Web / Programming / Perl

Perl (the "Practical Extraction and Report Language," or "Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister") is one of the most popular and pervasive scripting languages on the Internet today. "What is the sound of Perl? Is it not the sound of a wall that people have stopped banging their heads against?" - Larry Wall, creator of Perl.

WebReference Articles

Mother of Perl

Our own Perl guru, Jonathan Eisenzopf, provides this now archived column, with free and helpful tips, tricks, code and projects. Columns have covered parsing RSS newsfeeds (including Jonathan's own XML::RSS module), tracking URL redirects, PerlHoo (a Yahoo like directory implemented in Perl) and more.

mod_perl Developer's Cookbook

Chock full of tasty recipes, this cookbook will help you get the most out of your mod_perl cuisine. Our excerpt from chapter 4 consists of 10 morsels allowing you to better communicate with the Apache server. From Sams Publishing.

MySQL and Perl for the Web

Excerpts from this New Riders title focus on speeding up your Perl applications via the Apache module mod_perl.

Perl & XML

From O'Reilly, this title covers all aspect of interacting with XML files using Perl, including both programming technique and the use of key CPAN modules. Our excerpt gets right to the heart of the matter: basic reading and writing of XML files.

Perl 101

How to install a basic Perl script on a Web server. The example is a simple program that illustrates some essential aspects of installing a Perl program, while acquainting you with your FTP program and some basic Perl syntax. The example program is designed to be called as a server side include. By Scott Phillips.

Perl Graphics Programming

While often relegated strictly to text handling tasks, the Perl programming language can also be used to create and manipulate graphics. This series of excerpts touches on those topics involved in the use of Perl to create SVG images; including an example slide show, animation techniques, JavaScript interactions, and XSLT transformations. From O'Reilly.

Persistent Perl on the Virtual Host

Mark Porter discusses a work-around to hosts that won't give you the scripting access you need, with a handy little program called SpeedyCGI. Find out how your site can benefit!

Professional Perl

Learn about subroutines, attribute lists, passing parameters, prototypes and how to return values from subroutines in this chapter from Wrox Press.

Other Tutorials

The Perl You Need to Know

Terrific series of Perl tutorials from the Web Developer's Virtual Library. Authored by Aaron Weiss, the collection runs the gamut of Perl instruction from a basic introduction through Object Oriented techniques and an introduction to Perl 6.

Perl Tutorial

These pages will teach basic data structures, flow control, and string manipulation in the context of writing a common CGI program for a Web server. From NCSA.

Perl Tutorial

A step by step introduction to the basics of Perl programming. Assumes a basic understanding of UNIX. By Nik Silver.

Perl: The Swiss Army Chainsaw

Tutorial and links about Perl and CGI programming. Includes MacPerl references.

Randal's WebTechniques Column

From Randal Schwartz, one of the co-authors of O'Reilly's Programming Perl and Learning Perl books. A collection of his archived columns from Web Techniques, (now New Architect).

Resources

CPAN

Comprehensive Perl Archive Network - Here you will find All Things Perl. Comprehensive: the aim is to contain all the Perl material you will need. Archive: 760 megabytes as of September 1999. Network: CPAN is mirrored at more than one hundred sites around the world.

Perl.com

Large Perl hub site from O'Reilly & Associates publishing. News, tools, code, FAQs, module updates, and much more are all available.

Perl.org

Perl Mongers, an advocacy group for Perl, provide news, links to books and resources, user group references and support.

Perl 6

Also from Perl Mongers. Up to date information about the ongoing development of the next version of Perl. Includes background, reference, and developmental info; a description of Perl 6's proposed structure; links to the in-development run time codenamed "Parrot;" and discussions directly from Larry Wall on the development of the Perl 6 language itself.

Perl Documentation

Online versions of the Perl man page, module documentation, utilities, etc.

Perl Monks

Posting forum focused on Perl programming Q&A.

Perl FAQ

Online listing of the Perl FAQ contained in the latest Perl distribution.

Quotes of Larry Wall

Nuggets of Perl wisdom, philosophy and humor from Larry Wall.

ActivePerl

From ActiveState, Perl implementations for Linux, Solaris and Windows. ActiveState also offers other key Perl tools for Windows developers; including Visual Perl, a Visual Studio .NET plugin; and the Perl Dev Kit that allows for the creation of .NET and/or ActiveX components from Perl.

MacPerl

Perl (5) adaptation for Macintosh.

use Perl;

Slashdot-like posting and discussion board especially for the Perl community.

Collections

Web Developer's Virtual Library: Perl

Great Perl tutorials, tools, and book excerpts from WDVL, ranging from introductory articles, Perl on Windows and interacting with Web pages, to advanced database concepts.

The Perl Archive

With scripts, learning center, and a user forum.

Google

Google's (aka The Open Directory's) Perl resource categories and links.

Yahoo

Yahoo's link listing contains multiple categories, including books, documentation, modules, etc.

Dale Bewley's Perl Scripts and Links

Good collection of freely available Perl scripts, as well as a comprehensive list of links to hints and tricks, archive lists, newsgroups, tutorials and references.

Usenet Groups

comp.lang.perl

This is the busiest and largest of the Usenet groups on Perl.

comp.lang.perl.tk

Focusing on the use of the Perl Tk tool kit.

comp.lang.perl.announce

Announcements about new releases of Perl, new extensions to perl, etc...

comp.lang.perl.misc

Misc. Perl-related items, as you might suspect.

Comments are welcome

Revised: February 12, 2003