How Perl Powers Christmas
We've had some fantastic Perl Success Stories in the past, but this one tops them all: How Perl is used in the distribution of millions of Christmas presents every year. [Dec 18, 2002]
Why I Hate Advocacy
Are you an effective Perl advocate? Mark Dominus explains why you might be advocating Perl the wrong way. [Dec 12, 2000]
Ten Perl Myths
Ten things that people like to say about Perl that aren't true.
[Feb 23, 2000]
Sins of Perl Revisited
Tom Christiansen published the original seven sins in 1996. Where are we now? [Nov 30, 1999]
White Camel Awards to be Presented at O'Reilly's Perl Conference 3.0
The White Camel awards will be presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to Perl Advocacy, Perl User Groups, and the Perl Community at O'Reilly's Perl onference 3.0 on August 24, 1999. [Jun 28, 1999]
Perl vs. Python
A comparison of Perl and Python by Tom. [Dec 1, 1996]
A Chromosome at a Time with Perl, Part 1
If you're a Perl programmer working in the field of bioinformatics, James Tisdall offers a handful of tricks that will enable you to write code for dealing with large amounts of biological sequence data--in this case, very long strings--while still getting satisfactory speed from the program. James is the author of O'Reilly's upcoming Mastering Perl for Bioinformatics.
[Sep 11, 2003]
Beginning Bioinformatics
James Tisdall's new book is great for biochemists eager to get
into the bioinformatics world, but what about us Perl programmers?
In this article, we turn the tables, and ask what your average Perl programmer
needs to know to get into this exciting new growth area. [Jan 2, 2002]
Genomic Perl
After James Tisdall's "Beginning Perl for Bioinformaticists", has Rex Dwyer come up with a "Beginning Bioinformatics for Perl Programmers"? Simon Cozens reviews "Genomic Perl", with some anticipation... [Feb 27, 2003]
Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason
HTML::Mason is my favourite toolkit for building pages out of Perl-based components: can Dave Rolsky and Ken Williams do it justice in their new book? I take a look at "Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason" and find it a mixed bag... [Jan 30, 2003]
Writing Perl Modules for CPAN
For many years, the Perl community has extolled the virtues of CPAN and re-usable, modular code. But why hasn't there been anything substantial written on how to achieve it? Sam Tregar redresses the balance, and this month's book review looks at how he got on. [Nov 6, 2002]
Writing CGI Applications with Perl
There are roughly four bazillion books on Perl and CGI available at the
moment; one of the most recent is Brent Michalski and Kevin Meltzer's
Writing CGI Applications with Perl. Kevin and Brent are long-standing
members of the Perl community - can they do justice to this troublesome
topic? Find out in this month's book review! [Sep 10, 2002]
Graphics Programming with Perl
Martien Verbuggen has produced a fine book on all elements of handling and creating graphics with Perl - we cast a critical eye over it. [Jul 23, 2002]
mod_perl Developer's Cookbook
Geoffrey Young, Paul Lindner and Randy Kobes have produced a new book on mod_perl which claims to teach "tricks, solutions and mod_perl idioms" - how well does it live up to this promise? [Apr 25, 2002]
Choosing a Perl Book
What to look for when choosing from the many Perl books on the market. [Jul 11, 2000]
How Perl Powers the Squeezebox
The Squeezebox is a hardware-based ethernet and wireless MP3 player from Slim Devices; its server is completely written in Perl, and is open and hackable. We talked to the Squeezebox developers about Perl, open source, and third-party Squeezebox hacking. [Dec 5, 2003]
Radiator
Are you fed up with those who think that commercial applications need to
be written in an "enterprise" language like Java or C++? So are we, so we spoke to Mike McCauley at Open System Consultants. [Oct 15, 2002]
Perl Rescues a Major Corporation
How the author used Perl to create a document management system for a major aerospace corporation and saved the day. [Oct 21, 1998]
How Perl Creates Orders For The Air Force
Brent Michalski, while in the Air Force, created a Web-based system written in Perl to simplify the process of ordering new hardware and software. [Jul 22, 1998]
White Hats and Black
Tom Christiansen's take on the freeing of Netscape. [Jan 22, 1998]
Why Not Translate Perl to C?
Mark-Jason Dominus explains why it might not be any faster to convert your code to a C program rather than let the Perl interpreter execute it. [Jun 27, 2001]
Pathologically Polluting Perl
Brian Ingerson introduces Inline.pm and CPR; with them you can embed C inside Perl and turn C into a scripting language. [Feb 6, 2001]
Success in Migrating from C to Perl
How one company migrated from using C to Perl -- and in doing so was able to improve their approach to code design, maintenance and documentation. [Jan 19, 1999]
CGI::Kwiki
Brian Ingerson's latest Perl module is a new modular implementation of the wiki, a world-editable web site. [May 13, 2003]
Finding CGI Scripts
Dave Cross explains what to watch out for when choosing CGI scripts to run on your server, and announces a new best-of-breed project for CGI scripting. [Jan 23, 2002]
Using CGI::Application
The Common Gateway Interface may well be the backbone of many web applications, but sometimes it can feel dry and monotonous to work with. If you're fed up with "my $query = CGI->new()", Jesse Erlbaum presents a kinder, gentler alternative. [Jun 5, 2001]
Perl and CGI FAQ
This FAQ answers questions for Web developers. [Apr 14, 1999]
Using Perl to Enable the Disabled
Some people use Perl to help with data munging, database hacking, and scripting menial tasks. Jouke Visser uses Perl to communicate with his disabled daughter. Here he explains what his pVoice software is and how it works. [Aug 23, 2003]
The State of Perl
A new year is a good time to take a look at the state Perl's in: its weaknesses, strengths, and future directions. Adam Turoff takes a long look at where Perl's going and why, and finds that Perl 6 doesn't have to be the last, great hope. [Jan 9, 2004]
Open Guides
Kake Pugh describes how Perl can help you find good beer in London, and many other places, with the OpenGuides collaborative city guides. [Oct 31, 2003]
2003 Perl Conferences
There are a plethora of Perl conferences on this year; which of them should you go to? I survey the conference scene and make a few recommendations about talks you might want to try and get to see. [May 6, 2003]
This Week on p5p 2001/10/21
What's left before 5.8.0, the POD specification, test-fu and more. [Oct 21, 2001]
People Behind Perl : Artur Bergman
We continue our series on the People Behind Perl with an interview with Artur Bergman, the
driving force behind much of the work on Perl's new threading model.
While the model was created by Gurusamy Sarathy, Artur's really spent a
lot of good time and effort making iThreads usable to the ordinary Perl
programmer. Artur tells us about what got him into Perl development, and
what he's doing with threads right now. [Aug 1, 2001]
This Week on p5p 2001/07/30
Hash "clamping", a meeting of the perl-5 porters at TPC, and more! [Aug 1, 2001]
This Week on p5p 2001/07/09
No 5.8.0 yet, numeric hackery, worries about PerlIO and much more. [Jul 9, 2001]
People Behind Perl: Nathan Torkington
So you use Perl, and you probably know that it was brought to you by
"Larry Wall and a cast of thousands". But do you know these people that
make up the Perl development team? Simon Cozens talks
to Nathan Torkington, a long-time Perl developer and a mainstay of the
Perl community.
[Jul 3, 2001]
This Week on p5p 2001/07/02
Module versioning and testing, regex capture-to-variable, and much more. [Jul 2, 2001]
This Week on p5p 2001/06/25
5.7.2 in sight, some threads on regular expression, and much more. [Jun 25, 2001]
Yet Another YAPC Report: Montreal
Schuyler Erle gives a detailed report of all the exciting events at this year's Yet Another Perl Conference in Montreal. By his account, it appears to be an exciting time to be involved with the development of Perl. [Jun 21, 2001]
This Week on p5p 2001/06/17
Miscellaneous Darwin Updates, hash accessor macros, and much more.
[Jun 19, 2001]
Privacy Policy
The O'Reilly and Perl.com privacy policy [Jun 15, 2001]
The Beginner's Attitude of Perl: What Attitude?
Robert Kiesling says that the Perl Community's attitude towards new users is common fare for Internet development and compared to other lists Perl is downright civil. [Jun 12, 2001]
Turning the Tides on Perl's Attitude Toward Beginners
Casey West is taking a stand against elitism in the Perl community and seems to be making progress. He has launched several new services for the Perl beginner that are being enthusiastically received. [May 28, 2001]
Hold the Sackcloth and Ashes
Jarkko Hietaniemi, the Perl release manager, responds to the critique of the Perl 6 RFC process.
[Nov 3, 2000]
Critique of the Perl 6 RFC Process
Many of the suggestions put forward during the Perl 6 request-for-comment period revealed a lack of understanding of the internals and limitations of the language. Mark-Jason Dominus offers these criticisms in hopes that future RFCs may avoid the same mistakes -- and the wasted effort.
[Oct 31, 2000]
Last Chance to Support Damian Conway
As reported earlier, the Yet Another
Society (YAS) is putting together a grant to Monash University,
Australia. The grant will fund Damian Conway's full-time work on
Perl for a year. But the deadline for pledges is the end of the week, and the fund is still
short. [Oct 26, 2000]
Report from YAPC::Europe
Mark Summerfield tells us what he saw at YAPC::Europe in London last weekend. [Oct 2, 2000]
Ilya Regularly Expresses
Ilya Zakharevich, a major contributor to Perl 5,
talks about Perl 6 effort, why
he thinks that Perl is not well-suited for text manipulation, and what
changes would make it better; whether the Russian education system is
effective; and whether Perl 6 is a good idea. [Sep 20, 2000]
Damian Conway Talks Shop
The author of Object-Oriented Perl talks about the Dark Art of programming, motivations for taking on projects, and the "deification" of technology. [Aug 21, 2000]
Report from the Perl Conference
One conference-goer shares with us his thoughts, experiences and impressions of TPC4. [Aug 21, 2000]
Reports from YAPC 19100
Eleven attendees of Yet Another Perl Conference write in about their experiences in Pittsburgh last month. [Jul 11, 2000]
ANSI Standard Perl?
Standardized Perl? Larry Rosler, who put the ANSI in ANSI C, shares his thoughts on how Perl could benefit from standards in this interview
with Joe Johnston.
[Jun 6, 2000]
Virtual Presentations with Perl
This year, the Philadelphia Perl Mongers
had joint remote meetings with Boston.pm and St. Louis.pm using teleconferencing equipment to bring a guest speaker to many places at once. Adam Turoff describes what worked and what didn't, and how you can use this in your own PM groups.
[Dec 20, 1999]
Happy Birthday Perl!
According to the perlhist man page,
Perl was first released twelve years ago,
on December 18, 1987. Congratulations to Larry Wall on the occasion of Perl's twelfth birthday! [Dec 18, 1999]
Perl as a First Language
Simon Cozens,
author of the upcoming
Beginning Perl talks about Perl
as a language for beginning programmers.
[Nov 16, 1999]
White Camel Awards
An interview with White Camel Award winners Kevin Lenzo and Adam Turoff. [Sep 16, 1999]
What's New in Perlland?
Tom Christiansen's list of news and updates of interest to the Perl community. [Jul 25, 1999]
A New Edition of www.perl.com
Welcome to the new edition of www.perl.com! We've redesigned the site to make it easier for you to find the information you're looking for. [Jul 15, 1999]
Dispatch from YAPC
Brent was at YAPC -- were you? He reports from this "alternative" Perl conference. [Jun 30, 1999]
What the Heck is a Perl Monger?!
Want to start or find a Perl user group in your area? Brent interviews brian d foy, the creator of Perl Mongers to find out just what the Mongers are all about. [Jan 13, 1999]
A Photographic Journal
Photographs taken at the Perl Conference by Joseph F. Ryan: Perl Programmer at the National Human Genome Research Institute. [Aug 27, 1998]
The Final Day at The Perl Conference
Brent Michalski winds down his coverage of the Perl Conference. Highlights include: Tom Paquin's Keynote: "Free Software Goes Mainstream" and Tom Christiansen's "Perl Style". [Aug 21, 1998]
Day 2: Perl Mongers at The Conference
Another exciting day! Brent talks about the Advanced Perl Fundamentals tutorial, the concept behind the Perl Mongers and the Fireside Chat with Jon Orwant. [Aug 19, 1998]
Perl Conference 3.0 -- The Call for Participation
This is a call for papers that demonstrate the incredible diversity of Perl. Selected papers will be presented at the third annual O'Reilly Perl Conference on August 21-24, 1999 at the Doubletree Hotel and Monterey Conference Center in Monterey California. [Aug 17, 1998]
The Artistic License
This document states the conditions under which a
Package may be copied, such that the Copyright Holder maintains some
semblance of artistic control over the development of the package [Aug 15, 1997]
The Many Dates and Times of Perl
There are a huge number of date and time handling modules on the CPAN; how do you know which ones are any good? Dave Rolsky, one of the men behind the datetime mailing list takes you on a tour. [Mar 13, 2003]
Becoming a CPAN Tester with CPANPLUS
A few weeks ago, Jos Broumans introduced CPANPLUS, his replacement for the CPAN module. In the time since then, development has continued apace, and today's release includes support for automatically testing and reporting bugs in CPAN modules. Autrijus Tang explains how it all works. [Apr 30, 2002]
CPAN PLUS
For many years the CPAN.pm module has helped people install Perl modules. But it's also been clunky, fragile and amazingly difficult to use programmatically. Jos Boumans introduces CPANPLUS, his project to change all that. [Mar 26, 2002]
The Lighter Side of CPAN
Alex Gough takes us on a whirlwind tour around the more esoteric and entertaining areas of
the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, and makes some serious points about Perl programming at the same time. [Oct 31, 2001]
Using Bloom Filters
Perl hashes make set membership easy at the cost of memory usage. A lesser-known technique, Bloom filters, trades a tunable false-positive rate for compactness -- and has interesting applications for privacy concerns. Maciej Ceglowski explains the theory and practice of Bloom filters. [Apr 8, 2004]
Changing Hash Behaviour with tie
Hashes are one of the most useful data structures Perl provides, but did you know you can make them even more useful by changing the way they work? Dave Cross shows us how it's done [Sep 4, 2001]
Database Programming with Perl
Simon Cozens introduces the DBI module, the standard way for Perl to talk to relational databases. [Oct 23, 2003]
Adding Search Functionality to Perl Applications
Do you write applications that deal with large quantities of data -- and then find you don't know the best way to bring back the information you want? Aaron Trevena describes some simple, but powerful, ways to search your data with reverse indexes. [Sep 25, 2003]
Class::DBI
Tony Bowden introduces a brilliantly simple way to interface to a relational database using Perl classes and the Class::DBI module [Nov 27, 2002]
DBI is OK
Chromatic makes a case for using DBI and shows how it works well in the same situations as DBIx::Recordset. [Mar 20, 2001]
DBIx::Recordset VS DBI
Terrance Brannon explains why DBI is the standard database interface for Perl but should not be the interface for most Perl applications requiring database functionality. [Feb 27, 2001]
A Short Guide to DBI
Here's how to get started using SQL and SQL-driven databases from Perl.
[Oct 22, 1999]
A Review of Komodo
Simon Cozens takes a look at ActiveState's latest Komodo release, Komodo 2.0. Will this version of the Perl IDE finally convince the
hardened emacs and vi users to switch over? [Oct 9, 2002]
Perl Builder IDE Debuts
A review of Perl Builder, the first integrated development environment (IDE)for Perl. [Jul 22, 1998]
Siesta Mailing List Manager
Majordomo is past its best, and many Perl Mongers groups rely on ezmlm or Mailman. Why isn't there a decent Perl-based mailing list manager? Simon Wistow and others from London.pm decided to do something about it ... and came up with Siesta. [Feb 5, 2004]
Simple IO Handling with IO::All
Perl module author extraordinaire Brian Ingerson demonstrates his latest creation. IO::All ties together almost all of Perl's IO handling libraries in one neat, cohesive package. [Mar 11, 2004]
Perl Slurp-Eaze
Uri Guttman demonstrates several different ways to read and write a file in a single operation, a common idiom that's sometimes misused. [Nov 21, 2003]
Solving Puzzles with LM-Solve
A great many puzzles and games, such as Solitaire or Sokoban, are of the form of a "logic maze" -- you move a board or tableau from state to state until you reach the appropriate goal state. Shlomi Fish presents his Games::LMSolve module, which provides a general representation of such games and an algorithm to solve them. [Nov 17, 2003]
Photo Galleries with Mason and Imager
One of the major problems with the plethora of photo gallery software available is that very few of them integrate well with existing sites. Casey West comes up with a new approach using Imager and Mason to fit in with Mason sites. [Apr 1, 2004]
Creating Custom Widgets
Steve Lidie, coauthor of Mastering Perl/Tk, brings us more wisdom from
his Tk experience--this time, explaining how to create your own simple widget classes. [Jan 9, 2002]
A Drag-and-Drop Primer for Perl/Tk
This article, by Steve Lidie, coauthor of Mastering Perl/Tk, describes the Perl/Tk drag-and-drop mechanism, often referred to as DND. Steve illustrates DND operations local to a single application, where you can drag items from one Canvas to another. [Dec 11, 2001]
wxPerl: Another GUI for Perl
Jouke Visse brings us a new tutorial on how to use wxPerl to create good-looking GUIs for Perl programs. [Sep 12, 2001]
Perl Helps The Disabled
As part of Mark-Jason Dominus's Lightning Talks at the 2001 O'Reilly Open
Source Convention, Jon Bjornstad gave a talk about a Perl/Tk program he wrote
to help a mute quadriplegic friend, Sue Simpson, to speak and to better use her
computer. Jon's talk received a grand reception, not only for his clever use of
Perl, but for a remarkably unselfish application of his skills.
[Aug 27, 2001]
Lightweight Languages
Simon Cozens reports from this weekend's Lightweight Languages workshop at the MIT AI labs, where leading language researchers and implementors got together to chat about what they're up to. [Nov 21, 2001]
This Week in Perl 6 (3 - 9 June 2001)
A discussion on the interaction of properties with use strict, continuing arguements surrounding regular expressions, and much more. [Jun 12, 2001]
This Week on p5p 2001/06/03
Improving the Perl test suite, Warnings crusade, libnet in the core, and much more.
[Jun 4, 2001]
This Week on p5p 2000/06/25
More method call optimization; tr///CU is dead; Lexical variables and eval; perlhacktut.
[Jun 25, 2000]
This Week on p5p 2000/06/18
Method call optimizations; more bytecode; more unicode source files; EPOC port. [Jun 17, 2000]
This Week on p5p 2000/06/11
Unicode byte-order marks in Perl source code;
many not-too-difficult bugs for entry-level Perl core hackers.
[Jun 13, 2000]
This Week on p5p 2000/06/04
Farewell to Ilya Zakharevich;
bytecode compilation;
optimizations to map.
[Jun 4, 2000]
This Week on p5p 2000/05/28
Regex engine alternatives and optimizations;
eq and UTF8; Caching of get*by* functions; Array interpolation semantics. [May 28, 2000]
This Week on p5p 2000/05/21
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 15 and 21 May, 2000
[May 21, 2000]
Perl Meets COBOL
I taught a Perl class to some IBM mainframe programmers whose only experience was in COBOL, and got some surprises. [May 15, 2000]
This Week on p5p 2000/05/14
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 8 and 14 May, 2000
[May 14, 2000]
This Week on p5p 2000/05/07
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 1 and 7 May, 2000
[May 7, 2000]
This Week on p5p 2000/04/30
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 24 and 30 April, 2000
[Apr 30, 2000]
This Week on p5p 2000/04/23
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 17 and 23 April, 2000
[Apr 23, 2000]
This Week on p5p 2000/03/05
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 28 February and 5 March, 2000
[Mar 5, 2000]
This Week on p5p 1999/12/26
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 20 and 26 December, 1999
[Dec 26, 1999]
This Week on p5p 1999/12/19
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 13 and 19 December, 1999
[Dec 19, 1999]
This Week on p5p 1999/12/12
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 6 and 12 December, 1999
[Dec 12, 1999]
This Week on p5p 1999/12/05
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 29 November and 5 December, 1999
[Dec 5, 1999]
This Week on p5p 1999/11/28
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 22 and 28 November, 1999
[Nov 28, 1999]
This Week on p5p 1999/11/21
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 15 and 21 November, 1999
[Nov 21, 1999]
This Week on p5p 1999/11/14
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 8 and 14 November, 1999
[Nov 14, 1999]
This Week on p5p 1999/11/07
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 1 and 7 November, 1999
[Nov 7, 1999]
This Week on p5p 1999/10/31
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 25 and 31 October, 1999
[Nov 3, 1999]
This Week on p5p 1999/10/17
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 11 and 17 October, 1999
[Oct 17, 1999]
This Week on p5p 1999/10/24
What happened on the perl5-porters mailing list
between 18 and 24 October, 1999
[Oct 17, 1999]
Topaz: Perl for the 22nd Century
Chip Salzenberg, one of the core developers of Perl, talks about Topaz, a new effort to completely rewrite the internals of Perl in C++. The complete version of his talk (given at the 1999 O'Reilly Open Source Conference) is also available in Real Audio. [Sep 28, 1999]
State of the Onion 2003
Larry Wall's annual report on the state of Perl, from OSCON 2003 (the seventh annual Perl conference) in Portland, Oregon in July 2003. In this full length transcript, Larry talks about being unreasonable, unwilling, and impossible. [Jul 16, 2003]
The State of the Onion 5
Larry Wall gives his annual summary of the state of the Perl world. This year, as one might expect, the major focus was on Perl 6. Larry gave 33 lightning talks, of 55 seconds each, outlining elements of Perl 6's design. Here's a rundown on what Perl 6 is going to be. [Jul 25, 2001]
State of the Onion 2000
Larry Wall's annual report on the state of Perl, from TPC 4.0 (the fourth annual Perl conference) in Monterey in July 2000. In this full length transcript, Larry talks about the need for changes, which has led to the effort to rewrite the language in Perl 6. [Oct 24, 2000]
3rd State of the Onion
Larry explains the "good chemistry" of the Perl community in his third State of the Onion speech. [Aug 30, 1999]
Perl, the first postmodern computer language
Larry Wall's talk at Linux World justifies Perl's place in postmodern culture. He says that he included in Perl all the features that were cool and left out all those that sucked. [Mar 9, 1999]
The Culture of Perl
In this keynote address for the first Perl Conference, Larry Wall talks about the key ideas that influence him and by extension the Perl culture. [Aug 20, 1997]
Making Dictionaries with Perl
Sean Burke is a linguist who helps save dying languages by creating dictionaries for them. He shows us how he uses Perl to layout and print these dictionaries. [Mar 25, 2004]
Guide to the Perl 6 Working Groups
Perl 6 discussion and planning are continuing at a furious rate and
will probably continue to do so, at least until next month when Larry
announces the shape of Perl 6 at the Linux Expo. In the meantime,
here's a summary of the main Perl 6 working groups and
discussion lists, along with an explanation of what the groups
are about. [Sep 5, 2000]
Introducing Mac::Glue
Now that Apple computers are all the rage again, we describe how the technically inclined can use Perl to script Mac applications. [Jan 23, 2004]
Mail to WAP Gateways
Ever needed to quickly check your email while you're away from your computer? Pete Sergeant devises a way to convert a mailbox into a WAP page for you to easily check over the phone. [Feb 13, 2004]
Mail Filtering
Michael Stevens compares two popular mail filtering tools, both written in Perl: ActiveState's PerlMX, and the open source Mail::Audit. How do they stack up? [Aug 27, 2002]
Stopping Spam with SpamAssassin
SpamAssassin and Vipul's Razor are two Perl-based tools that can be used to dramatically reduce the number of junk emails you need to see. [Mar 6, 2002]
Filtering Mail with PerlMx
PerlMx is ActiveState's Perl plug-in for Sendmail; in the first article in a new series, Mike DeGraw-Bertsch shows us how to begin building a mail filter to trap spam. [Oct 10, 2001]
Building Testing Libraries
Save time, test more, and use
what the CPAN has made available to enhance your development. Casey West demonstrates examples
of good techniques when testing Perl-based software. [May 7, 2004]
Hidden Treasures of the Perl Core
The Perl Core comes with a lot of little modules to help you get your job done.
Many of these modules are not well known. Even some of the well known modules
have some nice features that are often overlooked. In this article, we'll dive
into many of these hidden treasures of the Perl Core. [May 29, 2003]
For Perl Programmers : only
Brian Ingerson's curious new module allows you to specify which version of a module you want Perl to load - and even to install multiple versions at the same time. Let's hear about it from the man himself! [Mar 18, 2003]
Module::Build
Traditionally, modules have been put together with ExtUtils::MakeMaker. Dave Rolsky describes a more modern solution, and in the first of a two-part series, tells us more about it. [Feb 12, 2003]
The Phrasebook Design Pattern
Have you ever written code that uses two languages in the same program? Whether they be human languages or computer languages, the phrasebook design pattern helps you separate them for more maintainable code. [Oct 22, 2002]
Web Basics with LWP
LWP is a group of Perl modules that lets you access data on the Web. Because there are so many LWP modules, it's hard to know where to look for information on doing even the simplest things. This article offers sample recipes for performing common tasks with LWP, by the author of Perl & LWP. [Aug 20, 2002]
Acme::Comment
One of the most requested features for Perl 6 has been multiline comments; Jos Boumans goes one step ahead, and provides the feature for Perl 5. He describes the current hacks people use to get multiline comments, and explains his Acme::Comment module which now supports 44 different commenting styles. [Aug 13, 2002]
Asymmetric Cryptography in Perl
Last month, we had an article from Abhijit Menon-Sen about symmetric cryptography; this month, Vipul and Benjamin take us on a tour of its more advanced cousin, asymmetric cryptography. This introductory article is the first in a three-part series. [Sep 26, 2001]
Quantum::Entanglement
Quantum::Superpositions rocked the Perl world, as it provided a way
to get more than one thing done at once. (in constant time.)
Quantum::Entanglement goes yet further, using solid quantum physics
theory to get an infinite number of things done at once. To tell you
more would be to spoil the surprise, but the module's author, Alex
Gough, tells us what it is and how it works... [Aug 8, 2001]
Pod::Parser Notes
Brad Appleton, author of the Pod::Parser module suite, responds to some of the remarks in an earlier
perl5-porters mailing list summary.
[May 20, 2000]
Integrating mod_perl with Apache 2.1 Authentication
It's a good time to be a programmer. Apache 2.1 and mod_perl 2 make it tremendously easy to customize any part of the Apache request cycle. The more secure but still easy-to-use Digest authentication is now widely supported in web browsers. Geoffrey Young demonstrates how to write a custom handler that handles Basic and Digest authentication with ease. [Jul 8, 2003]
Testing mod_perl 2.0
Geoffrey Young examines another area of programming in mod_perl 2.0, testing your mod_perl scripts. [May 22, 2003]
Filters in Apache 2.0
Geoffrey Young, co-author of the renowned mod_perl Cookbook, brings us an introduction to Apache mod_perl 2.0, starting with Apache filters. [Apr 17, 2003]
Improving mod_perl Sites' Performance: Part 8
In the penultimate of Stas Bekman's mod_perl articles, more of those obscure Apache settings which can really speed up your web server. [Mar 4, 2003]
Improving mod_perl Sites' Performance: Part 7
In this month's episode of Stas Bekman's mod_perl series, more on how settings in your Apache configuration can make or break performance. [Feb 5, 2003]
Improving mod_perl Sites' Performance: Part 4
Your web server may have plenty of memory, but are you making the best use of it? Stas Bekman explains how to optimize Apache and mod_perl for the most efficient memory use. [Jul 30, 2002]
Improving mod_perl Sites' Performance: Part 3
This week, Stas Bekman explains how to use the Perl and mod_perl benchmarking and memory measurement tools to perform worthwhile optimizations on mod_perl programs. [Jul 16, 2002]
Improving mod_perl Sites' Performance: Part 2
Before making any optimizations to mod_perl applications, it's important to know what you need to be optimizing. Benchmarks are key to this, and Stas Beckman introduces the important tools for mod_perl benchmarking. [Jun 19, 2002]
Improving mod_perl Sites' Performance: Part 1
What do we need to think about when optimizing mod_perl applications? Stas Bekman explains how hardware, software and good programming come into play. [May 29, 2002]
Finding a mod_perl ISP... or Becoming One
You're ready to use mod_perl -- but do you have a server to run it on? Stas Bekman explains what an ISP needs to do to run mod_perl programs, and how to find an ISP that lets you do so. [May 22, 2002]
The Perl You Need To Know - Part 3
Stas Bekman finishes his introduction to the basic Perl skills you need to use mod_perl; this week, globals versus lexicals, modules and packages. [May 15, 2002]
The Perl You Need To Know - Part 2
Stas Bekman continues his mod_perl series by looking at the basic Perl skills you need to use mod_perl; this week, subroutines inside subroutines. [May 7, 2002]
The Perl You Need To Know
This week, Stas Bekman goes back to basics to
explain some Perl topics of interest to his continuing mod_perl series. [Apr 23, 2002]
Installing mod_perl without superuser privileges
In his continuing series on mod_perl, Stas Bekman explains how to install a mod_perl-ized Apache on a server even if you don't have root privileges. [Apr 10, 2002]
mod_perl in 30 minutes
This week, Stas Bekman shows us how to install and configure mod_perl, and how to start accelerating CGI scripts with Apache::Registry. [Mar 22, 2002]
Why mod_perl?
In the first of a series of articles from mod_perl
guru, Stas Bekman, we begin by taking a look at what mod_perl is and what it can do for us. [Feb 26, 2002]
Creating Modular Web Pages With EmbPerl
If you have ever wished for an "include" HTML tag to reuse large chunks of HTML, you are in luck. Neil Gunton explains how Embperl solves the problem. [Mar 13, 2001]
Identifying Audio Files with MusicBrainz
Paul Mison describes one way to use the MusicBrainz database to find missing information about audio tracks. [Oct 3, 2003]
Overloading
C++ and Haskell do it, Java and Lisp don't; Python does it, and Ruby is almost built on it. What is the allure of operator overloading, and how does it affect Perl programmers? Dave Cross brings us an introduction to overload.pm and the Perl overloading mechanism. [Jul 22, 2003]
POOL
What do templating, object oriented modules, computational linguistics, Ruby, profiling and oil paintings have in common? They're all part of this introduction to POOL, a tool to make it easier to write Perl modules. [Apr 22, 2003]
Proxy Objects
How do you manage to have circular references without leaking memory? Matt Sergeant shows how it's done, with the Proxy Object pattern. [Aug 7, 2002]
Object-Oriented Perl
How do you move from an intermediate Perl programmer to an expert? Understanding object-oriented Perl is one key step along the way. [Nov 7, 2001]
Bless My Referents
Damian Conway explains how references and
referents relate to Perl objects, along with examples of how to use them when building objects. [Sep 16, 1999]
Apocalypse 12
Larry Wall explains how objects and classes are to work in Perl 6. [Apr 16, 2004]
Synopsis 3
In this synopsis, Luke Palmer provides us with an updated view of Perl 6's operators. [Mar 18, 2004]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2004-03-14
Benchmarks, Ponie and even Ruby drive on Parrot development this week, while the language team discuss methods that mutate their objects and properties that call actions on variables. [Mar 14, 2004]
Exegesis 7
Damian Conway explains how formatting will work in Perl 6 -- with a twist... [Feb 27, 2004]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2004-02-22
It had to happen some day - someone wrote obfuscated Parrot assembler. Objects are nearly there, and the fight over "sort" cotinues. [Feb 22, 2004]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2004-02-15
Parrot gains Data::Dumper, sort and nearly system(), while the language list struggles to agree on the best way to represent multi-level and multi-key sorting. [Feb 15, 2004]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2004-02-08
This week, the internals team attack the challenges posed by garbage collection and threading, while the Unicode operators debate rages on over at the language list. Piers Cawley has the details. [Feb 8, 2004]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2004-02-01
Lots of little clean-ups done to Parrot this week, while the Perl 6 language design focuses on vector operations and Unicode operators. [Feb 1, 2004]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2004-01-25
The internals list is concerned with threading a smattering of other things; the language list debates vector operators and syntax mangling. Piers, as ever, fills us in. [Jan 25, 2004]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2004-01-11
Parrot fixes to threading, continuations, the JIT and the garbage collector; the Perl 6 language list discusses traits, roles, and, for some reason, the EU Constitution... [Jan 11, 2004]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2004-01-04
Dan calls for detailed suggestions for the Parrot threading model, and Piers makes up for the lack of activity in the language list by asking a few key players about their New Year hopes for Perl 6. [Jan 4, 2004]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-12-07
Objects all round - Parrot gets objects, and there was much rejoicing. Meanwhile, Larry lifts parts of the veil on the Perl 6 object model. Piers Cawley has the details. [Dec 7, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-11-30
The IMCC has a FAQ, the Perl 6 compiler gets updated to this month's reality, and Larry explains some more about the properties system. Piers Cawley, as ever, summarizes. [Nov 30, 2003]
This fortnight on Perl 6, week ending 2003-11-23
Dan returns from LL3 with new ideas, what "multi" really means, and more on the Perl 6 design philosophy - Piers Cawley sums up two weeks on the Perl 6 and Parrot mailing lists. [Nov 23, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-11-09
People try to get PHP working on Parrot, while the perl6-language list thinks about nesting modules inside of modules. And Piers, dilligent as ever, summarizes all the action for your benefit. [Nov 9, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-11-02
A Hallowe'en release, catering for method calls on empty registers, and Parrot gets a HTTP library. (No, really.) Perl 6 and Parrot news from Piers Cawley. [Nov 2, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-10-26
IMCC becomes more important, how objects can get serialized, and the all-important Infocom interpreter: all the latest Parrot news from Piers. [Oct 26, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-10-19
A new Parrot pumpking, Larry returns, and the Perl 6 compiler actually starts gathering steam... All this and more in this week's Perl 6 summary. [Oct 19, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-09-21
The low-down on the 0.0.11 Parrot release, and some blue thinking about clever optimizations - the latest from the Perl 6 world, thanks to our trusty summarizer. [Sep 21, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-09-07
This week in Perl 6, the keyed ops question raises its head again, how to dynamically add singleton methods, and why serialisation of objects is hard. [Sep 7, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-08-17
Python on Parrot is nearly done, what's to do before Parrot 0.1.0, and when should we start writing about Perl 6? Piers Cawley reports on the perl6 mailing lists. [Aug 17, 2003]
Exegesis 6 Apocalypse 6 described the changes to subroutines in Perl 6. Exegesis 6 demonstrates what this will mean to you, the average Perl programmer. Damian Conway explains how the new syntax and semantics make for cleaner, simpler, and more powerful code. [Jul 29, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-07-20
Threads, Events, code cleanups, and onions top the list of interesting things discussed on the Perl 6 lists this week. Piers Cawley summarizes. [Jul 20, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-07-06
Building IMCC as parrot, a better build system, and Perl 6 daydreams (z-code!) were the topics of note on perl6-internals and perl6-language this week, according to OSCON-session dodging summarizer Piers Cawley. [Jul 6, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-06-22
Continuation Passing Shenanigans, evil dlopen() tricks, and controlling method dispatch dominate perl6-internals and perl6-language, according to fearless summarizer Piers Cawley. [Jun 23, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-06-29
Exceptions, continuations, patches, and reconstituted flying cheeseburgers all dominated discussion on perl6-internals and perl6-language, according to summarizer Piers Cawley. No kidding. [Jun 23, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-06-15
All the latest from perl6-language, perl6-internals and even the Perl 6 track at YAPC from our regular summariser, Piers Cawley. [Jun 15, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-06-01
Much more work on IMCC, method calling syntax in Parrot, coroutines attempt to become threads, compile-time binding, and many more discussions in this week's Perl 6 news - all summaries as usual by the eminent Piers Cawley. [Jun 1, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-05-25
Piers takes a break from traditional English festivities to report on the Perl 6 world: this week, more about timely destruction, the Perl 6 Essentials book, a new layout for PMCs, and a lengthy discussion of coroutines. [May 25, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-05-18
Garbage collection versus timely destruction, colors in BASIC, how contexts interact, and whether or not we need a special sigil for objects - it's all talk in the Perl 6 world this week. [May 18, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-05-11
Perl 6 this week brings us news of managed and unmanaged buffers from Parrot's NCI, stack-walking garbage collection, co-routines, and some really horrible heredoc syntax wrangling. [May 11, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-05-04
Piers reports on Parrot's calling conventions, the strange case of the boolean type, and much from the Perl 6 lists this week. [May 7, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-04-27
Memory allocation, NCI, more about types, and changes in the syntax of blocks - all the latest in the Perl 6 world from Piers Cawley. [Apr 27, 2003]
Synopsis 6
Damian Conway and Allison Randal bring you a handy summary of the Perl 6 subroutine and type system, as described in last month's Apocalypse. [Apr 9, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-04-06
Piers reports on the struggle for documentation, the battle of the threading models, and the victory for equality. [Apr 6, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-03-30
People remain silent about Leo's work, how to do static variables, assignment operators, and more. Piers Cawley has the details. [Mar 30, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-03-09
Object specifications and serialization discussion takes over both lists, and Piers narrowly escapes having to summarise the fallout from the Apocalypse already... [Mar 9, 2003]
Apocalypse 6
Larry continues his unfolding of the design of Perl 6 with his latest Apocalypse - this time, how subroutines are defined and called in Perl 6. [Mar 7, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-03-02
IMCC is still a subject of much debate on the perl6-internals list, while tumbleweed drifts through perl6-language. Piers has the details. [Mar 3, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-02-16
Optimizations to the main loops, reflections from the Perl 6 design meeting, arrays versus lists, and much more... [Feb 16, 2003]
This week on Perl 6, week ending 2003-01-19
Yet more on dead object detection and pipeline syntax, (surprise!) eval in Parrot, Larry and others need gainfultude, and much more... [Jan 19, 2003]
This week on Perl 6 (11/10-11/17, 2002)
A quick Perl 6 roadmap, plus some JIT improvements, mysterious coredump fixes, continuations, superpositions, invocants, tests, and programming BASIC and Scheme in Parrot. [Nov 21, 2002]
This week on Perl 6 (11/03-11/10, 2002)
Bytecode fingerprinting, on_exit() portability, memory washing, invocant and topic naming syntax, Unicode operators, operators, more operators, the supercomma, perl6-documentation, Schwern throws the Virtual Coffee Mug, and much more... [Nov 15, 2002]
On Topic
Allison Randal explains the seemingly strange concept of "topic" in Perl 6 - and finds that it's alive and well in Perl 5 too... [Oct 30, 2002]
This week on Perl 6 (9/9 - 9/15, 2002)
Goals for the next release, arrays and hashes, hypothetical variables, getting more Parrot hackers, and a load besides... [Sep 15, 2002]
This week on Perl 6 (9/1 - 9/8, 2002)
Goals for the next release, arrays and hashes, hypothetical variables, getting more Parrot hackers, and a load besides... [Sep 8, 2002]
This week on Perl 6 (8/26 - 9/1, 2002)
More talk of garbage collection, the never-ending keys
debate, Parrot 0.0.8, lots and lots about regular expressions, and a
good deal more... [Sep 1, 2002]
Exegesis 5
Are Perl 6's regular expressions still messing with your head? Never fear, Damian is here - with another Exegesis explaining what real programs using Perl 6 grammars look like. [Aug 22, 2002]
Synopsis 5
Confused by the last Apocalypse? Allison Randal and Damian Conway explain the changes in a more succinct form. [Jun 26, 2002]
Apocalypse 5
In part 5 of his design for Perl 6, Larry takes a long hard look at regular expressions, and comes up with some interesting ideas... [Jun 4, 2002]
Exegesis 4
What does the fourth apocalypse really mean to you? A4 explained what control structures would look like in Perl 6; Damian Conway expands on those ideas and presents a complete view of the Perl 6 control flow mechanism. [Apr 2, 2002]
These Weeks on Perl 6 (10 Feb - 2 Mar 2002)
information about the
.NET CLR and what it means for Parrot people, how topicalizers work in
Perl 6, and a rant about the lack of Parrot Design
Documents. [Mar 6, 2002]
Beginning PMCs
Parrot promises to give us support for extensible data types. Parrot Magic Cookie classes are the
key to extending Parrot and providing support for other languages, and Jeff Goff shows us how to create them. [Jan 30, 2002]
Perl 6 : Not Just For Damians
Most of what we've heard about Perl 6 has come from either Larry or Damian. But what do average Perl hackers think about the proposed changes? We asked Piers Cawley for his opinions. [Oct 23, 2001]
Exegesis 3
Damian Conway puts Larry's third Apocalypse to work and explains what it means for the budding Perl 6 programmer. [Oct 3, 2001]
Apocalypse 3
Larry Wall brings us the next installment in the unfolding of Perl 6's design. [Oct 2, 2001]
Parrot : Some Assembly Required
Last week, the first version of the Parrot assembler and virtual machine was released; since then, we've seen a flurry of activity and patches to it. Simon Cozens tells us all about what Parrot is, how it relates to Perl 6, how to write in Parrot assembler, and how to get involved in developing and improving Parrot. [Sep 18, 2001]
Exegesis 2
Having trouble visualizing how the approved RFC's for Perl 6 will translate into actual Perl code? Damian Conway provides and exegesis to Larry Wall's Apocalypse 2 and reveals what the code will look like. [May 15, 2001]
Apocalypse 1: The Ugly, the Bad, and the Good
With breathless expectation, the Perl community has been waiting for Larry Wall to reveal how Perl 6 is going to take shape. In the first of a series of "apocalyptic" articles, Larry reveals the ugly, the bad, and the good parts of the Perl 6 design process. [Apr 2, 2001]
Report on the Perl 6 Announcement
At the Perl conference, Larry announced plans to develop Perl 6, a new implementation of Perl, starting over from scratch. The new Perl will fix many of the social and technical deficiencies of Perl 5.
[Jul 25, 2000]
Where Wizards Fear To Tread
So you're a Perl master. You've got XS sorted. You know how the
internals work. Hey, there's nothing we can teach you on perl.com
that you don't already know. You think? Our new series teaches the topics others only dream about, starting with the Perl op tree. [May 7, 2002]
Sapphire
Can one person rewrite Perl from scratch?
[Sep 19, 2000]
Perl Design Patterns, Part 3
Phil Crow concludes his series on patterns in Perl, with a discussion of patterns and objects. [Aug 15, 2003]
Perl Design Patterns, Part 2
Phil Crow continues his series on how some popular patterns fit into Perl programming. [Aug 7, 2003]
Perl Design Patterns
The Gang-of-Four Design Patterns book had a huge impact
on programming methodologies in the Java and C++ communities, but what do Design Patterns have to say to Perl programmers? Phil Crow examines how some popular patterns fit in to Perl programming. [Jun 13, 2003]
How Hashes Really Work
We're all used to using hashes, and expect them to just work. But what actually is a hash, when it comes down to it, and how do they work? Abhijit explains! [Oct 1, 2002]
Optimizing Your Perl
Is your perl program taking too long to run? This might be because
you've chosen a data structure or algorithm that takes a long time to
run. By rethinking how you've implemented a function, you might be
able to realize huge gains in speed.
[Feb 12, 2002]
Beginners Intro to Perl - Part 5
Doug Sheppard discusses object-oriented programming in part five of his series on beginning Perl. [Dec 18, 2000]
Beginners Intro to Perl - Part 4
Doug Sheppard teaches us CGI programming in part four of his series on beginning Perl. [Dec 6, 2000]
Beginner's Introduction to Perl - Part 3
The third part in a new series that introduces Perl to people who haven't programmed before.
This week: Patterns and pattern matching.
If you weren't sure how to get started with Perl, here's your chance! [Nov 20, 2000]
Program Repair Shop and Red Flags
Once again I take a real program
written by a genuine novice and show how to clean it up and make it better.
This time we turn a perl4 library into a Perl 5 object-oriented module.
I show how
to recognize some "red flags" that are early warning signs that you might be doing some of
the same things wrong in your own programs. [Nov 14, 2000]
Beginner's Introduction to Perl - Part 2
The second part in a new series that introduces Perl to people who haven't programmed before.
This week: Files and strings.
If you weren't sure how to get started with Perl, here's your chance! [Nov 7, 2000]
Beginner's Introduction to Perl
The first part in a new series that introduces Perl to people who haven't programmed before. If you weren't sure how to get started with Perl, here's your chance! [Oct 16, 2000]
Return of Program Repair Shop and Red Flags
My other 'red flags' article was so popular that
once again
I've taken a real program written by a genuine novice and shown how to clean it up and
make it better. I show how to recognize some "red flags" that are early warning signs
that you might be doing some of the same things wrong in your own programs. [Jun 17, 2000]
Program Repair Shop and Red Flags
I've taken a real program written by a genuine
novice and shown how to clean it up and make it better. I also show how to recognize some "red flags" that are early warning signs that you might be doing some of the same things wrong in your own programs.
[May 2, 2000]
My Life With Spam: Part 3
In the third part of a tutorial on how to filter spam, Mark-Jason Dominus reveals how he relegates mail to his "losers list, blacklist and whitelist." [Mar 15, 2000]
My Life With Spam
In the second part of a tutorial on how to filter spam, Mark-Jason Dominus shows what to do with spam once you've caught it. [Feb 9, 2000]
Perl Recipe of the Day
Each day, we present a new recipe from The Perl Cookbook, the best-selling book by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. [Aug 26, 1999]
Enhancements for Prototypes
Tim Bunce's thoughts on how prototypes can be made more general and more useful. [Aug 12, 1999]
Prototypes in Perl
Tom Christiansen explains how prototypes really work in Perl. [Jul 25, 1999]
MacPerl Gains Ground
MacPerl gains a foothold on a machine without a command-line interface. Rich Morin of Prime Time Freeware and Matthias Neeracher, the programmer who ported Perl to the Macintosh, talk about what makes MacPerl different. [Jun 3, 1998]
Java vs Penguin
An exchange that Jake had with a colleague regarding penguin/perl/java. [Aug 15, 1997]
Tcl vs. Perl
Tom explains the execution time of a typical Perl program as compared to a C program that does the same thing. As a bonus, he throws in a comparison to tcl. [Aug 5, 1997]
tchrist's Tcl Dirty Laundry List
More venting from a previous discussion. Tom writes, "TEE CEE ELL is merely a string substitution language in a lot of ways. Here are some of my rags on tcl. I know their
answers and I don't like them." [Aug 5, 1997]
Tcl vs. Perl Comparison
Aaron compares TCL and perl as general purpose scripting languages.
[Aug 5, 1997]
Java Über Alles
Why Java seems to hard for "accidental programmer." [Aug 5, 1997]
Java is Dead
Early safeperl discussions. [Aug 5, 1997]
Csh Programming Considered Harmful
The following periodic article answers in excruciating detail the frequently asked question "Why shouldn't I program in csh?". It is available for anon FTP from convex.com in /pub/csh.whynot .
[Dec 1, 1996]
Seven Deadly Sins of Perl
Tom's list of what is "suboptimal" in Perl from a reasonably serious programming languages design point of view. [Nov 1, 1996]
Maintaining Regular Expressions
It's easy to get lost in complex regular expressions. Aaron Mackey offers a few tips and an ingenious technique to help you keep things straight. [Jan 16, 2004]
Power Regexps, Part II
Simon looks at slightly more advanced features of the Perl regular expression language, including lookahead and lookbehind, extracting multiple matches, and regexp-based modules. [Jul 1, 2003]
Regexp Power
In this short series of two articles, we'll take a look through some of
the less well-known or less understood parts of the regular expression
language, and see how they can be used to solve problems with more power
and less fuss. [Jun 6, 2003]
What's new in Perl 5.8.0
It's been nearly six months since the release of Perl 5.8.0 but
many people still haven't upgraded to it. Artur Bergman takes a look at some of
the new features it provides and describe why you ought to investigate
them for yourself. [Jan 16, 2003]
What's New in 5.6.0.
After two years in the making, we look at new features of Perl, including support for UTF-8 Unicode and Internet address constants. [Apr 18, 2000]
Preventing Cross-site Scripting Attacks
Paul Lindner, author of the mod_perl Cookbook, explains how to secure our sites against Cross-Site Scripting attacks using mod_perl and Apache::TaintRequest. [Feb 20, 2002]
Symmetric Cryptography in Perl
What do you think of when you hear the word "cryptography"? Big
expensive computers? Men in black helicopters? PGP or GPG encrypting
your mail? Maybe you don't think of Perl. Well, Abhijit Menon-Sen says
you should. He's the author of a bunch of the Crypt:: modules, and he explains how to use Perl to keep your secrets... secret.
[Jul 10, 2001]
A Refactoring Example
Michael Schwern explains how to use refactoring techniques to make code faster. [Oct 9, 2003]
Red Flags Return
Readers pointed out errors and suggested more improvements to the code in my 'Red Flags' articles. As usual, there's more than one
way to do it! [Nov 28, 2000]
In Defense of Coding Standards
Perl programmers may bristle at the idea of coding standards. Fear not: a few simple standards can improve teamwork without crushing creativity. [Jan 12, 2000]
Managing Bulk DNS Zones with Perl
Chris Josephes describes the challenges to system administrators in maintaining forward and reverse DNS records, and how a clever sysadmin can use Perl to automate this often tedious task. [Nov 20, 2002]
How We Wrote the Template Toolkit Book ...
When Dave Cross, Andy Wardley, and Darren Chamberlain got together to write the Perl Template Toolkit book, they decided to write it in Plain Old Documentation. Dave shows us how the Template Toolkit itself transformed that for publication. [Jan 30, 2004]
Building a Vector Space Search Engine in Perl
Have you ever wondered how search engines work, or how to add one to your program? Maciej Ceglowski walks you through building a simple, fast and effective vector-space search engine. [Feb 19, 2003]
Choosing a Templating System
Perrin Harkins takes us on a grand tour of the most popular text and HTML templating systems. [Aug 21, 2001]
Designing a Search Engine
Pete Sergeant discusses two elements of designing a search engine: how to store and retrieve data efficiently, and how to parse search terms. [Apr 10, 2001]
Creating Data Output Files Using the Template Toolkit
Dave Cross explains why you should add the Template Toolkit to your installation of Perl and why it is useful for more than just dynamic web pages. [Jan 23, 2001]
Affrus: An OS X Perl IDE
Affrus is a new IDE from Late Nite Software; Simon puts it through its paces to see how it compares to Komodo and his beloved Unix editors. [May 14, 2004]
A Test::MockObject Illustrated Example
Test::MockObject gives you a way to create unit tests for object-oriented programs, isolating individual object and method behavior. [Jul 10, 2002]
Request Tracker
Do you ever forget what you're supposed to be doing today? Do you have
a million and one projects on the go, but no idea where you're up to
with them? I frequently get that, and I don't know how I'd get anything
at all done if it wasn't for Request Tracker. Robert Spier explains how
to use the open-source Request Tracker application to organise teams
working on common projects. [Nov 28, 2001]
Going Up?
Perl 5.8.0 brought stable threading to Perl - but what does it mean and how can we use it? Get a
lift with Sam Tregar as he creates a multi-threaded simulation. [Sep 4, 2002]
Where Wizards Fear To Tread
One of the new features coming in Perl 5.8 will be reliable interpreter threading, thanks primarily to the work of Artur Bergman. In this article, he explains what you need to do to make your Perl modules thread-safe. [Jun 11, 2002]
Achieving Closure
What's a closure, and why does everyone go on about them? [May 29, 2002]
An Introduction to Testing
chromatic explains why writing tests is good for your code, and tells you how to go about it. [Dec 4, 2001]
Parse::RecDescent Tutorial
Parse::RecDescent is a recursive descent parser generator designed to help to Perl programmers who need to deal with any sort of structured data,from configuration files to mail headers to almost anything. It's even been used to parse other programming languages for conversion to Perl. [Jun 13, 2001]
A Beginner's Introduction to POE
Interested in event-driven Perl? Dennis Taylor and Jeff Goff show us how to write a simple server daemon using POE, the Perl Object Environment. [Jan 17, 2001]
A Simple Gnome Panel Applet
Build a useful Gnome application in an afternoon! Joe Nasal explains some common techniques, including widget creation, signal handling, timers, and event loops. [Mar 27, 2001]
Writing GUI Applications in Perl/Tk
Nick Temple shows how to program a graphical Point-of-Sale application in Perl, complete with credit card processing. [Mar 6, 2001]
Perl/Tk Tutorial
On Perl.com, we are presenting this as part of what we hope will be an ongoing series of articles, titled "Source Illustrated." The presentation by Lee and Brett is a wonderfully concise example of showing annotated code and its
result. [Oct 15, 1999]
Distributed Version Control with svk
What started off for Chia-liang Kao as a wrapper around the Subversion version control system rapidly turned into a fully-fledged distributed VCS itself -- all, of course, in Perl. [Mar 4, 2004]
Rapid Web Application Deployment with Maypole
Maypole is a framework for creating web applications; Simon Cozens explains how to set up database-backed applications extremely rapidly. [Apr 22, 2004]
Photo Galleries with Mason and Imager
One of the major problems with the plethora of photo gallery software available is that very few of them integrate well with existing sites. Casey West comes up with a new approach using Imager and Mason to fit in with Mason sites. [Apr 1, 2004]
Find What You Want with Plucene
Plucene is a Perl port of the Java Lucene search-engine framework. In this article, we'll look at how to use Plucene to build a search engine to index a web site. [Feb 19, 2004]
Blosxoms, Bryars and Blikis
How to add a blog, wiki, or some combination of the two to almost anything. [Dec 18, 2003]
How to Avoid Writing Code
One of the most boring programming tasks in the world has to be
pulling data out of a database and displaying it on a web site. Yet
it's also one of the most ubiquitous. Kake Pugh shows us an easier way to do it, with Class::DBI and the Template
Toolkit. [Jul 15, 2003]
Screen-scraping with WWW::Mechanize
Screen-scraping is the job of programmatically navigating through a usually visual task - like a web site - and then dealing with the result; and WWW::Mechanize is the best screen scraper out there for Perl! Chris Ball puts the two things together, to ensure that he never misses his favourite TV shows again... [Jan 22, 2003]
Embedding Web Servers
Web browsers are ubiquitous these days - it's hard to find a machine
without one. To make use of a web browser, you need a web server, and
they are simple enough to write that you can stick them almost
anywhere. [Sep 18, 2002]
Building a Large-scale E-commerce Site with Apache and mod_perl
Bill Hilf and Perrin Harkins recount their experiences setting up an e-commerce site for eToys. If you've ever wanted to know what goes on under the hood in such a large-scale site - and how you can set up something like it for yourself - here's your chance to find out. [Oct 17, 2001]
Quick Start Guide with SOAP Part Two
Paul Kulchenko continues his SOAP::Lite guide and shows how to build more comples SOAP servers. [Apr 23, 2001]
Quick Start with SOAP
An introduction to SOAP::Lite, a module that provides simple yet
flexible interface to SOAP, a popular XML-RPC protocol. Using
SOAP::Lite, Perl scripts can access objects and execute procedures on
remote servers, and also serve SOAP objects and procedures over the
'Net. [Jan 29, 2001]
Visual Perl
Most Perl programmers are die-hard command line freaks, but those coming to Perl on Windows may be used to a more graphical way to edit programs. We asked the lead developer of the new Visual Perl plugin for Microsoft Visual Studio to tell us the advantages of a graphical IDE. [Feb 6, 2002]
Building a Bridge to the Active Directory
Kelvin Param explains how Perl provides the
glue between Microsoft's Active Directory
and non-Windows clients. [Dec 19, 2001]
Microsoft to Fund Perl Development
ActiveState Tool Corp. has a new three-year agreement with Microsoft that funds new development of Perl for the Windows platform. [Jun 9, 1999]
A Zero Cost Solution
Creating a task tracking system for $0 in licensing fees, hardware, and software costs. [Nov 17, 1998]
An AxKit Image Gallery
Continuing our look at AxKit, Barrie demonstrates the use of AxKit on non-XML data: images and operating system calls. [Sep 24, 2002]
Taglib TMTOWTDI
Continuing our look at AxKit tag libraries, Barrie explains the use of SimpleTaglib and LogicSheets. [Jul 2, 2002]
XSP, Taglibs and Pipelines
In this month's AxKit article, Barrie explains what a "taglib" is, and how to use them to create dynamic pages inside of AxKit. [Apr 16, 2002]
Introducing AxKit
This is the first in the series of articles
by Barrie Slaymaker on setting up and running
AxKit. AxKit is a mod_perl application for
dynamically transforming XML. In this first
article, we focus on getting started with
AxKit. [Mar 13, 2002]
RSS and You
RSS is an XML application that describes web sites
as channels, which can act as feeds to a user's site. Chris Nandor explains how to use RSS in Perl and how he uses it to build portals.
[Jan 25, 2000]
XML::Parser Module Enables XML Development in Perl
The new Perl module known as XML::Parser allows Perl programmers building
applications to use XML, and provides an efficient, easy way to parse
XML documents. [Nov 25, 1998]
Perl Support for XML Developing
O'Reilly & Associates hosted a recent Perl/XML summit to discuss ways that Perl can support the Extensible Markup Language (XML), a new language for defining document markup and data formats. [Mar 10, 1998]
Y2K Compliance
Is someone asking you to ensure that your Perl code is Y2k compliant? Tom Christiansen gives
you some answers, which may not completely please the bureaucrats. [Jan 3, 1999]