[22439] in Perl-Users-Digest
Perl-Users Digest, Issue: 4660 Volume: 10
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Tue Mar 4 09:06:35 2003
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 06:05:07 -0800 (PST)
From: Perl-Users Digest <Perl-Users-Request@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU>
To: Perl-Users@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Perl-Users Digest Tue, 4 Mar 2003 Volume: 10 Number: 4660
Today's topics:
Re: [OT] NEWBIE: PerlNET <newsfeed2@boog.co.uk>
Re: [REPOST] Using a (config) file relative to a module <bik.mido@tiscalinet.it>
Re: Can't set or access array element in struct <bigj@kamelfreund.de>
Counter64 values returned by the Net::SNMP module (John Ramsden)
Emacs modules for Perl programming (Jari Aalto+mail.perl)
Greedy regexps <somewhere@nowhere.com>
Re: Greedy regexps <tore@aursand.no>
newbie hash question <mike@luusac.co.uk>
Re: newbie hash question (Anno Siegel)
Re: newbie hash question <mike@luusac.co.uk>
Playing a .wav file <ian@WINDOZEdigiserv.net>
Re: Playing a .wav file <ubl@schaffhausen.de>
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: tadmc@augustmail.com
Sending RAW-Data althoug using NET::SMTP Module? <toellner@oss-gmbh.de>
Re: Stolen! <newsfeed2@boog.co.uk>
Re: SUBSTR or pattern matching? <peakpeek@purethought.com>
Re: Works offline but not online (Anno Siegel)
Re: Works offline but not online news@roaima.freeserve.co.uk
Re: Works offline but not online <Johan.Ljunggren@uab.ericsson.se>
Re: Works offline but not online (Johan Ljunggren)
Re: XML to HTML <ellem52@mail.com>
Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01) (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 13:32:01 -0000
From: "Peter Cooper" <newsfeed2@boog.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [OT] NEWBIE: PerlNET
Message-Id: <NU19a.11981$EN3.96232@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net>
"Derek Thomson" <dthomson@NOSPAMusers.sf.net> wrote:
> That would heavily influence my choice, yes. I'd be an idiot to lock
> myself into a company that previously used predatory tactics to keep
> customers if I had any kind of choice.
There is a compelling argument here. But /should/ proprietary technologies be
discouraged and avoided? Many would argue yes, but others see a benefit in a
closed maintained system. The point here is that neither way is inherently bad
or good, but they just have different advantages.
Of course, I agree that the 'value' of Microsofts offerings is not particularly
high in regard to the cost ;-) But in some scenarios, Microsoft makes sense.
> Great. When are they going to fix the Windows file system?
Is something wrong with NTFS?
> I decided to ask some questions regarding .NET. Big deal. Are people so
> sensitive these days? Sheesh!
No, but since none of the usual 'you're offtopic' netcops jumped in on this one,
I thought I'd stick my hand up, and stress that Microsoft bashing is not what
this group is all about. We're meant to be open minded, darn it, after all.. we
use Perl ;-)
> And they are really going to implement all of .NET? Even if (when) MS
> start deliberately making .NET not work with Mono?
Actually, ASP has been implemented pretty well on Linux for some time, and we
haven't witnessed a similar clamp down with that.
> And then, MS will
> just pull the rug out from under them, by enforcing their existing
> patents on large chunks of .NET.
That is actually one concern surrounding the project at the moment.
> The people working on Mono are
> extremely naive, to say the least.
That's like saying the MySQL team are naive, because they chose to replicate a
previous closed off technology. Now more people code to the MySQL standards than
the 'actual' ones.
> > Languages like Perl and Java have allowed this for some time, but .NET isn't
a
> > language, it's more like the JVM, but it covers a lot more ground and
becomes a
> > lot more integrated with the system.
>
> In what way exactly?
.Net, for better or worse, works at a lower level than the JVM. While it's
reasonably 'easy' to port the JVM from system to system, .Net is more integrated
with the system, and therefore a lot more libraries have to be written to 'port'
it (although direct porting is impossible due to the closed source - which is
why Mono is taking a while - but it's mostly there!).
> All I know is, the JVM actually supports many
> languages, and the CLI supports, say, 3.
The question isn't one of support, it's just that no more languages have been
written at this point. .Net supports at least Fortran, C++, Perl (if this
PerlNET actually exists), VB, C#, and ASP at this point. And one could harp on
all day about the ineffectiveness of the JVM. Sloooow.
Cheers,
Pete
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 09:39:07 +0100
From: Michele Dondi <bik.mido@tiscalinet.it>
Subject: Re: [REPOST] Using a (config) file relative to a module location...
Message-Id: <eeo86vo20ie96kr61bph81pfhn3ekhioc5@4ax.com>
On Tue, 04 Mar 2003 07:10:08 GMT, tiltonj@erols.com (Jay Tilton)
wrote:
>: As a side question, not that using a module is a major concern for me,
>: but both for what regards FindBin and my issue, aren't these matters
>: so important that a built-in facility should be provided by the
>: interpreter? (e.g. yet another built-in variable)
>
>%INC is both the facility and the variable. I don't think this is
>needed often enough to justify spending another variable in the core,
>and it wouldn't buy anything your bag on the side can't already
>provide.
Thank you also for the other comments. For what regards this last
part, let me tell you that, of course, I do agree that %INC is a
facility in this sense. However, it can't be used directly, but some
workaround (e.g. as in my code) is needed; OTOH the interpreter does
know where a module is: it wouldn't do much harm IMHO to also set an
$INC variable (local to a module), just as $ARGV is set when
"processing" @ARGV...
Michele
--
>It's because the universe was programmed in C++.
No, no, it was programmed in Forth. See Genesis 1:12:
"And the earth brought Forth ..."
- Robert Israel on sci.math, thread "Why numbers?"
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 13:13:30 +0100
From: "Janek Schleicher" <bigj@kamelfreund.de>
Subject: Re: Can't set or access array element in struct
Message-Id: <pan.2003.03.04.11.57.45.563998@kamelfreund.de>
On Thu, 27 Feb 2003 09:29:33 -0800, Carlton Brown wrote:
> My bad, it must have gotten lost in the cut-and-paste. Other than
> that, the code is the same, and the results are the same as I
> described:
Perl would have told you where the error is,
you only need ...
> person.pl script follows:
>
> #!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
> use Person;
> my $mage = Person->new;
> $mage->name("Gandalf");
> $mage->race("Istar");
> $mage->aliases( ["Mithrandir","Olorin","Incanus"] );
> printf "%s is of the race of %s.\n", $mage->name, $mage->race;
> print "His aliases are: ", join(", ", @{$mage->aliases}), ".\n";
>
> Person.pm module follows:
>
> package Person;
> use Class::Struct;
> struct Person => {
> name => '$',
> race => '$',
> aliases => '@',
> };
> 1;
Greetings,
Janek
------------------------------
Date: 4 Mar 2003 03:12:31 -0800
From: john_ramsden@sagitta-ps.com (John Ramsden)
Subject: Counter64 values returned by the Net::SNMP module
Message-Id: <d27434e.0303040312.3ad6c91b@posting.google.com>
[repost, as I included no-longer existent group info.snmp, and Google
seems to have thrown the whole post away as a result!]
I am using the Net::SNMP module v4.0.3 (with ActiveState Perl 5.6.1)
to return, among other things, Counter64 values. But every such value
is returned as either 0 or 9223372036854775808.
(This is data defined by the Fiber Channel Management MIB, being
returned by a McDATA SNMP Agent.)
Obviously not all statistics counts will have exactly the same
large value; so it looks like something is wrong here! Any ideas?
I'm pulling the values straight out of the $session->var_bind_list
hash.
Cheers
John Ramsden (john_ramsden@sagitta-ps.com)
P.S. I checked the documentation and source for Net::SNMP, and
'COUNTER64' crops up several times; but there's no mention of
any special treatment needed for Counter64 values.
------------------------------
Date: 04 Mar 2003 10:32:42 GMT
From: <jari.aalto@poboxes.com> (Jari Aalto+mail.perl)
Subject: Emacs modules for Perl programming
Message-Id: <perl-faq/emacs-lisp-modules_1046773629@rtfm.mit.edu>
Archive-name: perl-faq/emacs-lisp-modules
Posting-Frequency: 2 times a month
URL: http://tiny-tools.sourceforge.net/
Maintainer: Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>
Announcement: "What Emacs lisp modules can help with programming Perl"
Preface
Emacs is your friend if you have to do anything comcerning software
development: It offers plug-in modules, written in Emacs lisp
(elisp) language, that makes all your programmings wishes come
true. Please introduce yourself to Emacs and your programming era
will get a new light.
Where to find Emacs/XEmacs
o Unix:
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs.html
http://www.xemacs.org/
o Unix Windows port (for Unix die-hards):
install http://www.cygwin.com/ which includes native Emacs 21.x.
XEmacs port is bundled in XEmacs setup.exe available from
XEmacs site.
o Pure Native Windows port
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html
ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/windows/setup.exe
o More Emacs resources at
http://tiny-tools.sourceforge.net/ => Emacs resource page
Emacs Perl Modules
Cperl -- Perl programming mode
ftp://ftp.math.ohio-state.edu/pub/users/ilya/perl
http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/misc/emacs/cperl-mode/
<ilya@math.ohio-state.edu> Ilya Zakharevich
CPerl is major mode for editing perl files. Forget the default
`perl-mode' that comes with Emacs, this is much better. Comes
standard in newest Emacs.
TinyPerl -- Perl related utilities
http://tiny-tools.sourceforge.net/
If you ever wonder how to deal with Perl POD pages or how to find
documentation from all perl manpages, this package is for you.
Couple of keystrokes and all the documentaion is in your hands.
o Instant function help: See documentation of `shift', `pop'...
o Show Perl manual pages in *pod* buffer
o Grep through all Perl manpages (.pod)
o Follow POD references e.g. [perlre] to next pod with RETURN
o Coloured pod pages with `font-lock'
o Separate `tiperl-pod-view-mode' for jumping topics and pages
forward and backward in *pod* buffer.
o Update `$VERSION' variable with YYYY.MMDD on save.
o Load source code into Emacs, like Devel::DProf.pm
o Prepare script (version numbering) and Upload it to PAUSE
o Generate autoload STUBS (Devel::SelfStubber) for you
Perl Module (.pm)
TinyIgrep -- Perl Code browsing and easy grepping
[TinyIgrep is included in Tiny Tools Kit]
To grep from all installed Perl modules, define database to
TinyIgrep. There is example file emacs-rc-tinyigrep.el that shows
how to set up dattabases for Perl5, Perl4 whatever you have
installed
TinyIgrep calls Igrep.el to to do the search, You can adjust
recursive grep options, set search case sensitivity, add user grep
options etc.
You can find latest `igrep.el' module at
<http://groups.google.com/groups?group=gnu.emacs.sources> The
maintainer is Jefin Rodgers <kevinr@ihs.com>.
TinyCompile -- To Browse grep results in Emacs *compile* buffer
TinyCompile is a minor mode for *compile* buffer from where
you can collapse unwanted lines or shorten file URLs:
/asd/asd/asd/asd/ads/as/da/sd/as/as/asd/file1:NNN: MATCHED TEXT
/asd/asd/asd/asd/ads/as/da/sd/as/as/asd/file2:NNN: MATCHED TEXT
-->
cd /asd/asd/asd/asd/ads/as/da/sd/as/as/asd/
file1:NNN: MATCHED TEXT
file1:NNN: MATCHED TEXT
End
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 12:56:29 -0000
From: "Bigus" <somewhere@nowhere.com>
Subject: Greedy regexps
Message-Id: <b427pu$vf2@newton.cc.rl.ac.uk>
Hi
I am parsing some HTML code in the following manner:
$html =~ s/\n//g;
$html =~ s/.*<!--search-begin-->(.*)<!--search-end-->.*/$1/i;
$html =~ s/(^\s+|\s+$)//g;
$html =~ s/\s+/ /g;
$html =~ s/<td.+?class=\"*head1.*?>(.*?)<\/td>/###$1###/gi;
This is part of a script to search web pages, so it extracts the searchable
area of the page between the comments and does some pre-processing to make
it easier to search. I am going to remove all the HTML code, however, before
I do that I want to mark headings as they will take priority in the search
results. All headings appear in a table cell of their own with the class
"head1" applied to the cell.
So, with that in mind, the last line above attempts to replace all
occurences of "head1" class cells with the cell contents surrounded by "###"
markers that will be used later. It is this line that I am having problems
with.
I've coded it to take account the fact that there may be other properties to
the table cell other than class="head1", and also that the double-quotes may
not necessarily be present (ie: class=head1).
The problem is as follows:
Say the HTML reads:
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr align="left">
<td class="head1">FIRST HEADING</td>
</tr>
<tr align="left">
<td class="body1">Some text.. blah blah</td>
</tr>
<tr align="left">
<td class="head1">SECOND HEADING</td>
</tr>
<tr align="left">
<td class="body1">Some more text.. waffle waffle</td>
</tr>
</table>
After parsing with the above script, it comes out like this:
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr
align="left"> ###FIRST HEADING### </tr> <tr align="left"> ###SECOND
HEADING### </tr> <tr align="left"> <td class="body1">Some more text.. waffle
waffle</td> </tr></table>
So, basically, what it's done is that the first match has swallowed up:
</tr>
<tr align="left">
<td class="body1">Some text.. blah blah</td>
which I obviously don't want it to do. Strangely, the last match works fine.
Can someone tell me what is happening? I thought that the ? regexp character
was supposed to stop this happening.
Thanks
Spencer
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 14:50:39 +0100
From: "Tore Aursand" <tore@aursand.no>
Subject: Re: Greedy regexps
Message-Id: <pan.2003.03.04.13.14.04.603295@aursand.no>
On Tue, 04 Mar 2003 12:56:29 +0000, Bigus wrote:
> I am parsing some HTML code in the following manner:
> [...]
For the n'th time: Parsing HTML _is_ rocket science. Someone, but not
necessarily rocket scientists, have already done the HTML parsing job for
you.
Have a look at the HTML parser modules found at CPAN.
--
Tore Aursand <tore@aursand.no>
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 12:18:10 -0000
From: "Mike" <mike@luusac.co.uk>
Subject: newbie hash question
Message-Id: <BP09a.11914$EN3.95587@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net>
Hi,
can anyone point me at some sample code that will do the following:
read a text file,
iterate through it,
use a regexp to find lines matching [^]"A xyz"[$] (^$ as in beginning of
line & end of line) and use whatever xyz is as a hash key
use a regexp to find lines matching [^]"blah blah blah"[$] and use whatever
blah blah is as the associated value to the previous key
repeat process until EOF.
Any pointers to code which does something like this or basic stuff about
hashes generally would be appreciated.
thanks
Mike
------------------------------
Date: 4 Mar 2003 12:29:17 GMT
From: anno4000@lublin.zrz.tu-berlin.de (Anno Siegel)
Subject: Re: newbie hash question
Message-Id: <b4266t$otk$1@mamenchi.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE>
Mike <mike@luusac.co.uk> wrote in comp.lang.perl.misc:
> Hi,
>
> can anyone point me at some sample code that will do the following:
>
> read a text file,
> iterate through it,
> use a regexp to find lines matching [^]"A xyz"[$] (^$ as in beginning of
> line & end of line) and use whatever xyz is as a hash key
So what parts of "A xyz" can vary in which way? How, do you think,
should we come up with a regex when you don't say what it is supposed
to match?
> use a regexp to find lines matching [^]"blah blah blah"[$] and use whatever
> blah blah is as the associated value to the previous key
Same question as above: What parts of "blah blah blah" can vary in
which way? How are all "blah blah blah"-lines different from all
"A xyz"-lines?
What if no "blah blah blah" follows an "A xyz"? What if more than
one do?
> repeat process until EOF.
>
> Any pointers to code which does something like this or basic stuff about
> hashes generally would be appreciated.
Your specification is too imprecise to make concrete suggestions.
Anno
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 12:40:05 -0000
From: "Mike" <mike@luusac.co.uk>
Subject: Re: newbie hash question
Message-Id: <8819a.11934$EN3.95897@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net>
Hi
> So what parts of "A xyz" can vary in which way? How, do you think,
> should we come up with a regex when you don't say what it is supposed
> to match?
the xyx will differ, as in
"A sdfgfdgjdfgjkfdg: 123"
...
...
"A sdfgfdgjdfgjkfdg: 648"
...
...
"A sdfgfdgjdfgjkfdg: 291"
so something like /^[A-Z].*:\d\d\d/
> Same question as above: What parts of "blah blah blah" can vary in
> which way? How are all "blah blah blah"-lines different from all
> "A xyz"-lines?
something like /:\n.*/
I think I will be reasonably okay with the regexps, or at least whiile my
experiance of regexps is limited I think that I can have a reasonable
attempt at trying to come up with the regexps even though my examples above
won't work. ;-)
> What if no "blah blah blah" follows an "A xyz"? What if more than
> one do?
They don't, the file to parse is structured. I see your point, but that
would be (for me) a further development.
>
> > repeat process until EOF.
> >
> > Any pointers to code which does something like this or basic stuff about
> > hashes generally would be appreciated.
If this is still to imprecise I am just after examples of reading a file and
creating a hash by using 2 regexps as described - I can then make an
attempt at it myself ....
Mike
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 13:06:08 GMT
From: "Ian.H [dS]" <ian@WINDOZEdigiserv.net>
Subject: Playing a .wav file
Message-Id: <90996vs12g239rk3sqg6snq6jvrup2lb4h@4ax.com>
Keywords: Remove WINDOZE to reply
-----BEGIN xxx SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Afternoon all =)
Does anyone know of a method/function that'll enable a wav file to be
played on a certain event?
I experimented and used a system() call with just the wav file as an
arg, but this opened the default media player.
The script will be run through a client app on a system, not Web
based. I've tried searching google and came up with no leads.
Any information appreciated.
TIA.
Regards,
Ian
-----BEGIN xxx SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 8.0
iQA/AwUBPmSksmfqtj251CDhEQKbHACfSogKJMtNiE213jzhLCyb3mWDueIAoMsf
Lmx5w1VMTqbSU6s6Sop0FNJd
=jqG1
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
--
Ian.H [Design & Development]
digiServ Network - Web solutions
www.digiserv.net | irc.digiserv.net | forum.digiserv.net
Scripting, Web design, development & hosting.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 15:04:07 +0100
From: Malte Ubl <ubl@schaffhausen.de>
Subject: Re: Playing a .wav file
Message-Id: <b42evc$m1i$1@news.dtag.de>
Ian.H [dS] wrote:
> -----BEGIN xxx SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Afternoon all =)
>
> Does anyone know of a method/function that'll enable a wav file to be
> played on a certain event?
>
> I experimented and used a system() call with just the wav file as an
> arg, but this opened the default media player.
>
> The script will be run through a client app on a system, not Web
> based. I've tried searching google and came up with no leads.
>
> Any information appreciated.
You dont state your platform. On Win32 this should be doable via OLE.
->malte
--
srand 108641088; print chr int rand 256 for qw<J A P H>
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 07:00:15 -0600
From: tadmc@augustmail.com
Subject: Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.4 $)
Message-Id: <WQKdncgsl-zCPvmjXTWcoQ@august.net>
Outline
Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Must
- Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
Really Really Should
- Lurk for a while before posting
- Search a Usenet archive
If You Like
- Check Other Resources
Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Is there a better place to ask your question?
- Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
- Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
- Use an effective followup style
- Speak Perl rather than English, when possible
- Ask perl to help you
- Do not re-type Perl code
- Provide enough information
- Do not provide too much information
- Do not post binaries, HTML, or MIME
Social faux pas to avoid
- Asking a Frequently Asked Question
- Asking a question easily answered by a cursory doc search
- Asking for emailed answers
- Beware of saying "doesn't work"
- Sending a "stealth" Cc copy
Be extra cautious when you get upset
- Count to ten before composing a followup when you are upset
- Count to ten after composing and before posting when you are upset
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.4 $)
This newsgroup, commonly called clpmisc, is a technical newsgroup
intended to be used for discussion of Perl related issues (except job
postings), whether it be comments or questions.
As you would expect, clpmisc discussions are usually very technical in
nature and there are conventions for conduct in technical newsgroups
going somewhat beyond those in non-technical newsgroups.
This article describes things that you should, and should not, do to
increase your chances of getting an answer to your Perl question. It is
available in POD, HTML and plain text formats at:
http://mail.augustmail.com/~tadmc/clpmisc.shtml
For more information about netiquette in general, see the "Netiquette
Guidelines" at:
http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc1855.html
A note to newsgroup "regulars":
Do not use these guidelines as a "license to flame" or other
meanness. It is possible that a poster is unaware of things
discussed here. Give them the benefit of the doubt, and just
help them learn how to post, rather than assume
A note about technical terms used here:
In this document, we use words like "must" and "should" as
they're used in technical conversation (such as you will
encounter in this newsgroup). When we say that you *must* do
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We're not bossing you around; we're making the point without
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Do *NOT* send email to the maintainer of these guidelines. It will be
discarded unread. The guidelines belong to the newsgroup so all
discussion should appear in the newsgroup. I am just the secretary that
writes down the consensus of the group.
Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Must
This section describes things that you *must* do before posting to
clpmisc, in order to maximize your chances of getting meaningful replies
to your inquiry and to avoid getting flamed for being lazy and trying to
have others do your work.
The perl distribution includes documentation that is copied to your hard
drive when you install perl. Also installed is a program for looking
things up in that (and other) documentation named 'perldoc'.
You should either find out where the docs got installed on your system,
or use perldoc to find them for you. Type "perldoc perldoc" to learn how
to use perldoc itself. Type "perldoc perl" to start reading Perl's
standard documentation.
Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Checking the FAQ before posting is required in Big 8 newsgroups in
general, there is nothing clpmisc-specific about this requirement.
You are expected to do this in nearly all newsgroups.
You can use the "-q" switch with perldoc to do a word search of the
questions in the Perl FAQs.
Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
The perl distribution comes with much more documentation than is
available for most other newsgroups, so in clpmisc you should also
see if you can find an answer in the other (non-FAQ) standard docs
before posting.
It is *not* required, or even expected, that you actually *read* all of
Perl's standard docs, only that you spend a few minutes searching them
before posting.
Try doing a word-search in the standard docs for some words/phrases
taken from your problem statement or from your very carefully worded
"Subject:" header.
Really Really Should
This section describes things that you *really should* do before posting
to clpmisc.
Lurk for a while before posting
This is very important and expected in all newsgroups. Lurking means
to monitor a newsgroup for a period to become familiar with local
customs. Each newsgroup has specific customs and rituals. Knowing
these before you participate will help avoid embarrassing social
situations. Consider yourself to be a foreigner at first!
Search a Usenet archive
There are tens of thousands of Perl programmers. It is very likely
that your question has already been asked (and answered). See if you
can find where it has already been answered.
One such searchable archive is:
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
If You Like
This section describes things that you *can* do before posting to
clpmisc.
Check Other Resources
You may want to check in books or on web sites to see if you can
find the answer to your question.
But you need to consider the source of such information: there are a
lot of very poor Perl books and web sites, and several good ones
too, of course.
Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
There can be 200 messages in clpmisc in a single day. Nobody is going to
read every article. They must decide somehow which articles they are
going to read, and which they will skip.
Your post is in competition with 199 other posts. You need to "win"
before a person who can help you will even read your question.
These sections describe how you can help keep your article from being
one of the "skipped" ones.
Is there a better place to ask your question?
Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
It can be difficult to separate out where your problem really is,
but you should make a conscious effort to post to the most
applicable newsgroup. That is, after all, where you are the most
likely to find the people who know how to answer your question.
Being able to "partition" a problem is an essential skill for
effectively troubleshooting programming problems. If you don't get
that right, you end up looking for answers in the wrong places.
It should be understood that you may not know that the root of your
problem is not Perl-related (the two most frequent ones are CGI and
Operating System related), so off-topic postings will happen from
time to time. Be gracious when someone helps you find a better place
to ask your question by pointing you to a more applicable newsgroup.
How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
You have 40 precious characters of Subject to win out and be one of
the posts that gets read. Don't waste them. Take care while
composing them, they are the key that opens the door to getting an
answer.
Spend them indicating what aspect of Perl others will find if they
should decide to read your article.
Do not spend them indicating "experience level" (guru, newbie...).
Do not spend them pleading (please read, urgent, help!...).
Do not spend them on non-Subjects (Perl question, one-word
Subject...)
For more information on choosing a Subject see "Choosing Good
Subject Lines":
http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/D/DM/DMR/subjects.post
Part of the beauty of newsgroup dynamics, is that you can contribute
to the community with your very first post! If your choice of
Subject leads a fellow Perler to find the thread you are starting,
then even asking a question helps us all.
Use an effective followup style
When composing a followup, quote only enough text to establish the
context for the comments that you will add. Always indicate who
wrote the quoted material. Never quote an entire article. Never
quote a .signature (unless that is what you are commenting on).
Intersperse your comments *following* each section of quoted text to
which they relate. Unappreciated followup styles are referred to as
"Jeopardy" (because the answer comes before the question), or
"TOFU".
Reversing the chronology of the dialog makes it much harder to
understand (some folks won't even read it if written in that style).
For more information on quoting style, see:
http://web.presby.edu/~nnqadmin/nnq/nquote.html
Speak Perl rather than English, when possible
Perl is much more precise than natural language. Saying it in Perl
instead will avoid misunderstanding your question or problem.
Do not say: I have variable with "foo\tbar" in it.
Instead say: I have $var = "foo\tbar", or I have $var = 'foo\tbar',
or I have $var = <DATA> (and show the data line).
Ask perl to help you
You can ask perl itself to help you find common programming mistakes
by doing two things: enable warnings (perldoc warnings) and enable
"strict"ures (perldoc strict).
You should not bother the hundreds/thousands of readers of the
newsgroup without first seeing if a machine can help you find your
problem. It is demeaning to be asked to do the work of a machine. It
will annoy the readers of your article.
You can look up any of the messages that perl might issue to find
out what the message means and how to resolve the potential mistake
(perldoc perldiag). If you would like perl to look them up for you,
you can put "use diagnostics;" near the top of your program.
Do not re-type Perl code
Use copy/paste or your editor's "import" function rather than
attempting to type in your code. If you make a typo you will get
followups about your typos instead of about the question you are
trying to get answered.
Provide enough information
If you do the things in this item, you will have an Extremely Good
chance of getting people to try and help you with your problem!
These features are a really big bonus toward your question winning
out over all of the other posts that you are competing with.
First make a short (less than 20-30 lines) and *complete* program
that illustrates the problem you are having. People should be able
to run your program by copy/pasting the code from your article. (You
will find that doing this step very often reveals your problem
directly. Leading to an answer much more quickly and reliably than
posting to Usenet.)
Describe *precisely* the input to your program. Also provide example
input data for your program. If you need to show file input, use the
__DATA__ token (perldata.pod) to provide the file contents inside of
your Perl program.
Show the output (including the verbatim text of any messages) of
your program.
Describe how you want the output to be different from what you are
getting.
If you have no idea at all of how to code up your situation, be sure
to at least describe the 2 things that you *do* know: input and
desired output.
Do not provide too much information
Do not just post your entire program for debugging. Most especially
do not post someone *else's* entire program.
Do not post binaries, HTML, or MIME
clpmisc is a text only newsgroup. If you have images or binaries
that explain your question, put them in a publically accessible
place (like a Web server) and provide a pointer to that location. If
you include code, cut and paste it directly in the message body.
Don't attach anything to the message. Don't post vcards or HTML.
Many people (and even some Usenet servers) will automatically filter
out such messages. Many people will not be able to easily read your
post. Plain text is something everyone can read.
Social faux pas to avoid
The first two below are symptoms of lots of FAQ asking here in clpmisc.
It happens so often that folks will assume that it is happening yet
again. If you have looked but not found, or found but didn't understand
the docs, say so in your article.
Asking a Frequently Asked Question
It should be understood that you may have missed the applicable FAQ
when you checked, which is not a big deal. But if the Frequently
Asked Question is worded similar to your question, folks will assume
that you did not look at all. Don't become indignant at pointers to
the FAQ, particularly if it solves your problem.
Asking a question easily answered by a cursory doc search
If folks think you have not even tried the obvious step of reading
the docs applicable to your problem, they are likely to become
annoyed.
If you are flamed for not checking when you *did* check, then just
shrug it off (and take the answer that you got).
Asking for emailed answers
Emailed answers benefit one person. Posted answers benefit the
entire community. If folks can take the time to answer your
question, then you can take the time to go get the answer in the
same place where you asked the question.
It is OK to ask for a *copy* of the answer to be emailed, but many
will ignore such requests anyway. If you munge your address, you
should never expect (or ask) to get email in response to a Usenet
post.
Ask the question here, get the answer here (maybe).
Beware of saying "doesn't work"
This is a "red flag" phrase. If you find yourself writing that,
pause and see if you can't describe what is not working without
saying "doesn't work". That is, describe how it is not what you
want.
Sending a "stealth" Cc copy
A "stealth Cc" is when you both email and post a reply without
indicating *in the body* that you are doing so.
Be extra cautious when you get upset
Count to ten before composing a followup when you are upset
This is recommended in all Usenet newsgroups. Here in clpmisc, most
flaming sub-threads are not about any feature of Perl at all! They
are most often for what was seen as a breach of netiquette. If you
have lurked for a bit, then you will know what is expected and won't
make such posts in the first place.
But if you get upset, wait a while before writing your followup. I
recommend waiting at least 30 minutes.
Count to ten after composing and before posting when you are upset
After you have written your followup, wait *another* 30 minutes
before committing yourself by posting it. You cannot take it back
once it has been said.
AUTHOR
Tad McClellan <tadmc@augustmail.com> and many others on the
comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 11:29:56 +0100
From: "JoTo" <toellner@oss-gmbh.de>
Subject: Sending RAW-Data althoug using NET::SMTP Module?
Message-Id: <b41v76$sgj$07$1@news.t-online.com>
Hi Group,
i have maybe a strange sounding problem to you. But i can't resolve it by
myself althoug digging all over the net for hours and trying a lot of code.
Problem:
I wrote a own function which is sending email to a smtp servers using the
NET::SMTP Module. This function does a lot of other things before the mail
is sent. Now i have the problem, that i want to expand this function to use
smtp-auth LOGIN for authentication (if the calling function wants this). I
know that the net::smtp does not support auth directly (almost in the
version i use it on all our installed perl versions - so it is not a
solution to upgrade to a newer libnet-package or so).
I know how to auth with the server (i can do it manually with a telnet
client). So i know what to send and when.
BUT...it didn't work if i use the created smtp-object. I suggest the
smtp-functions will disturb the dataflow with some extra characters (like
.\r\n a.s.o.)
I tried datasend() with and without trailing dataend(), command() and other
functions within smtp-object or the base-classes net:cmd and io:socket. I
tried to wait until CMD_PENDING is gone a.s.o. nothing helps.
I send "AUTH LOGIN" and the server replies (as expected) with "334" (and the
base64-encoded Username:)
I send my base64-encoded username and the server replies again with "334"
and the Password: (encoded)
I send my encoded password and i expect a "235 Go Ahead"...but i receive a
"500 Auth failed" :-(((
If i do it manually with telnet it works fine.
I found a lot of samples that are using the io:socket instead of net:smtp.
But as i already have the function ready a would be glad to avoid to rewrite
the whole function using the io:socket.
So my question is, is it possible (and if how) is it possible to send (AND
read responses from the server) in raw format via the smtp-object as i can
with send and sysread via a io::socket object?
Any help, hint, URL appreciated. TIA!
CU
Joerg
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 13:23:32 -0000
From: "Peter Cooper" <newsfeed2@boog.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Stolen!
Message-Id: <GU19a.11980$EN3.96232@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net>
Eric Roode wrote:
> I can't really answer this, having never used PHP, but it's my
> understanding that PHP makes some quick and dirty tasks quicker and
> less dirty. In particular, it's supposed to make database access
> sweet.
The most compelling argument I've seen is one of speed. With all of the
statistics I've seen (even those done by Perl people), PHP with the Zend
optimiser outperforms Perl by a long way on Web applications, and outperforms
mod_perl /slightly/.
I am of the belief, however, that I can write something in Perl in a more
optimised way than I could in PHP.. no matter what the core speed of the
languages are.
Pete
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 13:21:08 +0000
From: Sharon Grant <peakpeek@purethought.com>
Subject: Re: SUBSTR or pattern matching?
Message-Id: <us896vo9fk10siuhbd4kikpppetdmj66rc@4ax.com>
On Mon, 03 Mar 2003 20:45:30 GMT, in comp.lang.perl.misc, impervious@attbi.com wrote:
>What is the best technique to use when trying to work with a string
>that contains a date and you want to find the day? Ie. in a string
>like this is want to find out that the day is the 25th:
>
>12/25/2000 blah blah blah blah
>3/25/2000 blah acih jklm wish
print 'day of the month is ', (split /\//)[1], "\n";
>And how could I trim everything beyond the date and 'blah' to the end
>of line so that I ended up with
>
>3/25/2000 blah
print join ' ', (split)[0,1], "\n";
--
Sharon
------------------------------
Date: 4 Mar 2003 09:01:08 GMT
From: anno4000@lublin.zrz.tu-berlin.de (Anno Siegel)
Subject: Re: Works offline but not online
Message-Id: <b41q0k$gl9$1@mamenchi.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE>
Johan Ljunggren <Johan.Ljunggren@uab.ericsson.se> wrote in comp.lang.perl.misc:
> Hi!
>
> Could someone help me with this?
The FAQ may.
> I have a perl CGI script that uses xalan (XSLT) to convert a XML file to
> a HTML file. When running it offline it works fine, but when running it
> online it doesn't...!?
There's a FAQ titled "My CGI script runs from the command line but not
the browser. (500 Server Error)". "perldoc -q browser" brings it
up.
Anno
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 10:47:15 +0000
From: news@roaima.freeserve.co.uk
Subject: Re: Works offline but not online
Message-Id: <j7024b.i9d.ln@moldev.cmagroup.co.uk>
Johan Ljunggren <Johan.Ljunggren@uab.ericsson.se> wrote:
> I have a perl CGI script that uses xalan (XSLT) to convert a XML file to
> a HTML file. When running it offline it works fine, but when running it
> online it doesn't...!?
What *exactly* happens, or doesn't happen? Saying "it doesn't [work]"
is not particularly helpful.
What do the web server error logs say?
Have you read the perl FAQ on this subject ("perldoc -q cgi" for
starters)?
Chris
--
@s=split(//,"Je,\nhn ersloak rcet thuarP");$k=$l=@s;for(;$k;$k--){$i=($i+1)%$l
until$s[$i];$c=$s[$i];print$c;undef$s[$i];$i=($i+(ord$c))%$l}
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 13:10:20 +0100
From: Johan Ljunggren <Johan.Ljunggren@uab.ericsson.se>
Subject: Re: Works offline but not online
Message-Id: <MI09a.81$Or2.1123295@uab.ericsson.se>
On 2003-03-04 11:47, news@roaima.freeserve.co.uk wrote:
> Johan Ljunggren <Johan.Ljunggren@uab.ericsson.se> wrote:
>
>>I have a perl CGI script that uses xalan (XSLT) to convert a XML file to
>>a HTML file. When running it offline it works fine, but when running it
>>online it doesn't...!?
>
>
> What *exactly* happens, or doesn't happen? Saying "it doesn't [work]"
> is not particularly helpful.
$rc = 256 and no HTML output.
> What do the web server error logs say?
Nothing.
> Have you read the perl FAQ on this subject ("perldoc -q cgi" for
> starters)?
Yes, and the Perl Cookbook.
> Chris
------------------------------
Date: 4 Mar 2003 04:15:46 -0800
From: johan.ljunggren@ericsson.com (Johan Ljunggren)
Subject: Re: Works offline but not online
Message-Id: <69113893.0303040415.303b6e24@posting.google.com>
Johan Ljunggren <Johan.Ljunggren@uab.ericsson.se> wrote in message news:<23Y8a.80$Or2.1121501@uab.ericsson.se>...
> Hi!
>
> Could someone help me with this?
>
> I have a perl CGI script that uses xalan (XSLT) to convert a XML file to
> a HTML file. When running it offline it works fine, but when running it
> online it doesn't...!?
>
> $rc = system("$java -cp $class_path org.apache.xalan.xslt.Process -IN
> $xml -XSL $xslt -OUT $output");
>
> if ($rc != 0) {
> <Failed>
> } else {
> <Redirect>
> }
>
> Regards,
> Johan
(Clarification) It does not work means:
$rc=256
No server error log & no HTML file output.
I do not get a 500 page and I have read perldoc & Perl Cookbook.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 07:55:55 -0500
From: LM <ellem52@mail.com>
Subject: Re: XML to HTML
Message-Id: <9i896vor3rt74tvne8tu4rs1sd5kj47gjk@4ax.com>
On 3 Mar 2003 23:43:31 GMT, "A. Sinan Unur" <asu1@c-o-r-n-e-l-l.edu>
wrote:
>LM <ellem52@mail.com> wrote in news:tsg76v80e16ofrbe0g1k2587ckpps1230e@
>4ax.com:
>
>> I have a 2.5 MB XML file I'd like to convert to HTML to be viewed in a
>> browser. (duh)
>
>a stylesheet would be best, you can also take a look at:
>http://www.imatix.com/html/gslgen/
Wow, this is quite a tool. Thank you!
--
There's more than one way to do it, but only some of them work
------------------------------
Date: 6 Apr 2001 21:33:47 GMT (Last modified)
From: Perl-Users-Request@ruby.oce.orst.edu (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
Subject: Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01)
Message-Id: <null>
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------------------------------
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