Considering that there are hundreds of existing modules in the | |
114 | archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of. | |
87275199 | 115 | Current categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ include Perl core |
68dc0745 | 116 | modules; development support; operating system interfaces; networking, |
117 | devices, and interprocess communication; data type utilities; database | |
118 | interfaces; user interfaces; interfaces to other languages; filenames, | |
119 | file systems, and file locking; internationalization and locale; world | |
120 | wide web support; server and daemon utilities; archiving and | |
121 | compression; image manipulation; mail and news; control flow | |
122 | utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft Windows modules; and | |
123 | miscellaneous modules. | |
124 | ||
125 | =head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl? | |
126 | ||
127 | Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is. | |
128 | ||
129 | =head2 Where can I get information on Perl? | |
130 | ||
87275199 GS |
131 | The complete Perl documentation is available with the Perl distribution. |
132 | If you have Perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation | |
5a964f20 TC |
133 | installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a system resembling Unix. |
134 | This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your | |
135 | $MANPATH. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation | |
a6dd486b | 136 | will be different; for example, documentation might only be in HTML format. All |
87275199 | 137 | proper Perl installations have fully-accessible documentation. |
68dc0745 | 138 | |
139 | You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system doesn't | |
140 | have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't | |
141 | work, try looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation. | |
142 | ||
143 | If all else fails, consult the CPAN/doc directory, which contains the | |
144 | complete documentation in various formats, including native pod, | |
145 | troff, html, and plain text. There's also a web page at | |
146 | http://www.perl.com/perl/info/documentation.html that might help. | |
147 | ||
a6dd486b | 148 | Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section below |
68dc0745 | 149 | for more details. |
150 | ||
65acb1b1 | 151 | Tutorial documents are included in current or upcoming Perl releases |
a6dd486b JB |
152 | include L<perltoot> for objects or L<perlboot> for a beginner's |
153 | approach to objects, L<perlopentut> for file opening semantics, | |
154 | L<perlreftut> for managing references, L<perlretut> for regular | |
155 | expressions, L<perlthrtut> for threads, L<perldebtut> for debugging, | |
156 | and L<perlxstut> for linking C and Perl together. There may be more | |
157 | by the time you read this. The following URLs might also be of | |
65acb1b1 TC |
158 | assistance: |
159 | ||
160 | http://language.perl.com/info/documentation.html | |
161 | http://reference.perl.com/query.cgi?tutorials | |
162 | ||
87275199 | 163 | =head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions? |
68dc0745 | 164 | |
165 | The now defunct comp.lang.perl newsgroup has been superseded by the | |
166 | following groups: | |
167 | ||
168 | comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group | |
169 | comp.lang.perl.misc Very busy group about Perl in general | |
5a964f20 | 170 | comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group |
68dc0745 | 171 | comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules |
172 | comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl | |
173 | ||
174 | comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web. | |
175 | ||
87275199 | 176 | There is also Usenet gateway to the mailing list used by the crack |
68dc0745 | 177 | Perl development team (perl5-porters) at |
5a964f20 | 178 | news://news.perl.com/perl.porters-gw/ . |
68dc0745 | 179 | |
180 | =head2 Where should I post source code? | |
181 | ||
65acb1b1 TC |
182 | You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate, but |
183 | feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to cross-post | |
184 | to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards, | |
185 | including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT include alt.sources; | |
186 | see their FAQ (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-sources-intro/) for details. | |
68dc0745 | 187 | |
87275199 GS |
188 | If you're just looking for software, first use AltaVista |
189 | (http://www.altavista.com), Deja (http://www.deja.com), and | |
5a964f20 TC |
190 | search CPAN. This is faster and more productive than just posting |
191 | a request. | |
192 | ||
68dc0745 | 193 | =head2 Perl Books |
194 | ||
7b8d334a | 195 | A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few of |
87275199 | 196 | these are good, some are OK, but many aren't worth your money. Tom |
68dc0745 | 197 | Christiansen maintains a list of these books, some with extensive |
a6dd486b | 198 | reviews, at http://www.perl.com/perl/critiques/index.html . |
68dc0745 | 199 | |
5e3006a4 | 200 | The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by |
c2e66d9e | 201 | the creator of Perl, is now (July 2000) in its third edition: |
68dc0745 | 202 | |
203 | Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"): | |
c2e66d9e GS |
204 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant |
205 | 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000] | |
206 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ | |
207 | (English, translations to several languages are also available) | |
68dc0745 | 208 | |
5e3006a4 GS |
209 | The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands |
210 | of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs | |
a6dd486b | 211 | (first premiered at the 1998 Perl Conference), is: |
5e3006a4 GS |
212 | |
213 | The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"): | |
65acb1b1 | 214 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington, |
c2e66d9e GS |
215 | with Foreword by Larry Wall |
216 | ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st Edition August 1998] | |
217 | http://perl.oreilly.com/cookbook/ | |
68dc0745 | 218 | |
5a964f20 | 219 | If you're already a hard-core systems programmer, then the Camel Book |
a6dd486b JB |
220 | might suffice for you to learn Perl from. If you're not, check |
221 | out | |
5e3006a4 GS |
222 | |
223 | Learning Perl (the "Llama Book"): | |
65acb1b1 | 224 | by Randal Schwartz and Tom Christiansen |
5e3006a4 | 225 | with Foreword by Larry Wall |
c2e66d9e GS |
226 | ISBN 1-56592-284-0 [2nd Edition July 1997] |
227 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/ | |
5e3006a4 GS |
228 | |
229 | Despite the picture at the URL above, the second edition of "Llama | |
a6dd486b | 230 | Book" really has a blue cover and was updated for the 5.004 release |
5e3006a4 | 231 | of Perl. Various foreign language editions are available, including |
a6dd486b | 232 | I<Learning Perl on Win32 Systems> (the "Gecko Book"). |
5a964f20 TC |
233 | |
234 | If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and possibly | |
235 | even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much hand-holding as | |
236 | we try to provide in the Llama or its defurred cousin the Gecko, please | |
237 | check out the delightful book, I<Perl: The Programmer's Companion>, | |
238 | written by Nigel Chapman. | |
239 | ||
c8db1d39 | 240 | You can order O'Reilly books directly from O'Reilly & Associates, |
5a964f20 TC |
241 | 1-800-998-9938. Local/overseas is 1-707-829-0515. If you can |
242 | locate an O'Reilly order form, you can also fax to 1-707-829-0104. | |
243 | See http://www.ora.com/ on the Web. | |
244 | ||
68dc0745 | 245 | What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally |
246 | useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary. | |
247 | ||
c2e66d9e | 248 | Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow. |
68dc0745 | 249 | |
13a2d996 | 250 | =over 4 |
68dc0745 | 251 | |
5a964f20 | 252 | =item References |
68dc0745 | 253 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
254 | Programming Perl |
255 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant | |
256 | ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000] | |
257 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ | |
68dc0745 | 258 | |
c2e66d9e | 259 | Perl 5 Pocket Reference |
87275199 | 260 | by Johan Vromans |
c2e66d9e GS |
261 | ISBN 0-596-00032-4 [3rd edition May 2000] |
262 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr3/ | |
87275199 | 263 | |
c2e66d9e | 264 | Perl in a Nutshell |
87275199 | 265 | by Ellen Siever, Stephan Spainhour, and Nathan Patwardhan |
c2e66d9e GS |
266 | ISBN 1-56592-286-7 [1st edition December 1998] |
267 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlnut/ | |
68dc0745 | 268 | |
5a964f20 | 269 | =item Tutorials |
c47ff5f1 | 270 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
271 | Elements of Programming with Perl |
272 | by Andrew L. Johnson | |
273 | ISBN 1884777805 [1st edition October 1999] | |
274 | http://www.manning.com/Johnson/ | |
275 | ||
276 | Learning Perl | |
5a964f20 | 277 | by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen |
5e3006a4 | 278 | with foreword by Larry Wall |
c2e66d9e GS |
279 | ISBN 1-56592-284-0 [2nd edition July 1997] |
280 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/ | |
68dc0745 | 281 | |
c2e66d9e | 282 | Learning Perl on Win32 Systems |
5a964f20 TC |
283 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen, |
284 | with foreword by Larry Wall | |
c2e66d9e GS |
285 | ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997] |
286 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/ | |
68dc0745 | 287 | |
5a964f20 TC |
288 | Perl: The Programmer's Companion |
289 | by Nigel Chapman | |
c2e66d9e GS |
290 | ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1st edition October 1997] |
291 | http://catalog.wiley.com/title.cgi?isbn=047197563X | |
68dc0745 | 292 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
293 | Cross-Platform Perl |
294 | by Eric Foster-Johnson | |
295 | ISBN 1-55851-483-X [2nd edition September 2000] | |
296 | http://www.pconline.com/~erc/perlbook.htm | |
68dc0745 | 297 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
298 | MacPerl: Power and Ease |
299 | by Vicki Brown and Chris Nandor, | |
300 | with foreword by Matthias Neeracher | |
301 | ISBN 1-881957-32-2 [1st edition May 1998] | |
302 | http://www.macperl.com/ptf_book/ | |
68dc0745 | 303 | |
65acb1b1 | 304 | =item Task-Oriented |
5a964f20 | 305 | |
c2e66d9e | 306 | The Perl Cookbook |
5a964f20 TC |
307 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington |
308 | with foreword by Larry Wall | |
c2e66d9e GS |
309 | ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998] |
310 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/ | |
5a964f20 | 311 | |
c2e66d9e | 312 | Perl5 Interactive Course |
5a964f20 | 313 | by Jon Orwant |
c2e66d9e | 314 | ISBN 1571690646 [1st edition June 1997] |
5a964f20 | 315 | |
c2e66d9e | 316 | Advanced Perl Programming |
5a964f20 | 317 | by Sriram Srinivasan |
c2e66d9e GS |
318 | ISBN 1-56592-220-4 [1st edition August 1997] |
319 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/advperl/ | |
68dc0745 | 320 | |
5a964f20 TC |
321 | Effective Perl Programming |
322 | by Joseph Hall | |
c2e66d9e GS |
323 | ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998] |
324 | http://www.awl.com/ | |
68dc0745 | 325 | |
5a964f20 TC |
326 | =item Special Topics |
327 | ||
c2e66d9e GS |
328 | Mastering Regular Expressions |
329 | by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl | |
330 | ISBN 1-56592-257-3 [1st edition January 1997] | |
331 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/ | |
5a964f20 | 332 | |
c2e66d9e | 333 | How to Set up and Maintain a World Wide Web Site |
5a964f20 | 334 | by Lincoln Stein |
c2e66d9e GS |
335 | ISBN 0-201-63389-2 [1st edition 1995] |
336 | http://www.awl.com/ | |
5a964f20 | 337 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
338 | Object Oriented Perl |
339 | Damian Conway | |
340 | with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz | |
341 | ISBN 1884777791 [1st edition August 1999] | |
342 | http://www.manning.com/Conway/ | |
343 | ||
344 | Learning Perl/Tk | |
87275199 | 345 | by Nancy Walsh |
c2e66d9e GS |
346 | ISBN 1-56592-314-6 [1st edition January 1999] |
347 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperltk/ | |
87275199 | 348 | |
5a964f20 TC |
349 | =back |
350 | ||
351 | =head2 Perl in Magazines | |
352 | ||
353 | The first and only periodical devoted to All Things Perl, I<The | |
354 | Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies, | |
a6dd486b | 355 | announcements, contests, and much more. I<TPJ> has columns on web |
5a964f20 | 356 | development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular |
5e3006a4 GS |
357 | expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl |
358 | Contest. It is published quarterly under the gentle hand of its | |
359 | editor, Jon Orwant. See http://www.tpj.com/ or send mail to | |
65acb1b1 | 360 | subscriptions@tpj.com . |
5a964f20 TC |
361 | |
362 | Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry high-quality articles | |
363 | on Perl are I<Web Techniques> (see http://www.webtechniques.com/), | |
c8db1d39 | 364 | I<Performance Computing> (http://www.performance-computing.com/), and Usenix's |
5a964f20 TC |
365 | newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:>, at http://www.usenix.org/. |
366 | Randal's Web Technique's columns are available on the web at | |
a6dd486b | 367 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ . |
68dc0745 | 368 | |
369 | =head2 Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access | |
370 | ||
a6dd486b | 371 | To get the best performance, pick a site from |
68dc0745 | 372 | the list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites. |
87275199 | 373 | From there you can find the quickest site for you. Remember, the |
c2e66d9e GS |
374 | following list is I<not> the complete list of CPAN mirrors |
375 | (the complete list contains 136 sites as of July 2000): | |
376 | ||
377 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ | |
378 | http://www.cpan.org/CPAN/ | |
379 | http://download.sourceforge.net/mirrors/CPAN/ | |
380 | ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/plan/perl/CPAN/ | |
381 | ftp://ftp.flirble.org/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/ | |
382 | ftp://ftp.uvsq.fr/pub/perl/CPAN/ | |
68dc0745 | 383 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/ |
c2e66d9e GS |
384 | ftp://ftp.dti.ad.jp/pub/lang/CPAN/ |
385 | ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/perl/CPAN/ | |
386 | ftp://cpan.if.usp.br/pub/mirror/CPAN/ | |
68dc0745 | 387 | |
87275199 | 388 | =head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl? |
68dc0745 | 389 | |
87275199 | 390 | Most of the major modules (Tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own |
68dc0745 | 391 | mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for |
0b8d69e9 | 392 | subscription information. The Perl Mongers attempt to maintain a |
65acb1b1 | 393 | list of mailing lists at: |
68dc0745 | 394 | |
f6c51b38 | 395 | http://www.perl.org/support/online_support.html#mail |
68dc0745 | 396 | |
65acb1b1 | 397 | =head2 Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc |
68dc0745 | 398 | |
87275199 | 399 | Have you tried Deja or AltaVista? Those are the |
65acb1b1 | 400 | best archives. Just look up "*perl*" as a newsgroup. |
68dc0745 | 401 | |
87275199 | 402 | 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= |
68dc0745 | 403 | |
a6dd486b | 404 | You might want to trim that down a bit, though. |
68dc0745 | 405 | |
68dc0745 | 406 | You'll probably want more a sophisticated query and retrieval mechanism |
407 | than a file listing, preferably one that allows you to retrieve | |
408 | articles using a fast-access indices, keyed on at least author, date, | |
409 | subject, thread (as in "trn") and probably keywords. The best | |
410 | solution the FAQ authors know of is the MH pick command, but it is | |
411 | very slow to select on 18000 articles. | |
412 | ||
413 | If you have, or know where can be found, the missing sections, please | |
414 | let perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com know. | |
415 | ||
68dc0745 | 416 | =head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl? |
417 | ||
a6dd486b | 418 | In a real sense, Perl already I<is> commercial software: it has a license |
65acb1b1 TC |
419 | that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed |
420 | in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large | |
421 | user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.* | |
422 | newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your | |
423 | questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by | |
424 | Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriads of | |
425 | programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life | |
426 | better for everyone. | |
68dc0745 | 427 | |
428 | However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a | |
65acb1b1 TC |
429 | purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry. |
430 | Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations. | |
87275199 | 431 | Shrink-wrapped CDs with Perl on them are available from several sources if |
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432 | that will help. For example, many Perl books include a distribution of Perl, |
433 | as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor | |
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434 | and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix distributions |
435 | also all come with Perl. | |
68dc0745 | 436 | |
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437 | Alternatively, you can purchase commercial incidence based support |
438 | through the Perl Clinic. The following is a commercial from them: | |
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439 | |
440 | "The Perl Clinic is a commercial Perl support service operated by | |
441 | ActiveState Tool Corp. and The Ingram Group. The operators have many | |
442 | years of in-depth experience with Perl applications and Perl internals | |
443 | on a wide range of platforms. | |
444 | ||
445 | "Through our group of highly experienced and well-trained support engineers, | |
446 | we will put our best effort into understanding your problem, providing an | |
447 | explanation of the situation, and a recommendation on how to proceed." | |
448 | ||
a6dd486b | 449 | Contact The Perl Clinic at |
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450 | |
451 | www.PerlClinic.com | |
452 | ||
453 | North America Pacific Standard Time (GMT-8) | |
454 | Tel: 1 604 606-4611 hours 8am-6pm | |
455 | Fax: 1 604 606-4640 | |
456 | ||
457 | Europe (GMT) | |
458 | Tel: 00 44 1483 862814 | |
459 | Fax: 00 44 1483 862801 | |
68dc0745 | 460 | |
65acb1b1 | 461 | See also www.perl.com for updates on tutorials, training, and support. |
5e3006a4 | 462 | |
68dc0745 | 463 | =head2 Where do I send bug reports? |
464 | ||
465 | If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules | |
87275199 | 466 | shipped with Perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the Perl distribution or |
7f2de2d2 | 467 | mail your report to perlbug@perl.org . |
68dc0745 | 468 | |
46fc3d4c | 469 | If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to |
68dc0745 | 470 | "What platforms is Perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a |
46fc3d4c | 471 | non-standard module (such as Tk, CGI, etc), then please see the |
68dc0745 | 472 | documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post |
473 | bugs. | |
474 | ||
5a964f20 | 475 | Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information. |
68dc0745 | 476 | |
90bb42f6 | 477 | =head2 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? |
68dc0745 | 478 | |
65acb1b1 | 479 | The perl.com domain is owned by Tom Christiansen, who created it as a |
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480 | public service long before perl.org came about. Despite the name, it's a |
481 | pretty non-commercial site meant to be a clearinghouse for information | |
482 | about all things Perlian, accepting no paid advertisements, bouncy | |
87275199 | 483 | happy GIFs, or silly Java applets on its pages. The Perl Home Page at |
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484 | http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted on a T3 line courtesy of Songline |
485 | Systems, a software-oriented subsidiary of O'Reilly and Associates. | |
65acb1b1 | 486 | Other starting points include |
5a964f20 | 487 | |
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488 | http://language.perl.com/ |
489 | http://conference.perl.com/ | |
490 | http://reference.perl.com/ | |
68dc0745 | 491 | |
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492 | Perl Mongers is an advocacy organization for the Perl language. For |
493 | details, see the Perl Mongers web site at http://www.perlmongers.org/. | |
494 | ||
495 | Perl Mongers uses the pm.org domain for services related to Perl user | |
496 | groups. See the Perl user group web site at http://www.pm.org/ for more | |
497 | information about joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl | |
498 | user group. | |
499 | ||
500 | Perl Mongers also maintains the perl.org domain to provide general | |
501 | support services to the Perl community, including the hosting of mailing | |
502 | lists, web sites, and other services. The web site | |
503 | http://www.perl.org/ is a general advocacy site for the Perl language, | |
504 | and there are many other sub-domains for special topics, such as | |
505 | ||
506 | http://history.perl.org/ | |
507 | http://bugs.perl.org/ | |
508 | http://www.news.perl.org/ | |
509 | ||
68dc0745 | 510 | =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT |
511 | ||
65acb1b1 | 512 | Copyright (c) 1997-1999 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. |
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513 | All rights reserved. |
514 | ||
c8db1d39 | 515 | When included as an integrated part of the Standard Distribution |
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516 | of Perl or of its documentation (printed or otherwise), this works is |
517 | covered under Perl's Artistic License. For separate distributions of | |
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518 | all or part of this FAQ outside of that, see L<perlfaq>. |
519 | ||
87275199 | 520 | Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public |
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521 | domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any |
522 | derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you | |
523 | see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would | |
524 | be courteous but is not required. |