ch01_04.htm

by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix ISBN 0-596-00132-0 Third Edition, published July 2001. (See

<a name="perlnut2-CHP-1-SECT-4.3" /><div class="sect2">
<h3 class="sect2">1.4.3. Mailing Lists</h3>

<p><a name="INDEX-16" /><a name="INDEX-17" />Several mailing lists are
focused on more specialized aspects of Perl. Like Usenet newsgroups,
mailing lists are discussion groups, but the discussion takes place
over email. In general, mailing lists aren't as
convenient as newsgroups, since a few hundred mail messages a day
about Perl can become intrusive to any but the most obsessive Perl
hackers. However, because mailing lists tend to have much smaller and
more focused distributions, you'll find that they
can sometimes be much more interesting and helpful than newsgroups.
</p>

<p>There are tons of mailing lists for Perl users and developers alike.
Some are specific to a particular module or distribution, such as the
mailing lists for users of CGI.pm, LWP, DBI, or
<em class="emphasis">mod_perl</em>. Other mailing lists discuss using Perl
on non-Unix platforms such as Windows, Macintosh or VMS. Still more
mailing lists are devoted to the development and advocacy of Perl in
general.
</p>

<p>For a list of Perl-related mailing lists, refer to the Perl Mailing
List Database (<em class="emphasis">lists.cpan.org</em>) or
to the list maintained by the Perl Mongers at <a href="http://www.perl.org/support/mailing_lists.html">http://www.perl.org/support/mailing_lists.html</a>.
</p>

<p>Many of these mailing lists maintain a
"digest" version, which means that
instead of receiving individual email messages all day long, you
receive a few "digests" of the
messages on a regular basis. Digests of a mailing list might be
preferable to the minute-by-minute onslaught of email throughout the
day, depending on how involved you are in the discussion.
</p>

</div>
<a name="perlnut2-CHP-1-SECT-4.4" /><div class="sect2">
<h3 class="sect2">1.4.4. CPAN</h3>

<p>The <a name="INDEX-18" />Comprehensive Perl Archive Network
(CPAN) is a repository of Perl modules and scripts submitted by Perl
programs worldwide. It is by far the most valuable resource for Perl
programmers, so if you haven't browsed through CPAN,
go there now, and expect to stay a while. There are many mirrored
CPAN sites around the world, but the preferred entry point is
<a href="http://www.cpan.org">www.cpan.org</a>.
</p>

</div>
<a name="perlnut2-CHP-1-SECT-4.5" /><div class="sect2">
<h3 class="sect2">1.4.5. www.perl.com</h3>

<p><a name="INDEX-19" /><a name="INDEX-20" />There are countless web pages devoted to
Perl, but probably the most useful entry site to Perl resources is
<a href="http://www.perl.com">www.perl.com</a>. Formerly maintained
by Tom Christiansen, <a href="http://www.perl.com">www.perl.com</a>
is now maintained by O'Reilly &amp; Associates (the
publisher of this book). From <a href="http://www.perl.com">www.perl.com</a>, you can access Perl
documentation, news, software, FAQs, articles, and (of course) Perl
itself.
</p>

</div>
<a name="perlnut2-CHP-1-SECT-4.6" /><div class="sect2">
<h3 class="sect2">1.4.6. Perl Mongers (<a href="www.perl.org">www.perl.org</a>)</h3>

<p>The <a name="INDEX-21" />Perl
Mongers is a nonprofit Perl advocacy organization that exists to
provide services to Perl user groups and to take the place of the now
defunct Perl Institute. If you live in a major city (in the United
States or abroad), it's likely that a Perl Mongers
group exists in your area. You can find out more about the Perl
Mongers by checkout out the main site at <a href="http://www.perl.org">www.perl.org</a> or a description of user group
services at <a href="http://www.pm.org">www.pm.org</a>.
</p>

<p>If you're curious about the location of a Perl
Mongers group, you should take a look at <a href="http://www.pm.org/groups.shtml">http://www.pm.org/groups.shtml</a>.
</p>

</div>
<a name="perlnut2-CHP-1-SECT-4.7" /><div class="sect2">
<h3 class="sect2">1.4.7. The Perl Journal</h3>

<p><a name="INDEX-22" />The
<em class="emphasis">Perl Journal</em>, published by CMP, is a quarterly
publication with articles and news about Perl.
</p>

<p>If you're interested in reading past TPJ articles,
some highlights are being collated into book form (or, more
specifically, three-book form) and should be available by the time
you read this paragraph: <em class="emphasis">Perl Programming: Best of The Perl
Journal</em> (O'Reilly).
</p>

</div>
<a name="perlnut2-CHP-1-SECT-4.8" /><div class="sect2">
<h3 class="sect2">1.4.8. Perl Conferences</h3>

<p><a name="INDEX-23" />
<a name="INDEX-24" />For
years, Usenix has devoted tracks of its conferences to Perl. However,
today there are not just one but multiple conferences that focus on
Perl.
</p>

<p>In 1997, O'Reilly &amp; Associates began hosting The
Perl Conference (TPC), typically held during the third week of July
in a major California city. In recent years, The Perl Conference has
merged with a more general conference for open source technologies,
but the Perl track is by far the best attended. For more information,
go to <a href="http://conferences.oreilly.com/">http://conferences.oreilly.com/</a>.
</p>

<p>In 1999, a nonprofit organization called YAS (Yet Another Society)
started sponsoring a more grassroots, less corporate conference
called YAPC (Yet Another Perl Conference), typically held twice a
year in university settings. YAPC::America::North is held in the
United States or Canada in June, and YAPC::Europe is held in a major
European city in September. For more information, go to <a href="http://www.yapc.org/">http://www.yapc.org/</a>.
</p>

</div>
<a name="perlnut2-CHP-1-SECT-4.9" /><div class="sect2">
<h3 class="sect2">1.4.9. Books</h3>

<p><a name="INDEX-25" /><a name="INDEX-26" />There are many books written on Perl. In
fact, the current popularity of Perl is often credited to the
original publication of <em class="emphasis"><a href="../prog/index.htm">Programming Perl</a></em>, also
known as "The Camel" (because of
the animal on its cover), by Larry Wall and Randal
Schwartz.<a href="#FOOTNOTE-1">[1]</a> The Camel is also
published by O'Reilly &amp; Associates. The Camel
isn't the best place to start if
you're just learning Perl from scratch, but
it's essential if you want to really understand Perl
and not just dabble in it.
</p><blockquote class="footnote"> <a name="FOOTNOTE-1" /><p> [1]The third and most recent edition of
<em class="emphasis">Programming Perl</em> is written by Larry Wall, Tom
Christiansen, and Jon Orwant.</p> </blockquote>

<p>Other Perl books published by O'Reilly &amp;
Associates are <em class="emphasis"><a href="../lperl/index.htm">Learning Perl</a></em>
("The Llama"), <em class="emphasis">Advanced Perl Programming</em>, 
<em><a href="../cookbook/index.htm">Perl Cookbook</a></em>,
<em class="emphasis">Mastering Regular Expressions</em>,
<em class="emphasis">Learning Perl on Win32 Systems</em>,
<em class="emphasis"><a href="../tk/index.htm">Mastering Perl/Tk</a></em>, <em class="emphasis">Perl for System
Administration</em>, <em class="emphasis">Perl for Web Site
Management</em>, <em class="emphasis">Mastering Algorithms with
Perl</em>, <em class="emphasis">Programming the Perl DBI</em>,
<em class="emphasis">Perl and XML</em>, and <em class="emphasis">CGI Programming with
Perl</em>.
</p>

<p>There are also books from other publishers, of course. Standouts
include <em class="emphasis">Object-Oriented Perl</em> and
<em class="emphasis">Elements of Programming with Perl</em>, both
published by Manning Press, and <em class="emphasis">Effective Perl
Programming</em> and <em class="emphasis">Network Programming with
Perl</em>, published by Addison-Wesley Longman.
</p>

</div>


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