Path: usenet.cise.ufl.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!news.stetson.edu!news-w.ans.net!newsfeeds.ans.net!philabs!blanket.mitre.org!news.mathworks.com!howland.erols.net!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!uunet!in1.uu.net!128.138.243.15!csnews!not-for-mail From: Tom Christiansen Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.perl.announce Subject: Re: Perl FAQ part 0 of 0..9: Overview [Periodic Posting] Supersedes: <5g4pcj$f0g$1@csnews.cs.colorado.edu> Followup-To: comp.lang.perl.misc Date: 17 Mar 1997 22:49:59 GMT Organization: Perl Consulting and Training Lines: 129 Approved: tchrist@mox.perl.com (per merlyn@stonehenge.com) Expires: Tue, 1 Apr 1997 12:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <5gkhqn$bfq$2@csnews.cs.colorado.edu> Reply-To: tchrist@mox.perl.com (Tom Christiansen) NNTP-Posting-Host: perl.com X-Newsposter: Pnews 4.0-test52 (20 Jan 97) Originator: tchrist@perl.com (Tom Christiansen) Xref: usenet.cise.ufl.edu comp.lang.perl.misc:21273 comp.lang.perl.announce:133 NAME perlfaq - frequently asked questions about Perl ($Date: 1997/03/17 22:17:56 $) DESCRIPTION This document is structured into the following sections: perlfaq: Structural overview of the FAQ. This document. the perlfaq1 manpage: General Questions About Perl Very general, high-level information about Perl. the perlfaq2 manpage: Obtaining and Learning about Perl Where to find source and documentation to Perl, support and training, and related matters. the perlfaq3 manpage: Programming Tools Programmer tools and programming support. the perlfaq4 manpage: Data Manipulation Manipulating numbers, dates, strings, arrays, hashes, and miscellaneous data issues. the perlfaq5 manpage: Files and Formats I/O and the "f" issues: filehandles, flushing, formats and footers. the perlfaq6 manpage: Regexps Pattern matching and regular expressions. the perlfaq7 manpage: General Perl Language Issues General Perl language issues that don't clearly fit into any of the other sections. the perlfaq8 manpage: System Interaction Interprocess communication (IPC), control over the user- interface (keyboard, screen and pointing devices). the perlfaq9 manpage: Networking Networking, the Internet, and a few on the web. Where to get this document This document is posted regularly to comp.lang.perl.announce and several other related newsgroups. It is available in a variety of formats from CPAN in the /CPAN/doc/FAQs/FAQ/ directory, or on the web at http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/ . How to contribute to this document You may mail corrections, additions, and suggestions to perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com. Mail sent to the old perlfaq alias will merely cause the FAQ to be sent to you. What will happen if you mail your Perl programming problems to the authors Your questions will probably go unread, unless they're suggestions of new questions to add to the FAQ, in which case they should have gone to the perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com instead. You should have read section 2 of this faq. There you would have learned that comp.lang.perl.misc is the appropriate place to go for free advice. If your question is really important and you require a prompt and correct answer, you should hire a consultant. Credits When I first began the Perl FAQ in the late 80s, I never realized it would have grown to over a hundred pages, nor that Perl would ever become so popular and widespread. This document could not have been written without the tremendous help provided by Larry Wall and the rest of the Perl Porters. Author and Copyright Information Copyright (c) 1997 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. All rights reserved. Non-commercial Reproduction Permission is granted to distribute this document, in part or in full, via electronic means or printed copy providing that (1) that all credits and copyright notices be retained, (2) that no charges beyond reproduction be involved, and (3) that a reasonable attempt be made to use the most current version available. Furthermore, you may include this document in any distribution of the full Perl source or binaries, in its verbatim documentation, or on a complete dump of the CPAN archive, providing that the three stipulations given above continue to be met. Commercial Reproduction Requests for all other distribution rights, including the incorporation in part or in full of this text or its code into commercial products such as but not limited to books, magazine articles, or CD-ROMs, must be made to perlfaq-legal@perl.com. Any commercial use of any portion of this document without prior written authorization by its authors will be subject to appropriate action. Disclaimer This information is offered in good faith and in the hope that it may be of use, but is not guaranteed to be correct, up to date, or suitable for any particular purpose whatsoever. The authors accept no liability in respect of this information or its use. Changes 17/March/97 Version Various typos fixed throughout. Added new question on Perl BNF on the perlfaq7 manpage. Initial Release: 11/March/97 This is the initial release of version 3 of the FAQ; consequently there have been no changes since its initial release. -- Tom Christiansen tchrist@jhereg.perl.com "Lisp has all the visual appeal of oatmeal with fingernail clippings mixed in." --Larry Wall in <1994Jul21.173737.16853@netlabs.com>