NAME
    perlfaq - frequently asked questions about Perl ($Date:
    1998/08/05 12:09:32 $)

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
        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 . This alias should not be used to *ask*
    FAQs. It's for fixing the current FAQ.

  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, 1998 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
    All rights reserved.

  Bundled Distributions

    When included as part of the Standard Version of Perl, or as
    part of its complete documentation whether printed or otherwise,
    this work may be distributed only under the terms of Perl's
    Artistic License. Any distribution of this file or derivatives
    thereof *outside* of that package require that special
    arrangements be made with copyright holder.

    Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples in these
    files are hereby placed into the public domain. You are
    permitted and encouraged to use this code in your own programs
    for fun or for profit as you see fit. A simple comment in the
    code giving credit would be courteous but is not required.

  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
    22/June/98
        Significant changes throughout in preparation for the 5.005
        release.

    24/April/97
        Style and whitespace changes from Chip, new question on
        reading one character at a time from a terminal using POSIX
        from Tom.

    23/April/97
        Added http://www.oasis.leo.org/perl/ to the perlfaq2
        manpage. Style fix to the perlfaq3 manpage. Added floating
        point precision, fixed complex number arithmetic, cross-
        references, caveat for Text::Wrap, alternative answer for
        initial capitalizing, fixed incorrect regexp, added example
        of Tie::IxHash to the perlfaq4 manpage. Added example of
        passing and storing filehandles, added commify to the
        perlfaq5 manpage. Restored variable suicide, and added mass
        commenting to the perlfaq7 manpage. Added Net::Telnet, fixed
        backticks, added reader/writer pair to telnet question,
        added FindBin, grouped module questions together in the
        perlfaq8 manpage. Expanded caveats for the simple URL
        extractor, gave LWP example, added CGI security question,
        expanded on the mail address answer in the perlfaq9 manpage.

    25/March/97
        Added more info to the binary distribution section of the
        perlfaq2 manpage. Added Net::Telnet to the perlfaq6 manpage.
        Fixed typos in the perlfaq8 manpage. Added mail sending
        example to the perlfaq9 manpage. Added Merlyn's columns to
        the perlfaq2 manpage.

    18/March/97
        Added the DATE to the NAME section, indicating which
        sections have changed.

        Mentioned SIGPIPE and the perlipc manpage in the forking
        open answer in the perlfaq8 manpage.

        Fixed description of a regular expression in the perlfaq4
        manpage.

    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.

