Perl resources

Perl versions and modules

• ReadmeFirst
  • What's new in Perl 5.6 - from April 2000 - the key is to avoid Perl 5.6 features since TWiki currently targets Perl 5.005_03
  • perldelta - details of what's new in 5.6
• CpanPerlModulesRequirement
• Windows install cookbook - some tips on getting started with CPAN for installing Perl modules
  • Use perl -MCPAN -e shell if you are using Unix/Linux

Perl debugging

• TWikiDebugging - how to debug CGI in general and TWiki in particular, with a link to a 'Telnet through CGI' for TWikiOnWebHostingSites without Telnet/SSH
• PerlPtkdb - graphical Perl debugger, works with CGI on Unix/Linux or Windows
• Tips for Perl debugging with some coverage of ModPerl - useful tips

Web performance tweaks

• ModPerl - mod_perl for Apache, particularly useful on Windows to improve performance with Apache
• SpeedyCGI - alternative to mod_perl, for when you can't reconfigure Apache

Perl Tutorials

• Serious Perl - Bare minimum of what you need to know to hack good Perl.
• Course by Lincoln Stein, pick the Perl lectures - focused on bioinformatics but quite good
• Perl in 20 pages - also good
• Stages of a Perl Programmer - good presentation starting from novice's problems with Perl and leading to quite advanced topics.

Perl Reference Info

• Perldoc.com has the Perl docs (including older versions)
• Perl.com has a huge amount of information
• Quick-reference page - excellent quick summary of Perl features, recommended

Perl books

• Perl for Web Site Management looks like a good first book for those who want to learn Perl, including CGI and web-related topics
• http://www.perl.com has pointers to other books - Learning Perl is intended for experienced programmers, Programming Perl is the main reference. The Perl Cookbook is particularly good once you have mastered the basics.
• - Free online Perl books from Wrox Press, including Beginning Perl (see reviews).

Perl news

• 'use Perl' - a WebLog for Perl news and discussion

Getting help on Perl

• Perl Monks is a good Perl resource. Click on "Seekers of Perl Wisdom" to ask a question. Very responsive community.

Development environment

• VimEditor - powerful editor with syntax highlighting
• ExuberantCtags - builds index of Perl subroutines for easier navigation within editors
• CvsReadme - version control system used by developers of TWiki and plugins
  • Also useful for local version control, or just use RCS

Questions:

• Changing multiple files: When you make a change to, for example a variable name that might need to be changed in several files, do you have any recommendations for the easiest approach? Anybody use anything like an editor that can hold multiple Perl files and make global changes across all the files? SED? ??
  • I use the perl -pi.bak "s/foo/bar/" * approach, which edits files in place - see WindowsInstallCookbook, 'Editing the CGI scripts' and 'Re-locking RCS files' sections. Very powerful, but also quite dangerous! [ RichardDonkin 30 Mar 2002 ]

(Poll and codebase questions moved to CodebaseQuestions) - RD

-- RandyKramer - 09 Jul 2001

Excellent idea for a page, but hard to find!

We need more index pages to find useful pages like this. A big part of the solution is having a better WebForm setup for Codev - see TWikiPatches and TWikiExtraFeatures for some discussion...

I've added some resources above.

-- RichardDonkin - 30 Mar 2002

Actually my favourite Perl site is Google...

-- MartinEllison - 17 May 2002