500 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
500 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
=head1 NAME
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perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.25 $, $Date: 1998/08/05 11:47:25 $)
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=head1 DESCRIPTION
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This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find
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source and documentation for Perl, support, and
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related matters.
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=head2 What machines support Perl? Where do I get it?
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The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the perl
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development team) is distributed only in source code form. You
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can find this at http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/latest.tar.gz, which
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in standard Internet format (a gzipped archive in POSIX tar format).
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Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually
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all known and current Unix derivatives are supported (Perl's native
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platform), as are proprietary systems like VMS, DOS, OS/2, Windows,
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QNX, BeOS, and the Amiga. There are also the beginnings of support
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for MPE/iX.
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Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms, including
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Apple systems can be found http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/ directory.
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Because these are not part of the standard distribution, they may
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and in fact do differ from the base Perl port in a variety of ways.
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You'll have to check their respective release notes to see just
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what the differences are. These differences can be either positive
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(e.g. extensions for the features of the particular platform that
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are not supported in the source release of perl) or negative (e.g.
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might be based upon a less current source release of perl).
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A useful FAQ for Win32 Perl users is
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http://www.endcontsw.com/people/evangelo/Perl_for_Win32_FAQ.html
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=head2 How can I get a binary version of Perl?
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If you don't have a C compiler because for whatever reasons your
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vendor did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is
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grab a binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl
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with. CPAN only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to
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get free compilers for, not for Unix systems.
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Your first stop should be http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports to see what
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information is already available. A simple installation guide for
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MS-DOS is available at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~piet/perl5dos.html , and
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similarly for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~piet/perlwin3.html
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.
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=head2 I don't have a C compiler on my system. How can I compile perl?
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Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor
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should be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you.
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What you need to do is get a binary version of gcc for your system
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first. Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for
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information on where to get such a binary version.
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=head2 I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work.
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That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ.
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You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will
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eventually live on, and then type C<make install>. Most other
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approaches are doomed to failure.
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One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out
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the hard-coded @INC which perl is looking for.
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perl -e 'print join("\n",@INC)'
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If this command lists any paths which don't exist on your system, then you
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may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create
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symlinks, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately.
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You might also want to check out L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own
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module/library directory?">.
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=head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work?
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Read the F<INSTALL> file, which is part of the source distribution.
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It describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncracies that the
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Configure script can't work around for any given system or
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architecture.
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=head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean?
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CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a huge archive
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replicated on dozens of machines all over the world. CPAN contains
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source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many
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third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from
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commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web
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walking and CGI scripts. The master machine for CPAN is
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ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/, but you can use the
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address http://www.perl.com/CPAN/CPAN.html to fetch a copy from a
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"site near you". See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the
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end) for how this process works.
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CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN
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sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the
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rest of the path is the path from that directory to the file. For
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instance, if you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN
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as your CPAN site, the file CPAN/misc/japh file is downloadable as
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ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh .
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Considering that there are hundreds of existing modules in the
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archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of.
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Current categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ include perl core
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modules; development support; operating system interfaces; networking,
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devices, and interprocess communication; data type utilities; database
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interfaces; user interfaces; interfaces to other languages; filenames,
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file systems, and file locking; internationalization and locale; world
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wide web support; server and daemon utilities; archiving and
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compression; image manipulation; mail and news; control flow
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utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft Windows modules; and
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miscellaneous modules.
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=head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl?
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Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is.
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=head2 Where can I get information on Perl?
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The complete Perl documentation is available with the perl distribution.
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If you have perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation
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installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a system resembling Unix.
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This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your
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$MANPATH. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation
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will be different; for example, it might be only in HTML format. But all
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proper perl installations have fully-accessible documentation.
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You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system doesn't
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have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't
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work, try looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation.
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If all else fails, consult the CPAN/doc directory, which contains the
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complete documentation in various formats, including native pod,
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troff, html, and plain text. There's also a web page at
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http://www.perl.com/perl/info/documentation.html that might help.
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Many good books have been written about Perl -- see the section below
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for more details.
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=head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on USENET? Where do I post questions?
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The now defunct comp.lang.perl newsgroup has been superseded by the
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following groups:
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comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group
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comp.lang.perl.misc Very busy group about Perl in general
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comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group
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comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules
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comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl
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comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web.
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Actually, the moderated group hasn't passed yet, but we're
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keeping our fingers crossed.
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There is also USENET gateway to the mailing list used by the crack
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Perl development team (perl5-porters) at
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news://news.perl.com/perl.porters-gw/ .
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=head2 Where should I post source code?
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You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate,
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but feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to
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cross-post to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting
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standards, including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT
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include alt.sources; see their FAQ for details.
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If you're just looking for software, first use Alta Vista, Deja News, and
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search CPAN. This is faster and more productive than just posting
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a request.
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=head2 Perl Books
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A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few of
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these are good, some are ok, but many aren't worth your money. Tom
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Christiansen maintains a list of these books, some with extensive
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reviews, at http://www.perl.com/perl/critiques/index.html.
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The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by
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the creator of Perl, is now in its second edition:
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Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"):
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Authors: Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal Schwartz
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ISBN 1-56592-149-6 (English)
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ISBN 4-89052-384-7 (Japanese)
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URL: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl2/
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(French, German, Italian, and Hungarian translations also
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available)
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The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands
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of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs
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(first premiering at the 1998 Perl Conference), is:
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The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"):
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Authors: Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
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with Foreword by Larry Wall
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ISBN: 1-56592-243-3
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URL: http://perl.oreilly.com/cookbook/
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If you're already a hard-core systems programmer, then the Camel Book
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might suffice for you to learn Perl from. But if you're not, check
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out:
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Learning Perl (the "Llama Book"):
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Authors: Randal Schwartz and Tom Christiansen
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with Foreword by Larry Wall
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ISBN: 1-56592-284-0
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URL: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/
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Despite the picture at the URL above, the second edition of "Llama
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Book" really has a blue cover, and is updated for the 5.004 release
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of Perl. Various foreign language editions are available, including
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I<Learning Perl on Win32 Systems> (the Gecko Book).
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If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and possibly
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even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much hand-holding as
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we try to provide in the Llama or its defurred cousin the Gecko, please
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check out the delightful book, I<Perl: The Programmer's Companion>,
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written by Nigel Chapman.
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You can order O'Reilly books directly from O'Reilly & Associates,
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1-800-998-9938. Local/overseas is 1-707-829-0515. If you can
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locate an O'Reilly order form, you can also fax to 1-707-829-0104.
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See http://www.ora.com/ on the Web.
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What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally
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useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary.
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Recommended books on (or muchly on) Perl follow; those marked with
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a star may be ordered from O'Reilly.
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=over
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=item References
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*Programming Perl
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by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal L. Schwartz
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*Perl 5 Desktop Reference
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By Johan Vromans
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=item Tutorials
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*Learning Perl [2nd edition]
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by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen
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with foreword by Larry Wall
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*Learning Perl on Win32 Systems
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by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
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with foreword by Larry Wall
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Perl: The Programmer's Companion
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by Nigel Chapman
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Cross-Platform Perl
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by Eric F. Johnson
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MacPerl: Power and Ease
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by Vicki Brown and Chris Nandor, foreword by Matthias Neeracher
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=item Task-Oriented
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*The Perl Cookbook
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by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington
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with foreword by Larry Wall
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Perl5 Interactive Course [2nd edition]
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by Jon Orwant
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*Advanced Perl Programming
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by Sriram Srinivasan
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Effective Perl Programming
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by Joseph Hall
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=item Special Topics
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*Mastering Regular Expressions
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by Jeffrey Friedl
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How to Set up and Maintain a World Wide Web Site [2nd edition]
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by Lincoln Stein
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=back
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=head2 Perl in Magazines
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The first and only periodical devoted to All Things Perl, I<The
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Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies,
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announcements, contests, and much more. TPJ has columns on web
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development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular
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expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl
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Contest. It is published quarterly under the gentle hand of its
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editor, Jon Orwant. See http://www.tpj.com/ or send mail to
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subscriptions@tpj.com.
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Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry high-quality articles
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on Perl are I<Web Techniques> (see http://www.webtechniques.com/),
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I<Performance Computing> (http://www.performance-computing.com/), and Usenix's
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newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:>, at http://www.usenix.org/.
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Randal's Web Technique's columns are available on the web at
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http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/.
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=head2 Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access
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To get the best (and possibly cheapest) performance, pick a site from
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the list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites.
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From there you can find the quickest site for you. Remember, the
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following list is I<not> the complete list of CPAN mirrors.
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http://www.perl.com/CPAN (redirects to another mirror)
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http://www.perl.org/CPAN
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ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
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http://www.cs.ruu.nl/pub/PERL/CPAN/
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ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/
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=head2 What mailing lists are there for perl?
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Most of the major modules (tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own
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mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for
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subscription information. The following are a list of mailing lists
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related to perl itself.
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If you subscribe to a mailing list, it behooves you to know how to
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unsubscribe from it. Strident pleas to the list itself to get you off
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will not be favorably received.
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=over 4
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=item MacPerl
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There is a mailing list for discussing Macintosh Perl. Contact
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"mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch".
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Also see Matthias Neeracher's (the creator and maintainer of MacPerl)
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webpage at http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri/macintosh/perl.html for
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many links to interesting MacPerl sites, and the applications/MPW
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tools, precompiled.
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=item Perl5-Porters
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The core development team have a mailing list for discussing fixes and
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changes to the language. Send mail to
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"perl5-porters-request@perl.org" with help in the body of the message
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for information on subscribing.
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=item NTPerl
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This list is used to discuss issues involving Win32 Perl 5 (Windows NT
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and Win95). Subscribe by mailing ListManager@ActiveWare.com with the
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message body:
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subscribe Perl-Win32-Users
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The list software, also written in perl, will automatically determine
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your address, and subscribe you automatically. To unsubscribe, mail
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the following in the message body to the same address like so:
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unsubscribe Perl-Win32-Users
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You can also check http://www.activeware.com/ and select "Mailing Lists"
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to join or leave this list.
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=item Perl-Packrats
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Discussion related to archiving of perl materials, particularly the
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Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Subscribe by emailing
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majordomo@cis.ufl.edu:
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subscribe perl-packrats
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The list software, also written in perl, will automatically determine
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your address, and subscribe you automatically. To unsubscribe, simple
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prepend the same command with an "un", and mail to the same address
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like so:
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unsubscribe perl-packrats
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=back
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=head2 Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc
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Have you tried Deja News or Alta Vista?
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ftp.cis.ufl.edu:/pub/perl/comp.lang.perl.*/monthly has an almost
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complete collection dating back to 12/89 (missing 08/91 through
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12/93). They are kept as one large file for each month.
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You'll probably want more a sophisticated query and retrieval mechanism
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than a file listing, preferably one that allows you to retrieve
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articles using a fast-access indices, keyed on at least author, date,
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subject, thread (as in "trn") and probably keywords. The best
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solution the FAQ authors know of is the MH pick command, but it is
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very slow to select on 18000 articles.
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If you have, or know where can be found, the missing sections, please
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let perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com know.
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=head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?
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In a sense, Perl already I<is> commercial software: It has a licence
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that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is
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distributed in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a
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very large user community and an extensive literature. The
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comp.lang.perl.* newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide
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free answers to your questions in near real-time. Perl has
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traditionally been supported by Larry, dozens of software designers
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and developers, and thousands of programmers, all working for free
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to create a useful thing to make life better for everyone.
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However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a
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purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go
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wrong. Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual
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obligations. Shrink-wrapped CDs with perl on them are available from
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several sources if that will help.
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Or you can purchase a real support contract. Although Cygnus historically
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provided this service, they no longer sell support contracts for Perl.
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Instead, the Paul Ingram Group will be taking up the slack through The
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Perl Clinic. The following is a commercial from them:
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"Do you need professional support for Perl and/or Oraperl? Do you need
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a support contract with defined levels of service? Do you want to pay
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only for what you need?
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"The Paul Ingram Group has provided quality software development and
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support services to some of the world's largest corporations for ten
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years. We are now offering the same quality support services for Perl
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at The Perl Clinic. This service is led by Tim Bunce, an active perl
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porter since 1994 and well known as the author and maintainer of the
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DBI, DBD::Oracle, and Oraperl modules and author/co-maintainer of The
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Perl 5 Module List. We also offer Oracle users support for Perl5
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Oraperl and related modules (which Oracle is planning to ship as part
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of Oracle Web Server 3). 20% of the profit from our Perl support work
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will be donated to The Perl Institute."
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For more information, contact the The Perl Clinic:
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Tel: +44 1483 424424
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Fax: +44 1483 419419
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Web: http://www.perl.co.uk/
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Email: perl-support-info@perl.co.uk or Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk
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See also www.perl.com for updates on training and support.
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=head2 Where do I send bug reports?
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If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules
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shipped with perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the perl distribution or
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mail your report to perlbug@perl.com.
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If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to
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"What platforms is Perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a
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non-standard module (such as Tk, CGI, etc), then please see the
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documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post
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bugs.
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Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information.
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=head2 What is perl.com? perl.org? The Perl Institute?
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The perl.com domain is managed by Tom Christiansen, who created it as a
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public service long before perl.org came about. Despite the name, it's a
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pretty non-commercial site meant to be a clearinghouse for information
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about all things Perlian, accepting no paid advertisements, bouncy
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happy gifs, or silly java applets on its pages. The Perl Home Page at
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http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted on a T3 line courtesy of Songline
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Systems, a software-oriented subsidiary of O'Reilly and Associates.
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perl.org is the official vehicle for The Perl Institute. The motto of
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TPI is "helping people help Perl help people" (or something like
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that). It's a non-profit organization supporting development,
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documentation, and dissemination of perl.
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=head2 How do I learn about object-oriented Perl programming?
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L<perltoot> (distributed with 5.004 or later) is a good place to start.
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Also, L<perlobj>, L<perlref>, and L<perlmod> are useful references,
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while L<perlbot> has some excellent tips and tricks.
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=head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
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Copyright (c) 1997, 1998 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
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All rights reserved.
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When included as an integrated part of the Standard Distribution
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of Perl or of its documentation (printed or otherwise), this works is
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covered under Perl's Artistic Licence. For separate distributions of
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all or part of this FAQ outside of that, see L<perlfaq>.
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Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are public
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domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any
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derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you
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see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would
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be courteous but is not required.
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