Celestin Apprentice 2/Apprentice-Release2.iso/Information/Languages/Perl/perl-faq⁄part2

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Subject: comp.lang.perl FAQ 2/5 - Information Sources
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Archive-name: perl-faq/part2
Version: $Id: part2,v 2.3 1994/11/07 18:05:30 spp Exp spp $
Posting-Frequency: bi-weekly

This posting contains answers to general information questions, mostly of
about information sources.

2.1) Is there a USENET group for Perl?

    Yes there is: comp.lang.perl.  This group, which currently can get up
    to 100 messages per day, contains all kinds of discussions about Perl;
    everything from bug reports to new features to the history to humour
    and trivia.  This is the best source of information about anything Perl
    related, especially what's new with Perl5.  Because of it's vast array
    of topics, it functions as both a comp.lang.* style newsgroup
    (providing technical information) and also as a rec.* style newsgroup,
    kind of a support group for Perl addicts (PerlAnon?).

    Larry is a frequent poster to this group as well as most (all?) of the
    seasoned Perl programmers.  Questions will be answered by some of the
    most knowledgable Perl Hackers, often within minutes of a question
    being posted (give or take distribution times).


2.2) Have any books or magazine articles been published about Perl?

    There have been quite a few books and articles.  The most well known
    and most useful book for 4.036 and earlier is _Programming Perl_
    (affectionately known as ``the Camel Book''), written by Larry and
    Randal Schwartz*, published by O'Reilly & Associates as part of their
    Nutshell Handbook Series (ISBN: 0-937175-64-1).  Besides serving as a
    reference guide for Perl, it also contains tutorial material and is a
    great source of examples and cookbook procedures, as well as wit and
    wisdom, tricks and traps, pranks and pitfalls.  The code examples
    contained therein are available via anonymous FTP from ftp.ora.com in
    /pub/examples/nutshell/programming_perl/perl.tar.Z or at
    ftp.cis.ufl.edu in /pub/perl/ora/programming_perl.  Corrections and
    additions to the book can be found in the Perl man page right before
    the BUGS section under the heading ERRATA AND ADDENDA.

    A new version of the Camel book, revised and updated for Perl5 is due
    out sometime around spring of next year.  Until then, the man pages
    distributed with the perl 5.000 source contain a wealth of information
    on the new features and old incompatibilities with perl4.036.

    Also available is ``the Llama Book'', _Learning Perl_ by Randal
    Schwartz, another Nutshell book.  This book is a collection of some of
    the best introductory and tutorial information available about Perl.  A
    definite must for novice Perl users.  The examples and code from this
    book are available from the same places as the Camel book code.  (ISBN:
    1-56592-042-2)

    If you can't find these books in your local technical bookstore, they
    may be ordered directly from O'Reilly by calling 1-800-998-9938 if in
    North America and 1-707-829-0515 otherwise.

    Larry routinely carries around a camel stamp to use when autographing
    copies of his book.  If you can catch him at a conference you can
    usually get him to sign your book for you.

    Larry Wall has published a 3-part article on perl in Unix World
    (August through October of 1991), and Rob Kolstad also had a 3-parter
    in Unix Review (May through July of 1990).  Tom Christiansen also has
    a brief overview article in the trade newsletter Unix Technology
    Advisor from November of 1989.  You might also investigate "The Wisdom
    of Perl" by Gordon Galligher from SunExpert magazine;  April 1991
    Volume 2 Number 4.  The Dec 92 Computer Language magazine also
    contains a cover article on Perl, "Perl: the Programmers Toolbox".

    Many other articles on Perl have been recently published.  If you
    have references, especially on-line copies, please mail them to
    the FAQ maintainer for inclusion is this notice.

    The USENIX LISA (Large Installations Systems Administration) Conference
    have for several years now included many papers of tools written in
    Perl.  Old proceedings of these conferences are available; look in
    your current issue of ";login:" or send mail to [e-mail]
    for further information.

    At this point, the "writing committe" (Larry, Randal, and Tom; aka
    <[e-mail]>) is looking at:

    o A heavy rewrite of the Camel to update it to Perl5.  Expect the
      tutorial section to be cut in deference to the Llama.
    o A light update of the Llama to eliminate the "I think perl5 will
      do ..." and a change to "Perl5 will do ..."
    o A new book, "Learning More Perl" (working title), a sequel to the
      Llama, covering what wasn't covered in the Llama including Perl5.

    According to Randal, this is the current priority.  However, he notes
    that the new Camel won't be out until sometime in the spring of next
    year, at the earliest.

    Prentice Hall also has two perl books, either on the shelves or in the
    works.  The first is ``Perl by Example'' by Ellie Quigley. (385 pages,
    $26.96, ISBN 0-13-122839-0) A perl tutorial (perl4); every feature is
    presented via an annotated example and sample output.

    The second book is called ``Software Engineering with Perl'' by Carl
    Dichter and Mark Pease.  Randal Schwartz has reviewed the second book
    (SEwP) and has this to say about it:

    SWwP is not meant as instruction in the Perl language, but rather
    as an example of how Perl may be used to assist in the semi-formal
    software engineering development cycles.  There's a lot of Perl
    code that's fairly well commented, but most of the book describes
    software engineering methodologies.  For the perl-challenged,
    there's a *light* treatment of the language as well, but they refer
    to the llama and the camel for the real meat.

    Japan seems to be jumping with Perl books.  If you can read japanese
    here are a few you might be interested in.  Thanks to Jeffrey Friedl*
    for this list (NOTE: my screen cannot handle japanese characters, so
    this is all in English for the moment  NOTE2: These books are written
    in Japanese, these titles are just translations):

    Title: Welcome to Perl Country
    Authors: Kaoru Maeda, Hiroshi Koyama, Yasushi Saito and Arihito
         Fuse
    Publisher: Science Company    Date: April 25, 1993
    ISBN: 4-7819-0697-4         Price: 2472Y
    Comments: Written during the time the Camel book was being
    translated.  A useful introduction, but uses jperl (Japanese Perl)
    which is not necessarily compatible.

    Title: Perl Writing Methods    (Perl Calligraphy?)
    Author: Toshiyuki Masui
    Publisher: ASCII Corporation    Date: July 1, 1993
    ISBN: 4-7561-0281-6        Price: 3200Y
    Comments: More advanced than "Welcome.." and not meant as an
    introduction.  Uses the standard perl and has examples for handling
    Japanese text.

    Title: Introduction to Perl
    Author: Shinji Kono
    Publisher: ASCII Corporation    Date: July 11, 1994
    ISBN: 4-7561-0292-1        Price: 1800Y
    Comments: Uses the interactive Perl debugger to explain how things
    work.

    Title: Programming Perl
    Authors: L Wall & R Schwartz    Translator: Yoshiyuri Kondo
    Publisher: Softbank Corporation    Date: February 28, 1993
    ISBN: 4-89052-384-7        Price: 4500Y
    Comments: Official Japanese translation.  Somewhat laced with
    translator notes to explain the humour.  The most useful book.

    There is also a German translation of Programming Perl.  It is available
    from Hanser Verlag:

    Title: Programmieren in Perl
    ISBN: 3-446-17257-2


2.3) When will the Camel and Llama books be updated?

    When they do. :-)  Actually, we're looking at having them in print
    about 6 months from now (for floating values of now :-).  Send the
    writing committee mail ([e-mail]) mail if you have suggestions.


2.4) What FTP resources are available?

    Within the past year, several ftp sites have sprung up for Perl and
    Perl related items.  The site with the biggest repository of Perl
    scripts right now seems to be ftp.cis.ufl.edu [128.227.100.198].  The
    scripts directory has an INDEX with over 400 lines in it, each
    describing what the script does.  The src directory has sources and/or
    binaries for a number of different perl ports, including MS-Dos,
    Macintosh and Windows/NT.  This is maintained by me, Steve*.

    Note: I've changed jobs recently and am not currently directly
    on the Internet.  This means this site may get a little out of
    date until I can get back up to UF and update it.  However, I
    did set up automatic mirrors to many sites, so much of it should
    remain uptodate.  (If only Larry would put the beta patches on
    netlabs....)

    Note:  European users please use the site src.doc.ic.ac.uk
    [149.169.2.1] in /pub/computing/programming/languages/perl/
    The link speed would be a lot better for all.  Contact
    [e-mail] for more information. It is updated
    daily.
    This may not be working yet.  I'm working with Lee to get it
    setup.

    There are also a number of other sites.  I'll add more of them as I get
    information on them.

2.5) What WWW/gopher resources are available?

    The World Wide Web is exploding with new Perl sites all the time.  Some
    of the more notable ones are:
    http://www.cis.ufl.edu/perl
    http://www.metronet.com/1h/perlinfo, which has a great section on
        Perl5.
    http://www.eecs.nwu.edu/perl/perl.html
        http://web.nexor.co.uk/perl/perl.html, a great site for European
        and UK users.


2.6) Can people who don't have access to USENET get comp.lang.perl?

    "Perl-Users" is the mailing list version of the comp.lang.perl
    newsgroup.  If you're not lucky enough to be on USENET you can post to
    comp.lang.perl by sending to one of the following addresses.  Which one
    will work best for you depends on which nets your site is hooked into.
    Ask your local network guru if you're not certain.

    Internet: [e-mail]
              [e-mail]

    BitNet: Perl@Virginia

    uucp: ...!uunet!virginia!perl-users

    The Perl-Users list is bidirectionally gatewayed with the USENET
    newsgroup comp.lang.perl.  This means that VIRGINIA functions as a
    reflector.  All traffic coming in from the non-USENET side is
    immediately posted to the newsgroup.  Postings from the USENET side are
    periodically digested and mailed out to the Perl-Users mailing list.  A
    digest is created and distributed at least once per day, more often if
    traffic warrants.

    All requests to be added to or deleted from this list, problems,
    questions, etc., should be sent to:

    Internet: [e-mail]
              [e-mail]

    BitNet: Perl-Req@Virginia

    uucp: ...!uunet!virginia!perl-users-request

    Coordinator: Marc Rouleau <[e-mail]>


2.7) Are archives of comp.lang.perl available?

    Yes, there are.  ftp.cis.ufl.edu:/pub/perl/comp.lang.perl/monthly has
    an almost complete collection dating back to 12/89 (missing 08/91
    through 12/93).  They are kept as one large file for each month.

    A more sophisticated query and retrieval mechanism is desirable.
    Preferably one that allows you to retrieve article using a fast-access
    indices, keyed on at least author, date, subject, thread (as in "trn")
    and probably keywords.  Right now, the MH pick command works for this,
    but it is very slow to select on 18000 articles.

    If you have, or know where I can find, the missing sections, please let
    [e-mail] know.


2.8) Is there a WAIS server for comp.lang.perl?

    Yes there is.  Set your WAIS client to
    archive.orst.edu:9000/comp.lang.perl.  According to their introduction,
    they have a complete selection from 1989 on.

    Bill Middleton <[e-mail]> offers this:

    "I have setup a perl script retrieval service and WaisSearch here at
    feenix.  To check it out, just point your gopher at us, and select the
    appropriate menu option.  The WaisSearch is of the iubio type, which
    means you can do boolean searching.  Thus you might try something
    like:

    caller
    ioctl and fcntl
    grep and socket not curses

    and other things to see examples of how other folks have done this
    or that.  This service is still under construction, but I'd like to
    get feedback, if you have some time.

    There's also a WaisSearch into all the RFC's and some other fairly
    nifty stuff."


2.9) What other sources of information about Perl or training are available?

    Johan Vromans* created an beautiful reference guide.  The reference
    guide comes with the Camel book in a nice, glossy format.  The LaTeX
    (source) and PostScript (ready to print) versions are available for FTP
    from ftp.cs.ruu.nl:/pub/DOC/perlref-4.036.1.tar.Z in Europe or from
    ftp.cis.ufl.edu:/pub/perl/doc/perlref-4.036.tar.gz in the United
    States.  Obsolete versions in TeX or troff may still be available, but
    these versions don't print as nicely.  See also:

        [] ftp://ftp.uu.net/languages/perl/perlref-4.036.1.tar.gz
        [] ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/DOC/perlref-4.036.1.tar.gz
        [] ftp://ftp.khoros.unm.edu/pub/perl/perlref-4.036.1.tar.gz

    Johan is working on an update to this document to include perl5
    functionality, which he hopes to release by Christmas 1994.

    There is a #Perl channel on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) where Tom and
    Randal have been known to hang out.  Here you can get immediate answers
    to questions from some of the most well-known Perl Hackers.

    The perl5-porters ([e-mail]) mailing list was created to
    aid in communication among the people working on perl5.  However, it
    has overgrown this function and now also handles a good deal of traffic
    about perl internals.

2.10) Where can I get training classes on Perl?

    USENIX, LISA, SUG, WCSAS, AUUG, FedUnix and Europen sponsor tutorials
    of varying lengths on Perl at the System Administration and General
    Conferences.  These public classes are typically taught by Tom
    Christiansen*.

    In part, Tom and Randal teach Perl to help keep bread on their tables
    long enough while they continue their pro bono efforts of documenting
    perl (Tom keeps writing more man pages for it :-) and expanding the
    perl toolkit through extension libraries, work which they enjoy doing
    as it's fun and helps out the whole world, but which really doesn't
    pay the bills.  Such is the nature of free(ly available) software.
    Send mail to <[e-mail]> for details and availability.

    Tom is also available to teach on-site classes, included courses on
    advanced perl and perl5.  Classes run anywhere from one day to week
    long sessions and cover a wide range of subject matter.  Classes can
    include lab time with exercises, a generally beneficial aspect.  If you
    would like more information regarding Perl classes or when the next
    public appearances are, please contact Tom directly.

    Randal Schwartz* provides a 2-day lecture-only and a 4-5 day lecture-lab
    course based on his popular book "Learning Perl".  For details, contact
    Randal directly via email or at 1.503.777.0095.

    Internet One provides a 2 day "Introduction to Perl"  and  2  day
    "Advanced Perl" workshop. The 50% hands-on and 50% lecture format
    allow attendees to write several programs  themselves.   Supplied
    are  the user manuals, reference copies of Larry Wall's "Program-
    ming Perl", and a UNIX directory of  all  training  examples  and
    labs. To obtain outlines, pricing, or scheduling information, use
    the following:

        o Phone: [phone]
        o Email: [e-mail]
        o See our Ad in the "SysAdmin" magazine
        o View the outlines via the Web: http://www.InternetOne.COM/


2.11) What companies use or ship Perl?

    At this time, the known list of companies that ship Perl includes at
    least the following, although some have snuck it into /usr/contrib or
    its moral equivalent:

    BSDI
    Comdisco Systems
    CONVEX Computer Corporation
    Crosspoint Solutions
    Dell
    DRD Corporation
    IBM (SP systems)
    Intergraph
    Kubota Pacific
    Netlabs
    SGI (without taintperl)
    Univel

    Furthermore, the following vendors are reported to begin shipping perl
    standard with their systems in the very near future:

    Sun

    Some companies ship it on their "User Contributed Software Tape",
    such as DEC and HP.  Apple Computer has shipped the MPW version of
    Macintosh Perl on one of their Developer CDs (Essentials*Tools*Objects
    #11) (and they included it under "Essentials" :-)

    Many other companies use Perl internally for purposes of tools
    development, systems administration, installation scripts, and test
    suites.  Rumor has it that the large workstation vendors (the TLA set)
    are seriously looking into shipping Perl with their standard systems
    "soon".

    People with support contracts with their vendors are actively
    encouraged to submit enhancement requests that Perl be shipped
    as part of their standard system.  It would, at the very least,
    reduce the FTP load on the Internet. :-)

    If you know of any others, please send them in.


2.12) Is there commercial, third-party support for Perl?

    Not really.  Although perl is included in the GNU distribution, at last
    check, Cygnus does not offer support for it.  However, it's unclear
    whether they've ever been offered sufficient financial incentive to do
    so.

    On the other hand, you do have comp.lang.perl as a totally gratis
    support mechanism.  As long as you ask "interesting" questions, you'll
    probably get plenty of help. :-)

    While some vendors do ship Perl with their platforms, that doesn't mean
    they support it on arbitrary other platforms.  And in fact, all they'll
    probably do is forward any bug reports on to Larry.  In practice, this
    is far better support than you could hope for from nearly any vendor.

    The companies who won't use something unless they can pay money for it
    will be left out.  Often they're motivated by wanting someone whom they
    could sue.  If all they want is someone to help them out with Perl
    problems, there's always the net.  And if they really want to pay
    someone for that help, well, Tom and Randal are always looking for a
    job. :-)

    If companies want "commercial support" for it badly enough, speak up --
    something might be able to be arranged.


2.13) What is a JAPH?  What does "Will hack perl for ..." mean?

    These are the "just another perl hacker" signatures that some people
    sign their postings with.  About 100 of the of the earlier ones are
    available from the various FTP sites.

    When people started running out of tricky and interesting JAPHs, some
    of them turned to writing "Will hack perl for ..." quotes.  While
    sometimes humourous, they just didn't have the flair of the JAPHs and
    have since almost completely vanished.

2.14) Where can I get a list of Larry Wall witticisms?

    Over a hundred quips by Larry, from postings of his or source code,
    can be found in many of the FTP sites or through the World Wide Web at
    "ftp://ftp.cis.ufl.edu/pub/perl/misc/lwall-quotes"


2.15) What are the known bugs?

    These apply to version 5 of perl.  See also: `What does "Malformed
    command links" mean?' for a version 4 bug.

       The README says it's a pre-release.
           Workaround: ignore this sentence.

       Installs perl0.000 and sperl0.000 instead of 5.000.
           Workaround: rename the files.

       The debugger appears to be broken on "my" variables;
           Workaround: none yet

       Recursive signal handlers eventually core dump.
           Workaround: ease up on the ^C key.

       The following code misbehaves: print ++$_ . "\n" until /0/;
           Workaround: initialize your variable

       Destructors can clobber $@ on exit from an eval
           Workaround: local $@; eval {...};


2.16) Where should I post bugs?

    The best place to send your bug is <[e-mail]>, which is
    currently just alias for <[e-mail]>.  You may subscribe
    to the list in the customary fashion via mail to
    <[e-mail]>.  Feel free to post your bugs to the
    comp.lang.perl newsgroup as well, but do make sure they still go to
    the mailing list.

    To enhance your chances of getting any bug you report fixed:

    1. Try to narrow the problem down to as small a piece of code as
       possible.  If you can get it down to 1 line of Perl then so much
       the better.

    2. Include a copy of the output from the myconfig script from the
       Perl source distribution in your posting.

2.17) Where should I post source code?

    You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate,
    but feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.  If you want to
    cross-post to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their
    posting standards, including setting the Followups-To header
    line to NOT include alt.sources; see their FAQ for details.


2.18) Where can I learn about object-oriented Perl programming?

    The perlobj(1) man page is a good place to start, and then you can
    check out the excellent perlbot(1) man page written by the dean of perl
    o-o himself, Dean Roehrich.  Areas covered include the following:

        Idx  Subsections in perlobj.1          Lines
         1   NAME                                  2
         2   DESCRIPTION                          16
         3   An Object is Simply a Reference      60
         4   A Class is Simply a Package          31
         5   A Method is Simply a Subroutine      34
         6   Method Invocation                    75
         7   Destructors                          14
         8   Summary                               7

        Idx  Subsections in perlbot.1          Lines
         1   NAME                                  2
         2   INTRODUCTION                          9
         3   Instance Variables                   43
         4   Scalar Instance Variables            21
         5   Instance Variable Inheritance        35
         6   Object Relationships                 33
         7   Overriding Superclass Methods        49
         8   Using Relationship with Sdbm         45
         9   Thinking of Code Reuse              111

    The section on instance variables should prove very helpful to those
    wondering how to get data inheritance in perl.


2.19) Where can I learn about linking C with Perl? [h2xs]

    While it used to be deep magic, how to do this is now revealed in the
    perlapi(1), perlguts(1), and perlcall(1) man pages, which treat with
    this matter extensively.


2.20) What is perl.com?

    Perl.com is just Tom's domain name, registered as dedicated to "Perl
    training and consulting".  While not a proper ftp site (he hasn't got
    the bandwidth (yet)), it does serve as a clearinghouse for certain
    perl related mailing list.  That means that you should always be able
    to get to Larry, Tom, or Randal through that host.  The following
    aliases work:

        perl-packrats:          The archivist list
          perl-porters:           The porters list
        perlbook:               The Camel/Llama/Alpaca writing committee
        perlbugs:               The bug list (perl-porters for now)
        perlclasses:            Info on Perl training
        perlfaq:                Submissions/Errata to the Perl FAQ
                                (Tom and Steve)
        perlrefguide:           Submissions/Errata to the Perl FAQ (Johan)

y
2.21) What do the asterisks (*) throughout the FAQ stand for?

    To keep from cluttering up the FAQ and for easy reference all email
    addresses have been collected in this location.  For each person
    listed, I offer my thanks for their input and help.

    * Larry Wall        <[e-mail]>
    * Tom Christiansen        <[e-mail]>
    * Stephen P Potter        <[e-mail]>
    * Andreas Koenig        <[e-mail]>
    * Bill Eldridge        <[e-mail]>
    * Buzz Moschetti        <[e-mail]>
    * Casper H.S. Dik        <[e-mail]>
    * David Muir Sharnoff   <[e-mail]>
    * Dean Roehrich         <[e-mail]>
    * Dominic Giampaolo     <[e-mail]>,
    * Frederic Chauveau     <[e-mail]>
    * Gene Spafford         <[e-mail]>
    * Guido van Rossum        <[e-mail]>
    * Henk P Penning        <[e-mail]>
    * Jeff Friedl        <[e-mail]>
    * Johan Vromans        <[e-mail]>
    * John Dallman        <[e-mail]>
    * John Lees            <[e-mail]>
    * John Ousterhout        <[e-mail]>
    * Jon Biggar        <[e-mail]>
    * Malcolm Beattie        <[e-mail]>
    * Michael D'Errico        <[e-mail]>
    * Randal Schwartz        <[e-mail]>
    * Roberto Salama        <[e-mail]>
    * Steven L Kunz        <[e-mail]>
    * Theodore C. Law        <[e-mail]>
    * Thomas R. Kimpton        <[e-mail]>
    * Timothy Murphy        <[e-mail]>
Stephen P Potter        [e-mail]        Varimetrix Corporation
2350 Commerce Park Drive, Suite 4                Palm Bay, FL 32905
[phone]                           CAD/CAM/CAE/Software