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68dc0745 | 1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
500071f4 | 3 | perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 3606 $) |
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 | ||
b68463f7 | 11 | =head2 What machines support perl? Where do I get it? |
68dc0745 | 12 | |
b68463f7 | 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 | |
b68463f7 | 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 | 25 | Because these are not part of the standard distribution, they may |
b68463f7 | 26 | and in fact do differ from the base perl port in a variety of ways. |
5e3006a4 GS |
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 | |
b68463f7 | 33 | =head2 How can I get a binary version of perl? |
68dc0745 | 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 | |
b68463f7 | 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 | |
b68463f7 | 53 | =head2 I don't have a C compiler. How can I build my own Perl interpreter? |
3fe9a6f1 | 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 | ||
b68463f7 | 62 | =head2 I copied the perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work. |
68dc0745 | 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 | |
f0d19b68 | 72 | % perl -le 'print for @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 | ||
c98c5709 | 132 | CPAN is not affiliated with O'Reilly Media. |
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 |
b68463f7 | 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 | ||
9e72e4c6 RGS |
152 | If all else fails, consult http://perldoc.perl.org/ which has the |
153 | complete documentation in HTML and PDF format. | |
68dc0745 | 154 | |
a6dd486b | 155 | Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section below |
68dc0745 | 156 | for more details. |
157 | ||
65acb1b1 | 158 | Tutorial documents are included in current or upcoming Perl releases |
a6dd486b JB |
159 | include L<perltoot> for objects or L<perlboot> for a beginner's |
160 | approach to objects, L<perlopentut> for file opening semantics, | |
161 | L<perlreftut> for managing references, L<perlretut> for regular | |
162 | expressions, L<perlthrtut> for threads, L<perldebtut> for debugging, | |
163 | and L<perlxstut> for linking C and Perl together. There may be more | |
9e72e4c6 | 164 | by the time you read this. These URLs might also be useful: |
65acb1b1 | 165 | |
9e72e4c6 | 166 | http://perldoc.perl.org/ |
c355f4f4 | 167 | http://bookmarks.cpan.org/search.cgi?cat=Training%2FTutorials |
65acb1b1 | 168 | |
87275199 | 169 | =head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions? |
68dc0745 | 170 | |
04d666b1 | 171 | Several groups devoted to the Perl language are on Usenet: |
68dc0745 | 172 | |
173 | comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group | |
04d666b1 RGS |
174 | comp.lang.perl.misc High traffic general Perl discussion |
175 | comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group | |
68dc0745 | 176 | comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules |
177 | comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl | |
178 | ||
179 | comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web. | |
180 | ||
04d666b1 RGS |
181 | Some years ago, comp.lang.perl was divided into those groups, and |
182 | comp.lang.perl itself officially removed. While that group may still | |
183 | be found on some news servers, it is unwise to use it, because | |
184 | postings there will not appear on news servers which honour the | |
185 | official list of group names. Use comp.lang.perl.misc for topics | |
186 | which do not have a more-appropriate specific group. | |
83a70550 | 187 | |
04d666b1 RGS |
188 | There is also a Usenet gateway to Perl mailing lists sponsored by |
189 | perl.org at nntp://nntp.perl.org , a web interface to the same lists | |
190 | at http://nntp.perl.org/group/ and these lists are also available | |
191 | under the C<perl.*> hierarchy at http://groups.google.com . Other | |
192 | groups are listed at http://lists.perl.org/ ( also known as | |
193 | http://lists.cpan.org/ ). | |
194 | ||
6670e5e7 | 195 | A nice place to ask questions is the PerlMonks site, |
04d666b1 RGS |
196 | http://www.perlmonks.org/ , or the Perl Beginners mailing list |
197 | http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=beginners . | |
83a70550 JH |
198 | |
199 | Note that none of the above are supposed to write your code for you: | |
200 | asking questions about particular problems or general advice is fine, | |
201 | but asking someone to write your code for free is not very cool. | |
68dc0745 | 202 | |
203 | =head2 Where should I post source code? | |
204 | ||
65acb1b1 TC |
205 | You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate, but |
206 | feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to cross-post | |
207 | to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards, | |
208 | including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT include alt.sources; | |
f224927c | 209 | see their FAQ ( http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-sources-intro/ ) for details. |
68dc0745 | 210 | |
c355f4f4 | 211 | If you're just looking for software, first use Google |
f05bbc40 | 212 | ( http://www.google.com ), Google's usenet search interface |
197aec24 | 213 | ( http://groups.google.com ), and CPAN Search ( http://search.cpan.org ). |
0bc0ad85 | 214 | This is faster and more productive than just posting a request. |
5a964f20 | 215 | |
68dc0745 | 216 | =head2 Perl Books |
217 | ||
c98c5709 | 218 | A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few |
6670e5e7 | 219 | of these are good, some are OK, but many aren't worth your money. |
c98c5709 | 220 | There is a list of these books, some with extensive reviews, at |
9e72e4c6 RGS |
221 | http://books.perl.org/ . If you don't see your book listed here, you |
222 | can write to perlfaq-workers@perl.org . | |
68dc0745 | 223 | |
5e3006a4 | 224 | The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by |
9e72e4c6 | 225 | the creator of Perl, is Programming Perl: |
68dc0745 | 226 | |
c98c5709 | 227 | Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"): |
c2e66d9e | 228 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant |
c98c5709 | 229 | ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000] |
c2e66d9e | 230 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ |
c98c5709 | 231 | (English, translations to several languages are also available) |
68dc0745 | 232 | |
5e3006a4 | 233 | The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands |
c355f4f4 | 234 | of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs is: |
5e3006a4 | 235 | |
c98c5709 | 236 | The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"): |
c355f4f4 | 237 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington, |
c2e66d9e | 238 | with Foreword by Larry Wall |
c98c5709 RGS |
239 | ISBN 0-596-00313-7 [2nd Edition August 2003] |
240 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlckbk2/ | |
68dc0745 | 241 | |
8fc9651a | 242 | If you're already a seasoned programmer, then the Camel Book might |
9e72e4c6 | 243 | suffice for you to learn Perl. If you're not, check out the |
8fc9651a | 244 | Llama book: |
5e3006a4 | 245 | |
9e72e4c6 RGS |
246 | Learning Perl |
247 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy | |
248 | ISBN 0-596-10105-8 [4th edition July 2005] | |
249 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/ | |
8fc9651a | 250 | |
16073f15 RS |
251 | And for more advanced information on writing larger programs, |
252 | presented in the same style as the Llama book, continue your education | |
253 | with the Alpaca book: | |
254 | ||
c98c5709 RGS |
255 | Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules (the "Alpaca Book") |
256 | by Randal L. Schwartz, with Tom Phoenix (foreword by Damian Conway) | |
257 | ISBN 0-596-00478-8 [1st edition June 2003] | |
258 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lrnperlorm/ | |
16073f15 | 259 | |
8fc9651a JH |
260 | If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and |
261 | possibly even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much | |
262 | hand-holding as we try to provide in the Llama, please check out the | |
c29ac39d | 263 | delightful book |
5e3006a4 | 264 | |
c98c5709 RGS |
265 | Perl: The Programmer's Companion |
266 | by Nigel Chapman | |
267 | ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998] | |
268 | http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm | |
269 | http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc) | |
5a964f20 | 270 | |
c29ac39d PN |
271 | If you are more at home in Windows the following is available |
272 | (though unfortunately rather dated). | |
273 | ||
c98c5709 | 274 | Learning Perl on Win32 Systems (the "Gecko Book") |
8fc9651a JH |
275 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen, |
276 | with foreword by Larry Wall | |
277 | ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997] | |
278 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/ | |
5a964f20 | 279 | |
f224927c JH |
280 | Addison-Wesley ( http://www.awlonline.com/ ) and Manning |
281 | ( http://www.manning.com/ ) are also publishers of some fine Perl books | |
8fc9651a JH |
282 | such as I<Object Oriented Programming with Perl> by Damian Conway and |
283 | I<Network Programming with Perl> by Lincoln Stein. | |
c355f4f4 JH |
284 | |
285 | An excellent technical book discounter is Bookpool at | |
286 | http://www.bookpool.com/ where a 30% discount or more is not unusual. | |
5a964f20 | 287 | |
68dc0745 | 288 | What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally |
289 | useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary. | |
290 | ||
c2e66d9e | 291 | Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow. |
68dc0745 | 292 | |
13a2d996 | 293 | =over 4 |
68dc0745 | 294 | |
5a964f20 | 295 | =item References |
68dc0745 | 296 | |
c98c5709 | 297 | Programming Perl |
c2e66d9e GS |
298 | by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant |
299 | ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000] | |
300 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ | |
68dc0745 | 301 | |
c98c5709 RGS |
302 | Perl 5 Pocket Reference |
303 | by Johan Vromans | |
c2e66d9e GS |
304 | ISBN 0-596-00032-4 [3rd edition May 2000] |
305 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr3/ | |
87275199 | 306 | |
5a964f20 | 307 | =item Tutorials |
c47ff5f1 | 308 | |
7678cced RGS |
309 | Beginning Perl |
310 | by James Lee | |
311 | ISBN 1-59059-391-X [2nd edition August 2004] | |
312 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=344 | |
313 | ||
c98c5709 | 314 | Elements of Programming with Perl |
c2e66d9e | 315 | by Andrew L. Johnson |
ed8cf1fe | 316 | ISBN 1-884777-80-5 [1st edition October 1999] |
c2e66d9e GS |
317 | http://www.manning.com/Johnson/ |
318 | ||
c98c5709 | 319 | Learning Perl |
9e72e4c6 RGS |
320 | by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy |
321 | ISBN 0-596-10105-8 [4th edition July 2005] | |
322 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/ | |
68dc0745 | 323 | |
c98c5709 RGS |
324 | Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules |
325 | by Randal L. Schwartz, with Tom Phoenix (foreword by Damian Conway) | |
326 | ISBN 0-596-00478-8 [1st edition June 2003] | |
327 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lrnperlorm/ | |
16073f15 | 328 | |
c355f4f4 | 329 | =item Task-Oriented |
5a964f20 | 330 | |
7678cced RGS |
331 | Writing Perl Modules for CPAN |
332 | by Sam Tregar | |
333 | ISBN 1-59059-018-X [1st edition Aug 2002] | |
334 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=14 | |
335 | ||
c98c5709 | 336 | The Perl Cookbook |
5a964f20 TC |
337 | by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington |
338 | with foreword by Larry Wall | |
c2e66d9e GS |
339 | ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998] |
340 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/ | |
5a964f20 | 341 | |
c98c5709 | 342 | Effective Perl Programming |
5a964f20 | 343 | by Joseph Hall |
c2e66d9e GS |
344 | ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998] |
345 | http://www.awl.com/ | |
68dc0745 | 346 | |
7678cced RGS |
347 | Real World SQL Server Administration with Perl |
348 | by Linchi Shea | |
349 | ISBN 1-59059-097-X [1st edition July 2003] | |
350 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=171 | |
351 | ||
5a964f20 TC |
352 | =item Special Topics |
353 | ||
58103a2e RGS |
354 | Perl Best Practices |
355 | by Damian Conway | |
356 | ISBN: 0-596-00173-8 [1st edition July 2005] | |
357 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlbp/ | |
358 | ||
359 | Higher Order Perl | |
360 | by Mark-Jason Dominus | |
361 | ISBN: 1558607013 [1st edition March 2005] | |
362 | http://hop.perl.plover.com/ | |
363 | ||
7678cced RGS |
364 | Perl 6 Now: The Core Ideas Illustrated with Perl 5 |
365 | by Scott Walters | |
58103a2e | 366 | ISBN 1-59059-395-2 [1st edition December 2004] |
7678cced | 367 | http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=355 |
6670e5e7 | 368 | |
c98c5709 | 369 | Mastering Regular Expressions |
c2e66d9e | 370 | by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl |
02d51d12 MJD |
371 | ISBN 0-596-00289-0 [2nd edition July 2002] |
372 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex2/ | |
5a964f20 | 373 | |
7678cced | 374 | Network Programming with Perl |
5a964f20 | 375 | by Lincoln Stein |
c355f4f4 JH |
376 | ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001] |
377 | http://www.awlonline.com/ | |
5a964f20 | 378 | |
7678cced | 379 | Object Oriented Perl |
c2e66d9e GS |
380 | Damian Conway |
381 | with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz | |
ed8cf1fe | 382 | ISBN 1-884777-79-1 [1st edition August 1999] |
c2e66d9e GS |
383 | http://www.manning.com/Conway/ |
384 | ||
7678cced | 385 | Data Munging with Perl |
ed8cf1fe JH |
386 | Dave Cross |
387 | ISBN 1-930110-00-6 [1st edition 2001] | |
388 | http://www.manning.com/cross | |
c355f4f4 | 389 | |
7678cced | 390 | Mastering Perl/Tk |
ed8cf1fe JH |
391 | by Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh |
392 | ISBN 1-56592-716-8 [1st edition January 2002] | |
393 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk/ | |
87275199 | 394 | |
c98c5709 RGS |
395 | Extending and Embedding Perl |
396 | by Tim Jenness and Simon Cozens | |
397 | ISBN 1-930110-82-0 [1st edition August 2002] | |
398 | http://www.manning.com/jenness | |
c74d0ee8 | 399 | |
c98c5709 RGS |
400 | Perl Debugger Pocket Reference |
401 | by Richard Foley | |
402 | ISBN 0-596-00503-2 [1st edition January 2004] | |
6670e5e7 | 403 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perldebugpr/ |
024e7d0c | 404 | |
5a964f20 TC |
405 | =back |
406 | ||
fcd1fd07 | 407 | =head2 Which magazines have Perl content? |
5a964f20 | 408 | |
ccbb3b41 | 409 | The first (and for a long time, only) periodical devoted to All Things Perl, |
41eb6b36 | 410 | I<The Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies, |
e00b594c | 411 | announcements, contests, and much more. I<TPJ> has columns on web |
5a964f20 | 412 | development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular |
41eb6b36 | 413 | expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl Contest |
6670e5e7 RGS |
414 | and the Perl Poetry Contests. Beginning in November 2002, TPJ moved to a |
415 | reader-supported monthly e-zine format in which subscribers can download | |
793f5136 | 416 | issues as PDF documents. For more details on TPJ, see http://www.tpj.com/ |
41eb6b36 JH |
417 | |
418 | Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry quality articles on | |
ed8cf1fe | 419 | Perl are I<The Perl Review> ( http://www.theperlreview.com ), |
41eb6b36 JH |
420 | I<Unix Review> ( http://www.unixreview.com/ ), |
421 | I<Linux Magazine> ( http://www.linuxmagazine.com/ ), | |
422 | and Usenix's newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:> | |
423 | ( http://www.usenix.org/ ) | |
424 | ||
ae6d88cb | 425 | The Perl columns of Randal L. Schwartz are available on the web at |
41eb6b36 JH |
426 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ , |
427 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/UnixReview/ , and | |
428 | http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/ . | |
68dc0745 | 429 | |
87275199 | 430 | =head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl? |
68dc0745 | 431 | |
87275199 | 432 | Most of the major modules (Tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own |
68dc0745 | 433 | mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for |
c355f4f4 | 434 | subscription information. |
68dc0745 | 435 | |
ccbb3b41 IT |
436 | A comprehensive list of Perl related mailing lists can be found at: |
437 | ||
49d635f9 | 438 | http://lists.perl.org/ |
83a70550 | 439 | |
fcd1fd07 | 440 | =head2 Where are the archives for comp.lang.perl.misc? |
68dc0745 | 441 | |
b0bd3af0 | 442 | The Google search engine now carries archived and searchable newsgroup |
197aec24 | 443 | content. |
68dc0745 | 444 | |
83ded9ee | 445 | http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.perl.misc |
68dc0745 | 446 | |
b0bd3af0 EHA |
447 | If you have a question, you can be sure someone has already asked the |
448 | same question at some point on c.l.p.m. It requires some time and patience | |
449 | to sift through all the content but often you will find the answer you | |
450 | seek. | |
68dc0745 | 451 | |
b68463f7 | 452 | =head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of perl? |
68dc0745 | 453 | |
b68463f7 | 454 | In a real sense, perl already I<is> commercial software: it has a license |
65acb1b1 TC |
455 | that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed |
456 | in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large | |
457 | user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.* | |
458 | newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your | |
459 | questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by | |
8305e449 | 460 | Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriad |
65acb1b1 TC |
461 | programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life |
462 | better for everyone. | |
68dc0745 | 463 | |
464 | However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a | |
65acb1b1 TC |
465 | purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry. |
466 | Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations. | |
b68463f7 RGS |
467 | Shrink-wrapped CDs with perl on them are available from several sources if |
468 | that will help. For example, many Perl books include a distribution of perl, | |
a6dd486b | 469 | as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor |
65acb1b1 | 470 | and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix distributions |
b68463f7 | 471 | also all come with perl. |
68dc0745 | 472 | |
68dc0745 | 473 | =head2 Where do I send bug reports? |
474 | ||
475 | If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules | |
87275199 | 476 | shipped with Perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the Perl distribution or |
b68463f7 RGS |
477 | mail your report to perlbug@perl.org or at http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . |
478 | ||
479 | For Perl modules, you can submit bug reports to the Request Tracker set | |
480 | up at http://rt.cpan.org . | |
68dc0745 | 481 | |
46fc3d4c | 482 | If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to |
b68463f7 | 483 | "What platforms is perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a |
46fc3d4c | 484 | non-standard module (such as Tk, CGI, etc), then please see the |
68dc0745 | 485 | documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post |
486 | bugs. | |
487 | ||
5a964f20 | 488 | Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information. |
68dc0745 | 489 | |
06a5f41f | 490 | =head2 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org? |
68dc0745 | 491 | |
c98c5709 RGS |
492 | Perl.com at http://www.perl.com/ is part of the O'Reilly Network, a |
493 | subsidiary of O'Reilly Media. | |
68dc0745 | 494 | |
c98c5709 RGS |
495 | The Perl Foundation is an advocacy organization for the Perl language |
496 | which maintains the web site http://www.perl.org/ as a general | |
497 | advocacy site for the Perl language. It uses the domain to provide | |
498 | general support services to the Perl community, including the hosting | |
499 | of mailing lists, web sites, and other services. The web site | |
500 | http://www.perl.org/ is a general advocacy site for the Perl language, | |
501 | and there are many other sub-domains for special topics, such as | |
502 | ||
503 | http://learn.perl.org/ | |
504 | http://use.perl.org/ | |
505 | http://jobs.perl.org/ | |
506 | http://lists.perl.org/ | |
90bb42f6 GS |
507 | |
508 | Perl Mongers uses the pm.org domain for services related to Perl user | |
74078192 DA |
509 | groups, including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites. See the |
510 | Perl user group web site at http://www.pm.org/ for more information about | |
511 | joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl user group. | |
90bb42f6 | 512 | |
06a5f41f | 513 | http://www.cpan.org/ is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, |
d7f8936a | 514 | a replicated worldwide repository of Perl software, see |
06a5f41f JH |
515 | the I<What is CPAN?> question earlier in this document. |
516 | ||
500071f4 RGS |
517 | =head1 REVISION |
518 | ||
519 | Revision: $Revision: 3606 $ | |
520 | ||
521 | Date: $Date: 2006-03-06 12:05:47 +0100 (lun, 06 mar 2006) $ | |
522 | ||
523 | See L<perlfaq> for source control details and availability. | |
524 | ||
68dc0745 | 525 | =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT |
526 | ||
58103a2e | 527 | Copyright (c) 1997-2006 Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington, and |
7678cced | 528 | other authors as noted. All rights reserved. |
5a964f20 | 529 | |
5a7beb56 JH |
530 | This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it |
531 | under the same terms as Perl itself. | |
c8db1d39 | 532 | |
87275199 | 533 | Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public |
c8db1d39 TC |
534 | domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any |
535 | derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you | |
536 | see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would | |
537 | be courteous but is not required. |