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diff --git a/contrib/perl5/pod/perlfaq2.pod b/contrib/perl5/pod/perlfaq2.pod deleted file mode 100644 index aecc1fc..0000000 --- a/contrib/perl5/pod/perlfaq2.pod +++ /dev/null @@ -1,532 +0,0 @@ -=head1 NAME - -perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.32 $, $Date: 1999/10/14 18:46:09 $) - -=head1 DESCRIPTION - -This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find -source and documentation for Perl, support, and -related matters. - -=head2 What machines support Perl? Where do I get it? - -The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the perl -development team) is distributed only in source code form. You -can find this at http://www.cpan.org/src/latest.tar.gz , which -is in a standard Internet format (a gzipped archive in POSIX tar format). - -Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually -all known and current Unix derivatives are supported (Perl's native -platform), as are other systems like VMS, DOS, OS/2, Windows, -QNX, BeOS, OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga. - -Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms, including -Apple systems, can be found http://www.cpan.org/ports/ directory. -Because these are not part of the standard distribution, they may -and in fact do differ from the base Perl port in a variety of ways. -You'll have to check their respective release notes to see just -what the differences are. These differences can be either positive -(e.g. extensions for the features of the particular platform that -are not supported in the source release of perl) or negative (e.g. -might be based upon a less current source release of perl). - -=head2 How can I get a binary version of Perl? - -If you don't have a C compiler because your vendor for whatever -reasons did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is -grab a binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl -with. CPAN only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to -get free compilers for, not for Unix systems. - -Some URLs that might help you are: - - http://www.cpan.org/ports/ - http://language.perl.com/info/software.html - -Someone looking for a Perl for Win16 might look to Laszlo Molnar's djgpp -port in http://www.cpan.org/ports/#msdos , which comes with clear -installation instructions. A simple installation guide for MS-DOS using -Ilya Zakharevich's OS/2 port is available at -http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perl5dos.html -and similarly for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perlwin3.html . - -=head2 I don't have a C compiler on my system. How can I compile perl? - -Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor -should be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you. - -What you need to do is get a binary version of gcc for your system -first. Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for -information on where to get such a binary version. - -=head2 I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work. - -That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ. -You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will -eventually live on, and then type C<make install>. Most other -approaches are doomed to failure. - -One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out -the hard-coded @INC that perl looks through for libraries: - - % perl -e 'print join("\n",@INC)' - -If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you -may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create -symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. @INC is also printed as -part of the output of - - % perl -V - -You might also want to check out -L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own module/library directory?">. - -=head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work? - -Read the F<INSTALL> file, which is part of the source distribution. -It describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncrasies that the -Configure script can't work around for any given system or -architecture. - -=head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean? - -CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a ~700mb archive -replicated on nearly 200 machines all over the world. CPAN contains -source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many -third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from -commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web -walking and CGI scripts. The master web site for CPAN is -http://www.cpan.org/ and there is the CPAN Multiplexer at -http://www.perl.com/CPAN/CPAN.html which will choose a mirror near you -via DNS. See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the -end) for how this process works. Also, http://mirror.cpan.org/ -has a nice interface to the http://www.cpan.org/MIRRORED.BY -mirror directory. - -See the CPAN FAQ at http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html for -answers to the most frequently asked questions about CPAN -including how to become a mirror. - -CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN -sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the -rest of the path is the path from that directory to the file. For -instance, if you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN -as your CPAN site, the file CPAN/misc/japh is downloadable as -ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh . - -Considering that there are close to two thousand existing modules in -the archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of. -Current categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ include Perl core -modules; development support; operating system interfaces; networking, -devices, and interprocess communication; data type utilities; database -interfaces; user interfaces; interfaces to other languages; filenames, -file systems, and file locking; internationalization and locale; world -wide web support; server and daemon utilities; archiving and -compression; image manipulation; mail and news; control flow -utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft Windows modules; and -miscellaneous modules. - -See http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html or -http://search.cpan.org/ for a more complete list of modules by category. - - -=head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl? - -Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is. - -=head2 Where can I get information on Perl? - -The complete Perl documentation is available with the Perl distribution. -If you have Perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation -installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a system resembling Unix. -This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your -$MANPATH. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation -will be different; for example, documentation might only be in HTML format. All -proper Perl installations have fully-accessible documentation. - -You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system doesn't -have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't -work, try looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation. - -If all else fails, consult http://perldoc.cpan.org/ or -http://www.perldoc.com/ both offer the complete documentation -in html format. - -Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section below -for more details. - -Tutorial documents are included in current or upcoming Perl releases -include L<perltoot> for objects or L<perlboot> for a beginner's -approach to objects, L<perlopentut> for file opening semantics, -L<perlreftut> for managing references, L<perlretut> for regular -expressions, L<perlthrtut> for threads, L<perldebtut> for debugging, -and L<perlxstut> for linking C and Perl together. There may be more -by the time you read this. The following URLs might also be of -assistance: - - http://perldoc.cpan.org/ - http://www.perldoc.com/ - http://reference.perl.com/query.cgi?tutorials - http://bookmarks.cpan.org/search.cgi?cat=Training%2FTutorials - -=head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions? - -The now defunct comp.lang.perl newsgroup has been superseded by the -following groups: - - comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group - comp.lang.perl.misc Very busy group about Perl in general - comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group - comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules - comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl - - comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web. - -There is also Usenet gateway to the mailing list used by the crack -Perl development team (perl5-porters) at -news://news.perl.com/perl.porters-gw/ . - -=head2 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.misc. If you want to cross-post -to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards, -including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT include alt.sources; -see their FAQ (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-sources-intro/) for details. - -If you're just looking for software, first use Google -(http://www.google.com), Deja (http://www.deja.com), and -CPAN Search (http://search.cpan.org). This is faster and more -productive than just posting a request. - -=head2 Perl Books - -A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few of -these are good, some are OK, but many aren't worth your money. Tom -Christiansen maintains a list of these books, some with extensive -reviews, at http://www.perl.com/perl/critiques/index.html . - -The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by -the creator of Perl, is now (July 2000) in its third edition: - - Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"): - by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant - 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000] - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ - (English, translations to several languages are also available) - -The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands -of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs is: - - The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"): - by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington, - with Foreword by Larry Wall - ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st Edition August 1998] - http://perl.oreilly.com/cookbook/ - -If you're already a hard-core systems programmer, then the Camel Book -might suffice for you to learn Perl from. If you're not, check out - - Learning Perl (the "Llama Book"): - by Randal Schwartz and Tom Christiansen - with Foreword by Larry Wall - ISBN 1-56592-284-0 [2nd Edition July 1997] - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/ - -Despite the picture at the URL above, the second edition of "Llama -Book" really has a blue cover and was updated for the 5.004 release -of Perl. Various foreign language editions are available, including -I<Learning Perl on Win32 Systems> (the "Gecko Book"). - -If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and possibly -even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much hand-holding as -we try to provide in the Llama or its defurred cousin the Gecko, please -check out the delightful book, I<Perl: The Programmer's Companion>, -written by Nigel Chapman. - -Addison-Wesley (http://www.awlonline.com/) and Manning -(http://www.manning.com/) are also publishers of some fine Perl books -such as Object Oriented Programming with Perl by Damian Conway and -Network Programming with Perl by Lincoln Stein. - -An excellent technical book discounter is Bookpool at -http://www.bookpool.com/ where a 30% discount or more is not unusual. - -What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally -useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary. - -Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow. - -=over 4 - -=item References - - Programming Perl - by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant - ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000] - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ - - Perl 5 Pocket Reference - by Johan Vromans - ISBN 0-596-00032-4 [3rd edition May 2000] - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr3/ - - Perl in a Nutshell - by Ellen Siever, Stephan Spainhour, and Nathan Patwardhan - ISBN 1-56592-286-7 [1st edition December 1998] - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlnut/ - -=item Tutorials - - Elements of Programming with Perl - by Andrew L. Johnson - ISBN 1884777805 [1st edition October 1999] - http://www.manning.com/Johnson/ - - Learning Perl - by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen - with foreword by Larry Wall - ISBN 1-56592-284-0 [2nd edition July 1997] - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/ - - Learning Perl on Win32 Systems - by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen, - with foreword by Larry Wall - ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997] - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/ - - Perl: The Programmer's Companion - by Nigel Chapman - ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1st edition October 1997] - http://catalog.wiley.com/title.cgi?isbn=047197563X - - Cross-Platform Perl - by Eric Foster-Johnson - ISBN 1-55851-483-X [2nd edition September 2000] - http://www.pconline.com/~erc/perlbook.htm - - MacPerl: Power and Ease - by Vicki Brown and Chris Nandor, - with foreword by Matthias Neeracher - ISBN 1-881957-32-2 [1st edition May 1998] - http://www.macperl.com/ptf_book/ - -=item Task-Oriented - - The Perl Cookbook - by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington - with foreword by Larry Wall - ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998] - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/ - - Effective Perl Programming - by Joseph Hall - ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998] - http://www.awl.com/ - - -=item Special Topics - - Mastering Regular Expressions - by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl - ISBN 1-56592-257-3 [1st edition January 1997] - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/ - - Network Programming with Perl - by Lincoln Stein - ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001] - http://www.awlonline.com/ - - Object Oriented Perl - Damian Conway - with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz - ISBN 1884777791 [1st edition August 1999] - http://www.manning.com/Conway/ - - Data Munging with Perl - Dave Cross - ISBN 1930110006 [1st edition 2001] - http://www.manning.com/cross - - Learning Perl/Tk - by Nancy Walsh - ISBN 1-56592-314-6 [1st edition January 1999] - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperltk/ - -=back - -=head2 Perl in Magazines - -The first and only periodical devoted to All Things Perl, I<The -Perl Journal> contained tutorials, demonstrations, case studies, -announcements, contests, and much more. I<TPJ> had columns on web -development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular -expressions, and networking, and sponsored the Obfuscated Perl -Contest. Sadly, this publication is no longer in circulation, but -should it be resurrected, it will most likely be announced on -http://use.perl.org/ . - -Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry high-quality articles -on Perl are I<Web Techniques> (see http://www.webtechniques.com/), -I<Performance Computing> (http://www.performance-computing.com/), and Usenix's -newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:>, at http://www.usenix.org/. -Randal's Web Technique's columns are available on the web at -http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ . - -=head2 Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access - -To get the best performance, pick a site from -the list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites -which is at /CPAN/MIRRORED.BY or at http://mirror.cpan.org/. -From there you can find the quickest site for you. Remember, the -following list is I<not> the complete list of CPAN mirrors -(the complete list contains 165 sites as of January 2001): - - http://www.cpan.org/ - http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ - http://download.sourceforge.net/mirrors/CPAN/ - ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/plan/perl/CPAN/ - ftp://ftp.flirble.org/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/ - ftp://ftp.uvsq.fr/pub/perl/CPAN/ - ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/ - ftp://ftp.dti.ad.jp/pub/lang/CPAN/ - ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/perl/CPAN/ - ftp://cpan.if.usp.br/pub/mirror/CPAN/ - -One may also use xx.cpan.org where "xx" is the 2-letter country code -for your domain; e.g. Australia would use au.cpan.org. - -=head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl? - -Most of the major modules (Tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own -mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for -subscription information. - - http://lists.cpan.org/ - -=head2 Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc - -Have you tried Deja or AltaVista? Those are the -best archives. Just look up "*perl*" as a newsgroup. - - http://www.deja.com/dnquery.xp?QRY=&DBS=2&ST=PS&defaultOp=AND&LNG=ALL&format=terse&showsort=date&maxhits=25&subjects=&groups=*perl*&authors=&fromdate=&todate= - -You might want to trim that down a bit, though. - -You'll probably want more a sophisticated query and retrieval mechanism -than a file listing, preferably one that allows you to retrieve -articles using a fast-access indices, keyed on at least author, date, -subject, thread (as in "trn") and probably keywords. The best -solution the FAQ authors know of is the MH pick command, but it is -very slow to select on 18000 articles. - -If you have, or know where can be found, the missing sections, please -let perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com know. - -=head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl? - -In a real sense, Perl already I<is> commercial software: it has a license -that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed -in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large -user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.* -newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your -questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by -Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriads of -programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life -better for everyone. - -However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a -purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry. -Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations. -Shrink-wrapped CDs with Perl on them are available from several sources if -that will help. For example, many Perl books include a distribution of Perl, -as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor -and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix distributions -also all come with Perl. - -Alternatively, you can purchase commercial incidence based support -through the Perl Clinic. The following is a commercial from them: - -"The Perl Clinic is a commercial Perl support service operated by -ActiveState Tool Corp. and The Ingram Group. The operators have many -years of in-depth experience with Perl applications and Perl internals -on a wide range of platforms. - -"Through our group of highly experienced and well-trained support engineers, -we will put our best effort into understanding your problem, providing an -explanation of the situation, and a recommendation on how to proceed." - -Contact The Perl Clinic at - - www.PerlClinic.com - - North America Pacific Standard Time (GMT-8) - Tel: 1 604 606-4611 hours 8am-6pm - Fax: 1 604 606-4640 - - Europe (GMT) - Tel: 00 44 1483 862814 - Fax: 00 44 1483 862801 - -See also www.perl.com for updates on tutorials, training, and support. - -=head2 Where do I send bug reports? - -If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules -shipped with Perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the Perl distribution or -mail your report to perlbug@perl.org . - -If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to -"What platforms is Perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a -non-standard module (such as Tk, CGI, etc), then please see the -documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post -bugs. - -Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information. - -=head2 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? - -The Perl Home Page at http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted on a -T3 line courtesy of Songline Systems, a software-oriented subsidiary of -O'Reilly and Associates. Other starting points include - - http://language.perl.com/ - http://conference.perl.com/ - http://reference.perl.com/ - -Perl Mongers is an advocacy organization for the Perl language which -maintains the web site http://www.perl.org/ as a general advocacy -site for the Perl language. - -Perl Mongers uses the pm.org domain for services related to Perl user -groups, including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites. See the -Perl user group web site at http://www.pm.org/ for more information about -joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl user group. - -Perl Mongers also maintain the perl.org domain to provide general -support services to the Perl community, including the hosting of mailing -lists, web sites, and other services. The web site -http://www.perl.org/ is a general advocacy site for the Perl language, -and there are many other sub-domains for special topics, such as - - http://bugs.perl.org/ - http://history.perl.org/ - http://lists.perl.org/ - http://news.perl.org/ - http://use.perl.org/ - -=head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT - -Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. -All rights reserved. - -When included as an integrated part of the Standard Distribution -of Perl or of its documentation (printed or otherwise), this works is -covered under Perl's Artistic License. For separate distributions of -all or part of this FAQ outside of that, see L<perlfaq>. - -Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public -domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any -derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you -see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would -be courteous but is not required. |
