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68dc0745 | 1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
04d666b1 | 3 | perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.20 $, $Date: 2003/01/26 17:50:56 $) |
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 |
c355f4f4 | 15 | can find this at http://www.cpan.org/src/latest.tar.gz , which |
7ed4b849 | 16 | is in a standard Internet format (a gzipped archive in POSIX tar format). |
5e3006a4 GS |
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, |
c355f4f4 | 21 | QNX, BeOS, OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga. |
5e3006a4 GS |
22 | |
23 | Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms, including | |
c355f4f4 | 24 | Apple systems, can be found http://www.cpan.org/ports/ directory. |
5e3006a4 GS |
25 | Because these are not part of the standard distribution, they may |
26 | and in fact do differ from the base Perl port in a variety of ways. | |
27 | You'll have to check their respective release notes to see just | |
28 | what the differences are. These differences can be either positive | |
29 | (e.g. extensions for the features of the particular platform that | |
30 | are not supported in the source release of perl) or negative (e.g. | |
31 | might be based upon a less current source release of perl). | |
92c2ed05 | 32 | |
68dc0745 | 33 | =head2 How can I get a binary version of Perl? |
34 | ||
65acb1b1 TC |
35 | If you don't have a C compiler because your vendor for whatever |
36 | reasons did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is | |
68dc0745 | 37 | grab a binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl |
38 | with. CPAN only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to | |
39 | get free compilers for, not for Unix systems. | |
40 | ||
65acb1b1 TC |
41 | Some URLs that might help you are: |
42 | ||
c355f4f4 | 43 | http://www.cpan.org/ports/ |
5c5bc629 | 44 | http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/software.html |
65acb1b1 | 45 | |
87275199 | 46 | Someone looking for a Perl for Win16 might look to Laszlo Molnar's djgpp |
c355f4f4 | 47 | port in http://www.cpan.org/ports/#msdos , which comes with clear |
d92eb7b0 | 48 | installation instructions. A simple installation guide for MS-DOS using |
87275199 GS |
49 | Ilya Zakharevich's OS/2 port is available at |
50 | http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perl5dos.html | |
51 | and similarly for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perlwin3.html . | |
3fe9a6f1 | 52 | |
53 | =head2 I don't have a C compiler on my system. How can I compile perl? | |
54 | ||
55 | Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor | |
56 | should be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you. | |
57 | ||
58 | What you need to do is get a binary version of gcc for your system | |
59 | first. Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for | |
60 | information on where to get such a binary version. | |
61 | ||
68dc0745 | 62 | =head2 I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work. |
63 | ||
64 | That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ. | |
65 | You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will | |
66 | eventually live on, and then type C<make install>. Most other | |
67 | approaches are doomed to failure. | |
68 | ||
69 | One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out | |
a6dd486b | 70 | the hard-coded @INC that perl looks through for libraries: |
68dc0745 | 71 | |
65acb1b1 | 72 | % perl -e 'print join("\n",@INC)' |
68dc0745 | 73 | |
a6dd486b | 74 | If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you |
68dc0745 | 75 | may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create |
87275199 | 76 | symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. @INC is also printed as |
65acb1b1 TC |
77 | part of the output of |
78 | ||
79 | % perl -V | |
68dc0745 | 80 | |
c355f4f4 | 81 | You might also want to check out |
13a2d996 | 82 | L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own module/library directory?">. |
3fe9a6f1 | 83 | |
68dc0745 | 84 | =head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work? |
85 | ||
86 | Read the F<INSTALL> file, which is part of the source distribution. | |
65acb1b1 | 87 | It describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncrasies that the |
68dc0745 | 88 | Configure script can't work around for any given system or |
89 | architecture. | |
90 | ||
91 | =head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean? | |
92 | ||
49d635f9 | 93 | CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a ~1.2Gb archive |
c355f4f4 | 94 | replicated on nearly 200 machines all over the world. CPAN contains |
46fc3d4c | 95 | source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many |
68dc0745 | 96 | third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from |
97 | commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web | |
c355f4f4 JH |
98 | walking and CGI scripts. The master web site for CPAN is |
99 | http://www.cpan.org/ and there is the CPAN Multiplexer at | |
a93751fa | 100 | http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html which will choose a mirror near you |
c355f4f4 JH |
101 | via DNS. See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the |
102 | end) for how this process works. Also, http://mirror.cpan.org/ | |
103 | has a nice interface to the http://www.cpan.org/MIRRORED.BY | |
104 | mirror directory. | |
105 | ||
106 | See the CPAN FAQ at http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html for | |
107 | answers to the most frequently asked questions about CPAN | |
108 | including how to become a mirror. | |
68dc0745 | 109 | |
110 | CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN | |
111 | sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the | |
112 | rest of the path is the path from that directory to the file. For | |
113 | instance, if you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN | |
7ed4b849 | 114 | as your CPAN site, the file CPAN/misc/japh is downloadable as |
68dc0745 | 115 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh . |
116 | ||
c355f4f4 JH |
117 | Considering that there are close to two thousand existing modules in |
118 | the archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of. | |
87275199 | 119 | Current categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ include Perl core |
68dc0745 | 120 | modules; development support; operating system interfaces; networking, |
121 | devices, and interprocess communication; data type utilities; database | |
122 | interfaces; user interfaces; interfaces to other languages; filenames, | |
123 | file systems, and file locking; internationalization and locale; world | |
124 | wide web support; server and daemon utilities; archiving and | |
125 | compression; image manipulation; mail and news; control flow | |
126 | utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft Windows modules; and | |
127 | miscellaneous modules. | |
128 | ||
c355f4f4 JH |
129 | See http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html or |
130 | http://search.cpan.org/ for a more complete list of modules by category. | |
131 | ||
06a5f41f | 132 | CPAN is not affiliated with O'Reilly and Associates. |
c355f4f4 | 133 | |
68dc0745 | 134 | =head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl? |
135 | ||
136 | Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is. | |
137 | ||
138 | =head2 Where can I get information on Perl? | |
139 | ||
87275199 GS |
140 | The complete Perl documentation is available with the Perl distribution. |
141 | If you have Perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation | |
5a964f20 TC |
142 | installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a system resembling Unix. |
143 | This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your | |
144 | $MANPATH. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation | |
a6dd486b | 145 | will be different; for example, documentation might only be in HTML format. All |
87275199 | 146 | proper Perl installations have fully-accessible documentation. |
68dc0745 | 147 | |
148 | You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system doesn't | |
149 | have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't | |
150 | work, try looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation. | |
151 | ||
c355f4f4 JH |
152 | If all else fails, consult http://perldoc.cpan.org/ or |
153 | http://www.perldoc.com/ both offer the complete documentation | |
154 | in html format. | |
68dc0745 | 155 | |
a6dd486b | 156 | Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section below |
68dc0745 | 157 | for more details. |
158 | ||
65acb1b1 | 159 | Tutorial documents are included in current or upcoming Perl releases |
a6dd486b JB |
160 | include L<perltoot> for objects or L<perlboot> for a beginner's |
161 | approach to objects, L<perlopentut> for file opening semantics, | |
162 | L<perlreftut> for managing references, L<perlretut> for regular | |
163 | expressions, L<perlthrtut> for threads, L<perldebtut> for debugging, | |
164 | and L<perlxstut> for linking C and Perl together. There may be more | |
165 | by the time you read this. The following URLs might also be of | |
65acb1b1 TC |
166 | assistance: |
167 | ||
c355f4f4 JH |
168 | http://perldoc.cpan.org/ |
169 | http://www.perldoc.com/ | |
c355f4f4 | 170 | http://bookmarks.cpan.org/search.cgi?cat=Training%2FTutorials |
65acb1b1 | 171 | |
87275199 | 172 | =head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions? |
68dc0745 | 173 | |
04d666b1 | 174 | Several groups devoted to the Perl language are on Usenet: |
68dc0745 | 175 | |
176 | comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group | |
04d666b1 RGS |
177 | comp.lang.perl.misc High traffic general Perl discussion |
178 | comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group | |
68dc0745 | 179 | comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules |
180 | comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl | |
181 | ||
182 | comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web. | |
183 | ||
04d666b1 RGS |
184 | Some years ago, comp.lang.perl was divided into those groups, and |
185 | comp.lang.perl itself officially removed. While that group may still | |
186 | be found on some news servers, it is unwise to use it, because | |
187 | postings there will not appear on news servers which honour the | |
188 | official list of group names. Use comp.lang.perl.misc for topics | |
189 | which do not have a more-appropriate specific group. | |
83a70550 | 190 | |
04d666b1 RGS |
191 | There is also a Usenet gateway to Perl mailing lists sponsored by |
192 | perl.org at nntp://nntp.perl.org , a web interface to the same lists | |
193 | at http://nntp.perl.org/group/ and these lists are also available | |
194 | under the C<perl.*> hierarchy at http://groups.google.com . Other | |
195 | groups are listed at http://lists.perl.org/ ( also known as | |
196 | http://lists.cpan.org/ ). | |
197 | ||
198 | A nice place to ask questions is the PerlMonks site, | |
199 | http://www.perlmonks.org/ , or the Perl Beginners mailing list | |
200 | http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=beginners . | |
83a70550 JH |
201 | |
202 | Note that none of the above are supposed to write your code for you: | |
203 | asking questions about particular problems or general advice is fine, | |
204 | but asking someone to write your code for free is not very cool. | |
68dc0745 | 205 | |
206 | =head2 Where should I post source code? | |
207 | ||
65acb1b1 TC |
208 | You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate, but |
209 | feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to cross-post | |
210 | to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards, | |
211 | including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT include alt.sources; | |
f224927c | 212 | see their FAQ ( http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-sources-intro/ ) for details. |
68dc0745 | 213 | |
c355f4f4 | 214 | If you're just looking for software, first use Google |
f05bbc40 | 215 | ( http://www.google.com ), Google's usenet search interface |
197aec24 | 216 | ( http://groups.google.com ), and CPAN Search ( http://search.cpan.org ). |
0bc0ad85 | 217 | This is faster and more productive than just posting a request. |
5a964f20 | 218 | |
68dc0745 | 219 | =head2 Perl Books |
220 | ||
7b8d334a | 221 | A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few of |
87275199 | 222 | these are good, some are OK, but many aren't worth your money. Tom |
68dc0745 | 223 | Christiansen maintains a list of these books, some with extensive |
a6dd486b | 224 | reviews, at http://www.perl.com/perl/critiques/index.html . |
68dc0745 | 225 | |
5e3006a4 | 226 | The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by |
c2e66d9e | 227 | the creator of Perl, is now (July 2000) in its third edition: |
68dc0745 | 228 | |
229 | Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"): | |
c2e66d9e GS |
230 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant |
231 | 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000] | |
232 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ | |
233 | (English, translations to several languages are also available) | |
68dc0745 | 234 | |
5e3006a4 | 235 | The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands |
c355f4f4 | 236 | of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs is: |
5e3006a4 GS |
237 | |
238 | The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"): | |
c355f4f4 | 239 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington, |
c2e66d9e GS |
240 | with Foreword by Larry Wall |
241 | ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st Edition August 1998] | |
04d666b1 | 242 | http://perl.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/ |
68dc0745 | 243 | |
8fc9651a JH |
244 | If you're already a seasoned programmer, then the Camel Book might |
245 | suffice for you to learn Perl from. If you're not, check out the | |
246 | Llama book: | |
5e3006a4 | 247 | |
8fc9651a JH |
248 | Learning Perl (the "Llama Book") |
249 | by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix | |
250 | ISBN 0-596-00132-0 [3rd edition July 2001] | |
251 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/ | |
252 | ||
16073f15 RS |
253 | And for more advanced information on writing larger programs, |
254 | presented in the same style as the Llama book, continue your education | |
255 | with the Alpaca book: | |
256 | ||
257 | Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules (the "Alpaca Book") | |
258 | by Randal L. Schwartz, with Tom Phoenix (foreword by Damian Conway) | |
259 | ISBN 0-596-00478-8 [1st edition June 2003] | |
260 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lrnperlorm/ | |
261 | ||
8fc9651a JH |
262 | If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and |
263 | possibly even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much | |
264 | hand-holding as we try to provide in the Llama, please check out the | |
c29ac39d | 265 | delightful book |
5e3006a4 | 266 | |
c29ac39d PN |
267 | Perl: The Programmer's Companion |
268 | by Nigel Chapman | |
269 | ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998] | |
270 | http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm | |
271 | http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc) | |
5a964f20 | 272 | |
c29ac39d PN |
273 | If you are more at home in Windows the following is available |
274 | (though unfortunately rather dated). | |
275 | ||
276 | Learning Perl on Win32 Systems (the "Gecko Book") | |
8fc9651a JH |
277 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen, |
278 | with foreword by Larry Wall | |
279 | ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997] | |
280 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/ | |
5a964f20 | 281 | |
f224927c JH |
282 | Addison-Wesley ( http://www.awlonline.com/ ) and Manning |
283 | ( http://www.manning.com/ ) are also publishers of some fine Perl books | |
8fc9651a JH |
284 | such as I<Object Oriented Programming with Perl> by Damian Conway and |
285 | I<Network Programming with Perl> by Lincoln Stein. | |
c355f4f4 JH |
286 | |
287 | An excellent technical book discounter is Bookpool at | |
288 | http://www.bookpool.com/ where a 30% discount or more is not unusual. | |
5a964f20 | 289 | |
68dc0745 | 290 | What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally |
291 | useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary. | |
292 | ||
c2e66d9e | 293 | Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow. |
68dc0745 | 294 | |
13a2d996 | 295 | =over 4 |
68dc0745 | 296 | |
5a964f20 | 297 | =item References |
68dc0745 | 298 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
299 | Programming Perl |
300 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant | |
301 | ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000] | |
302 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ | |
68dc0745 | 303 | |
c2e66d9e | 304 | Perl 5 Pocket Reference |
ed8cf1fe | 305 | by Johan Vromans |
c2e66d9e GS |
306 | ISBN 0-596-00032-4 [3rd edition May 2000] |
307 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr3/ | |
87275199 | 308 | |
c2e66d9e | 309 | Perl in a Nutshell |
ed8cf1fe | 310 | by Ellen Siever, Stephan Spainhour, and Nathan Patwardhan |
c2e66d9e GS |
311 | ISBN 1-56592-286-7 [1st edition December 1998] |
312 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlnut/ | |
68dc0745 | 313 | |
5a964f20 | 314 | =item Tutorials |
c47ff5f1 | 315 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
316 | Elements of Programming with Perl |
317 | by Andrew L. Johnson | |
ed8cf1fe | 318 | ISBN 1-884777-80-5 [1st edition October 1999] |
c2e66d9e GS |
319 | http://www.manning.com/Johnson/ |
320 | ||
321 | Learning Perl | |
8fc9651a JH |
322 | by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix |
323 | ISBN 0-596-00132-0 [3rd edition July 2001] | |
324 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/ | |
68dc0745 | 325 | |
16073f15 RS |
326 | Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules |
327 | by Randal L. Schwartz, with Tom Phoenix (foreword by Damian Conway) | |
328 | ISBN 0-596-00478-8 [1st edition June 2003] | |
329 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lrnperlorm/ | |
330 | ||
c2e66d9e | 331 | Learning Perl on Win32 Systems |
5a964f20 TC |
332 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen, |
333 | with foreword by Larry Wall | |
c2e66d9e GS |
334 | ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997] |
335 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/ | |
68dc0745 | 336 | |
5a964f20 TC |
337 | Perl: The Programmer's Companion |
338 | by Nigel Chapman | |
c29ac39d | 339 | ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998] |
ed8cf1fe JH |
340 | http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm |
341 | http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc) | |
68dc0745 | 342 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
343 | Cross-Platform Perl |
344 | by Eric Foster-Johnson | |
345 | ISBN 1-55851-483-X [2nd edition September 2000] | |
346 | http://www.pconline.com/~erc/perlbook.htm | |
68dc0745 | 347 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
348 | MacPerl: Power and Ease |
349 | by Vicki Brown and Chris Nandor, | |
350 | with foreword by Matthias Neeracher | |
351 | ISBN 1-881957-32-2 [1st edition May 1998] | |
352 | http://www.macperl.com/ptf_book/ | |
68dc0745 | 353 | |
c355f4f4 | 354 | =item Task-Oriented |
5a964f20 | 355 | |
c2e66d9e | 356 | The Perl Cookbook |
5a964f20 TC |
357 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington |
358 | with foreword by Larry Wall | |
c2e66d9e GS |
359 | ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998] |
360 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/ | |
5a964f20 | 361 | |
c355f4f4 | 362 | Effective Perl Programming |
5a964f20 | 363 | by Joseph Hall |
c2e66d9e GS |
364 | ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998] |
365 | http://www.awl.com/ | |
68dc0745 | 366 | |
c355f4f4 | 367 | |
5a964f20 TC |
368 | =item Special Topics |
369 | ||
c2e66d9e GS |
370 | Mastering Regular Expressions |
371 | by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl | |
372 | ISBN 1-56592-257-3 [1st edition January 1997] | |
373 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/ | |
5a964f20 | 374 | |
c355f4f4 | 375 | Network Programming with Perl |
5a964f20 | 376 | by Lincoln Stein |
c355f4f4 JH |
377 | ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001] |
378 | http://www.awlonline.com/ | |
5a964f20 | 379 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
380 | Object Oriented Perl |
381 | Damian Conway | |
382 | with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz | |
ed8cf1fe | 383 | ISBN 1-884777-79-1 [1st edition August 1999] |
c2e66d9e GS |
384 | http://www.manning.com/Conway/ |
385 | ||
c355f4f4 | 386 | Data Munging with Perl |
ed8cf1fe JH |
387 | Dave Cross |
388 | ISBN 1-930110-00-6 [1st edition 2001] | |
389 | http://www.manning.com/cross | |
c355f4f4 | 390 | |
49d635f9 | 391 | Mastering Perl/Tk |
ed8cf1fe JH |
392 | by Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh |
393 | ISBN 1-56592-716-8 [1st edition January 2002] | |
394 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk/ | |
87275199 | 395 | |
5a964f20 TC |
396 | =back |
397 | ||
398 | =head2 Perl in Magazines | |
399 | ||
ccbb3b41 | 400 | The first (and for a long time, only) periodical devoted to All Things Perl, |
41eb6b36 | 401 | I<The Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies, |
e00b594c | 402 | announcements, contests, and much more. I<TPJ> has columns on web |
5a964f20 | 403 | development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular |
41eb6b36 JH |
404 | expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl Contest |
405 | and the Perl Poetry Contests. As of mid-2001, the dead tree version | |
6c43ff60 | 406 | of TPJ will be published as a quarterly supplement of SysAdmin |
f05bbc40 | 407 | magazine ( http://www.sysadminmag.com/ ) For more details on TPJ, |
41eb6b36 JH |
408 | see http://www.tpj.com/ |
409 | ||
410 | Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry quality articles on | |
ed8cf1fe | 411 | Perl are I<The Perl Review> ( http://www.theperlreview.com ), |
41eb6b36 JH |
412 | I<Unix Review> ( http://www.unixreview.com/ ), |
413 | I<Linux Magazine> ( http://www.linuxmagazine.com/ ), | |
414 | and Usenix's newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:> | |
415 | ( http://www.usenix.org/ ) | |
416 | ||
ae6d88cb | 417 | The Perl columns of Randal L. Schwartz are available on the web at |
41eb6b36 JH |
418 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ , |
419 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/UnixReview/ , and | |
420 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/ . | |
68dc0745 | 421 | |
422 | =head2 Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access | |
423 | ||
49d635f9 RGS |
424 | To get the best performance, pick a site from the list at |
425 | http://www.cpan.org/SITES.html . From there you can find the quickest | |
426 | site for you. | |
427 | ||
428 | You may also use xx.cpan.org where "xx" is the 2-letter country code | |
429 | for your domain; e.g. Australia would use au.cpan.org. [Note: This | |
430 | only applies to countries that host at least one mirror.] | |
c355f4f4 | 431 | |
87275199 | 432 | =head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl? |
68dc0745 | 433 | |
87275199 | 434 | Most of the major modules (Tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own |
68dc0745 | 435 | mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for |
c355f4f4 | 436 | subscription information. |
68dc0745 | 437 | |
ccbb3b41 IT |
438 | A comprehensive list of Perl related mailing lists can be found at: |
439 | ||
49d635f9 | 440 | http://lists.perl.org/ |
83a70550 | 441 | |
65acb1b1 | 442 | =head2 Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc |
68dc0745 | 443 | |
b0bd3af0 | 444 | The Google search engine now carries archived and searchable newsgroup |
197aec24 | 445 | content. |
68dc0745 | 446 | |
83ded9ee | 447 | http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.perl.misc |
68dc0745 | 448 | |
b0bd3af0 EHA |
449 | If you have a question, you can be sure someone has already asked the |
450 | same question at some point on c.l.p.m. It requires some time and patience | |
451 | to sift through all the content but often you will find the answer you | |
452 | seek. | |
68dc0745 | 453 | |
68dc0745 | 454 | =head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl? |
455 | ||
a6dd486b | 456 | In a real sense, Perl already I<is> commercial software: it has a license |
65acb1b1 TC |
457 | that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed |
458 | in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large | |
459 | user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.* | |
460 | newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your | |
461 | questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by | |
8305e449 | 462 | Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriad |
65acb1b1 TC |
463 | programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life |
464 | better for everyone. | |
68dc0745 | 465 | |
466 | However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a | |
65acb1b1 TC |
467 | purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry. |
468 | Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations. | |
87275199 | 469 | Shrink-wrapped CDs with Perl on them are available from several sources if |
a6dd486b JB |
470 | that will help. For example, many Perl books include a distribution of Perl, |
471 | as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor | |
65acb1b1 TC |
472 | and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix distributions |
473 | also all come with Perl. | |
68dc0745 | 474 | |
a6dd486b JB |
475 | Alternatively, you can purchase commercial incidence based support |
476 | through the Perl Clinic. The following is a commercial from them: | |
e28598cb GS |
477 | |
478 | "The Perl Clinic is a commercial Perl support service operated by | |
479 | ActiveState Tool Corp. and The Ingram Group. The operators have many | |
480 | years of in-depth experience with Perl applications and Perl internals | |
481 | on a wide range of platforms. | |
482 | ||
483 | "Through our group of highly experienced and well-trained support engineers, | |
484 | we will put our best effort into understanding your problem, providing an | |
485 | explanation of the situation, and a recommendation on how to proceed." | |
486 | ||
a6dd486b | 487 | Contact The Perl Clinic at |
e28598cb GS |
488 | |
489 | www.PerlClinic.com | |
490 | ||
491 | North America Pacific Standard Time (GMT-8) | |
492 | Tel: 1 604 606-4611 hours 8am-6pm | |
493 | Fax: 1 604 606-4640 | |
494 | ||
495 | Europe (GMT) | |
496 | Tel: 00 44 1483 862814 | |
497 | Fax: 00 44 1483 862801 | |
68dc0745 | 498 | |
65acb1b1 | 499 | See also www.perl.com for updates on tutorials, training, and support. |
5e3006a4 | 500 | |
68dc0745 | 501 | =head2 Where do I send bug reports? |
502 | ||
503 | If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules | |
87275199 | 504 | shipped with Perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the Perl distribution or |
7f2de2d2 | 505 | mail your report to perlbug@perl.org . |
68dc0745 | 506 | |
46fc3d4c | 507 | If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to |
68dc0745 | 508 | "What platforms is Perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a |
46fc3d4c | 509 | non-standard module (such as Tk, CGI, etc), then please see the |
68dc0745 | 510 | documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post |
511 | bugs. | |
512 | ||
5a964f20 | 513 | Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information. |
68dc0745 | 514 | |
06a5f41f | 515 | =head2 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org? |
68dc0745 | 516 | |
5c5bc629 JH |
517 | The Perl Home Page at http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted by |
518 | The O'Reilly Network, a subsidiary of O'Reilly and Associates. | |
68dc0745 | 519 | |
74078192 DA |
520 | Perl Mongers is an advocacy organization for the Perl language which |
521 | maintains the web site http://www.perl.org/ as a general advocacy | |
c355f4f4 | 522 | site for the Perl language. |
90bb42f6 GS |
523 | |
524 | Perl Mongers uses the pm.org domain for services related to Perl user | |
74078192 DA |
525 | groups, including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites. See the |
526 | Perl user group web site at http://www.pm.org/ for more information about | |
527 | joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl user group. | |
90bb42f6 | 528 | |
c355f4f4 JH |
529 | Perl Mongers also maintain the perl.org domain to provide general |
530 | support services to the Perl community, including the hosting of mailing | |
531 | lists, web sites, and other services. The web site | |
532 | http://www.perl.org/ is a general advocacy site for the Perl language, | |
533 | and there are many other sub-domains for special topics, such as | |
90bb42f6 | 534 | |
c355f4f4 JH |
535 | http://bugs.perl.org/ |
536 | http://history.perl.org/ | |
537 | http://lists.perl.org/ | |
c355f4f4 | 538 | http://use.perl.org/ |
90bb42f6 | 539 | |
06a5f41f JH |
540 | http://www.cpan.org/ is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, |
541 | a replicated worlwide repository of Perl software, see | |
542 | the I<What is CPAN?> question earlier in this document. | |
543 | ||
68dc0745 | 544 | =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT |
545 | ||
0bc0ad85 | 546 | Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. |
5a964f20 TC |
547 | All rights reserved. |
548 | ||
5a7beb56 JH |
549 | This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it |
550 | under the same terms as Perl itself. | |
c8db1d39 | 551 | |
87275199 | 552 | Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public |
c8db1d39 TC |
553 | domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any |
554 | derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you | |
555 | see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would | |
556 | be courteous but is not required. |