[25218] in Perl-Users-Digest
Perl-Users Digest, Issue: 7463 Volume: 10
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Tue Nov 30 06:06:05 2004
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 03:05:09 -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, 30 Nov 2004 Volume: 10 Number: 7463
Today's topics:
"anonymous" variable in Perl? (Ronald Fischer)
Re: "anonymous" variable in Perl? <richard@zync.co.uk>
Re: $SIG{IO} example <joe@inwap.com>
Re: Buy Programming Books (Anno Siegel)
FAQ 8.38: How do I timeout a slow event? <comdog@panix.com>
FAQ 9.24: How do I fetch a news article or the active n <comdog@panix.com>
Hash of functions in modules <corleone@godfather.com>
Re: Hash of functions in modules <notvalid@email.com>
Re: Hash of functions in modules <tassilo.von.parseval@rwth-aachen.de>
Re: how to define a variable to hold a multiline text i (dale zhang)
Re: how to define a variable to hold a multiline text i <tintin@invalid.invalid>
how to manage phpBB, windows 2003 server and FreeBSD us (jiing)
looking for simple code to build a search engine <info@nospam-bluegumdata.com.au>
Re: Minimize black screen <spikeywan@bigfoot.com>
Re: MLDBM error <see@sig.invalid>
Re: perl trim function <do-not-use@invalid.net>
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: tadmc@augustmail.com
Regarding Usage on Perl azbycx_47@yahoo.com
Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01) (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 30 Nov 2004 01:29:08 -0800
From: ronaldf@eml.cc (Ronald Fischer)
Subject: "anonymous" variable in Perl?
Message-Id: <219750c.0411300129.2f369a1c@posting.google.com>
Consider a call to, say, localtime, where I only need the current month:
my ($a, $b, $c, $d, $month) = localtime time,
Here I had to invent names ($a...$d) for the first four fields. Is it possible
in Perl to have kind of an "anonymous" variable as a placeholder for those
fields, similar to the '_' variable in Prolog?
I darkly remember to have read about such a feature introduced with Perl 5.6,
but I can't find out how to do it.
Ronald
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:51:53 +0000
From: Richard Gration <richard@zync.co.uk>
Subject: Re: "anonymous" variable in Perl?
Message-Id: <pan.2004.11.30.09.51.53.678817@zync.co.uk>
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 01:29:08 -0800, Ronald Fischer wrote:
> Consider a call to, say, localtime, where I only need the current month:
>
> my ($a, $b, $c, $d, $month) = localtime time,
>
> Here I had to invent names ($a...$d) for the first four fields. Is it possible
> in Perl to have kind of an "anonymous" variable as a placeholder for those
> fields, similar to the '_' variable in Prolog?
>
> I darkly remember to have read about such a feature introduced with Perl 5.6,
> but I can't find out how to do it.
>
> Ronald
You can use undef as an lvalue, as in:
my $month;
(undef,undef,undef,undef,$month) = localtime time;
However, in this case you might be better off using:
my $month = (localtime)[4];
which indexes directly in to the return from localtime, which is a list.
And which defaults to using time() as the time too.
Rich
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:37:48 GMT
From: Joe Smith <joe@inwap.com>
Subject: Re: $SIG{IO} example
Message-Id: <04Yqd.692348$8_6.286116@attbi_s04>
Sébastien Cottalorda wrote:
> My problem is:
> * If I wait for reading datas, I cannot send regularily anymore.
> * If I make a non blocking loop:
> while (1) {
> if ($s->can_read(1)){
> # ...
> }
> if ($s->can_write(1)){
> # process that can take time
> }
> }
> I'm frightened to make a infinite loop if I did'nt have nothing to send and
> if I don't have to receive something.
> That solution could not work either because if I take too long time to send
> datas, I lost the real time on the reception.
The IO::Select::select() method returns when it is possible to
either read or write. The values it returns are what you use
to determine whether reading or writing is appropriate.
while (1) {
($reads,$writes,$errors) = IO::Select::select($s,$s,$s);
foreach $obj (@$reads) {
read from the object
}
foreach $obj (@$writes) {
write to the object
}
foreach $obj (@$errors) {
handle exception
}
}
------------------------------
Date: 30 Nov 2004 09:11:53 GMT
From: anno4000@lublin.zrz.tu-berlin.de (Anno Siegel)
Subject: Re: Buy Programming Books
Message-Id: <cohdgp$psa$1@mamenchi.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE>
Rich <webmaster@qubitcode.com> wrote in comp.lang.perl.misc:
> QubitCode.com
>
> Offering programming books related to:
>
> C++
> C#
> Java
> Javascript
> HTML
> Perl
> and much more...
>
> Check it out for great deals!
>
> http://www.qubitcode.com/
s/b//;
Anno
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:03:20 +0000 (UTC)
From: PerlFAQ Server <comdog@panix.com>
Subject: FAQ 8.38: How do I timeout a slow event?
Message-Id: <cohk1o$f7e$1@reader1.panix.com>
This message is one of several periodic postings to comp.lang.perl.misc
intended to make it easier for perl programmers to find answers to
common questions. The core of this message represents an excerpt
from the documentation provided with Perl.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
8.38: How do I timeout a slow event?
Use the alarm() function, probably in conjunction with a signal handler,
as documented in "Signals" in perlipc and the section on ``Signals'' in
the Camel. You may instead use the more flexible Sys::AlarmCall module
available from CPAN.
The alarm() function is not implemented on all versions of Windows.
Check the documentation for your specific version of Perl.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Documents such as this have been called "Answers to Frequently
Asked Questions" or FAQ for short. They represent an important
part of the Usenet tradition. They serve to reduce the volume of
redundant traffic on a news group by providing quality answers to
questions that keep coming up.
If you are some how irritated by seeing these postings you are free
to ignore them or add the sender to your killfile. If you find
errors or other problems with these postings please send corrections
or comments to the posting email address or to the maintainers as
directed in the perlfaq manual page.
Note that the FAQ text posted by this server may have been modified
from that distributed in the stable Perl release. It may have been
edited to reflect the additions, changes and corrections provided
by respondents, reviewers, and critics to previous postings of
these FAQ. Complete text of these FAQ are available on request.
The perlfaq manual page contains the following copyright notice.
AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Tom Christiansen and Nathan
Torkington, and other contributors as noted. All rights
reserved.
This posting is provided in the hope that it will be useful but
does not represent a commitment or contract of any kind on the part
of the contributers, authors or their agents.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 05:03:02 +0000 (UTC)
From: PerlFAQ Server <comdog@panix.com>
Subject: FAQ 9.24: How do I fetch a news article or the active newsgroups?
Message-Id: <coguu6$9t5$1@reader1.panix.com>
This message is one of several periodic postings to comp.lang.perl.misc
intended to make it easier for perl programmers to find answers to
common questions. The core of this message represents an excerpt
from the documentation provided with Perl.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
9.24: How do I fetch a news article or the active newsgroups?
Use the Net::NNTP or News::NNTPClient modules, both available from CPAN.
This can make tasks like fetching the newsgroup list as simple as
perl -MNews::NNTPClient
-e 'print News::NNTPClient->new->list("newsgroups")'
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Documents such as this have been called "Answers to Frequently
Asked Questions" or FAQ for short. They represent an important
part of the Usenet tradition. They serve to reduce the volume of
redundant traffic on a news group by providing quality answers to
questions that keep coming up.
If you are some how irritated by seeing these postings you are free
to ignore them or add the sender to your killfile. If you find
errors or other problems with these postings please send corrections
or comments to the posting email address or to the maintainers as
directed in the perlfaq manual page.
Note that the FAQ text posted by this server may have been modified
from that distributed in the stable Perl release. It may have been
edited to reflect the additions, changes and corrections provided
by respondents, reviewers, and critics to previous postings of
these FAQ. Complete text of these FAQ are available on request.
The perlfaq manual page contains the following copyright notice.
AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Tom Christiansen and Nathan
Torkington, and other contributors as noted. All rights
reserved.
This posting is provided in the hope that it will be useful but
does not represent a commitment or contract of any kind on the part
of the contributers, authors or their agents.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 14:12:19 +0900
From: Vito Corleone <corleone@godfather.com>
Subject: Hash of functions in modules
Message-Id: <20041130141219.0b204ca1.corleone@godfather.com>
Hi,
I have code like this:
if ($cmd eq "get") { $self->get(); }
elsif ($cmd eq "set") { $self->set(); }
elsif ($cmd eq "copy") { $self->copy(); }
I want to put it inside hash of function. How do I do that? I know I can
do:
%hof = ( get => \&get,
set => \&set,
copy => \© );
$hof{$cmd}->();
But I will lose the $self in the function. How do I pass $self to the
function too as well?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:21:37 GMT
From: Ala Qumsieh <notvalid@email.com>
Subject: Re: Hash of functions in modules
Message-Id: <5cVqd.26782$zx1.12555@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com>
Vito Corleone wrote:
> if ($cmd eq "get") { $self->get(); }
> elsif ($cmd eq "set") { $self->set(); }
> elsif ($cmd eq "copy") { $self->copy(); }
Perl allows this:
$self->$cmd;
--Ala
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 08:50:54 +0100
From: "Tassilo v. Parseval" <tassilo.von.parseval@rwth-aachen.de>
Subject: Re: Hash of functions in modules
Message-Id: <slrncqo9iu.1kq.tassilo.von.parseval@localhost.localdomain>
Also sprach Ala Qumsieh:
> Vito Corleone wrote:
>
>> if ($cmd eq "get") { $self->get(); }
>> elsif ($cmd eq "set") { $self->set(); }
>> elsif ($cmd eq "copy") { $self->copy(); }
>
> Perl allows this:
>
> $self->$cmd;
And in case $cmd can contain garbage (that is, the name of a
non-existing method), one could catch that with an autoloader:
our $AUTOLOAD;
...
sub DESTROY { }
sub AUTOLOAD {
die "No such method: $AUTOLOAD";
}
Tassilo
--
$_=q#",}])!JAPH!qq(tsuJ[{@"tnirp}3..0}_$;//::niam/s~=)]3[))_$-3(rellac(=_$({
pam{rekcahbus})(rekcah{lrePbus})(lreP{rehtonabus})!JAPH!qq(rehtona{tsuJbus#;
$_=reverse,s+(?<=sub).+q#q!'"qq.\t$&."'!#+sexisexiixesixeseg;y~\n~~dddd;eval
------------------------------
Date: 29 Nov 2004 15:07:19 -0800
From: zhangd@tycoelectronics.com (dale zhang)
Subject: Re: how to define a variable to hold a multiline text input in perl from html multiline textbox
Message-Id: <60460471.0411291507.2db04d11@posting.google.com>
Please ignore my follow-up message that includes the script. I find a
way to handle multiline textarea now.
Thanks a lot. -Dale
Eric Schwartz <emschwar@fc.hp.com> wrote in message news:<eto653w2mv6.fsf@wilson.emschwar>...
> zhangd@tycoelectronics.com (dale zhang) writes:
> > I have a perl script (run when "submit" is clicked) to read all
> > one-line text box inputs. However it has trouble to read a multiline
> > textbox (like user question input) to $question. Do I define the
> > variable wrongly?
>
> You should just be able to do:
>
> my $multiline = param('multiline');
>
> in your script. You are using CGI.pm (or CGI::Lite, or something like
> that), right? If that doesn't do the trick, or you still don't
> understand, please read the Posting Guidelines first, and then post a
> small (10-20 lines is ideal), *COMPLETE* program that shows the
> problem, along with a description of what is supposed to happen, and
> what actually happens.
>
> -=Eric
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:53:00 +1300
From: "Tintin" <tintin@invalid.invalid>
Subject: Re: how to define a variable to hold a multiline text input in perl from html multiline textbox
Message-Id: <312jjiF355l5uU1@uni-berlin.de>
"dale zhang" <zhangd@tycoelectronics.com> wrote in message
news:60460471.0411291507.2db04d11@posting.google.com...
> Eric Schwartz <emschwar@fc.hp.com> wrote in message
> news:<eto653w2mv6.fsf@wilson.emschwar>...
>> zhangd@tycoelectronics.com (dale zhang) writes:
>> > I have a perl script (run when "submit" is clicked) to read all
>> > one-line text box inputs. However it has trouble to read a multiline
>> > textbox (like user question input) to $question. Do I define the
>> > variable wrongly?
>>
>> You should just be able to do:
>>
>> my $multiline = param('multiline');
>>
>> in your script. You are using CGI.pm (or CGI::Lite, or something like
>> that), right? If that doesn't do the trick, or you still don't
>> understand, please read the Posting Guidelines first, and then post a
>> small (10-20 lines is ideal), *COMPLETE* program that shows the
>> problem, along with a description of what is supposed to happen, and
>> what actually happens.
>
> Please ignore my follow-up message that includes the script. I find a
> way to handle multiline textarea now.
Hopefully that "way" involved using CGI.pm
------------------------------
Date: 29 Nov 2004 20:18:01 -0800
From: jiing.deng@gmail.com (jiing)
Subject: how to manage phpBB, windows 2003 server and FreeBSD user accounts simultaneously.
Message-Id: <b7b95676.0411292018.67562d00@posting.google.com>
I want to write a program which can manage phpBB, windows 2003 server
and FreeBSD user accounts simultaneously.
Where can I find related information? Could you show me the
direction?
any related CPAN modules
thanks in advance.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:47:37 GMT
From: "Marcel" <info@nospam-bluegumdata.com.au>
Subject: looking for simple code to build a search engine
Message-Id: <ZkXqd.53484$K7.46478@news-server.bigpond.net.au>
Hi,
I have a hobby website with many, many pages with pictures on which I want
to install a search engine. The ones I've had a look at don't exactly do
what I want. So I want to make it myself. On the other hand, I'm completely
new to Perl - it does work fine on my computer though.
My idea is as follows:
any search on my website looks into a file (search.txt) of which each line
looks something like "url= .... thumb= ... title= .... keywords= ...".
The keywords-part (of course) must be scanned, and if a match is found, then
the title, url and thumbnail must be returned to the search page.
The search.txt is fed by my pictures database.
Is there something out there that I can use?
Many thanks,
Marcel
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:58:44 -0000
From: "Richard S Beckett" <spikeywan@bigfoot.com>
Subject: Re: Minimize black screen
Message-Id: <cohge0$k8u$1@newshost.mot.com>
> >Is there anyway to minimize the black screen while a Perl script is
running
> >an then return it to normal just before the script comcludes?
NOT a working script, but the snippets you need...
use Win32::GUI;
#Hide dos window
my $perlwin = Win32::GUI::GetPerlWindow();
Win32::GUI::Hide($perlwin);
#restore dos window
my $perlwin = Win32::GUI::GetPerlWindow();
Win32::GUI::OpenIcon($perlwin);
#see what happened
print "\nPress ENTER to exit";
<STDIN>;
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 23:13:54 -0500
From: Bob Walton <see@sig.invalid>
Subject: Re: MLDBM error
Message-Id: <41abf0fe$1_5@127.0.0.1>
Mark Ng wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I got a file that was created using MLDBM (DB_File Storable) a couple of
> years ago. Now, when I tried to load it I get this error:
>
> MLDBM error: Second level tie failed, "" at data.pm line 290
>
> Any suggestions on how I can read the file ?
Just a guess: The problem is probably with the DB_File end of things --
DMB-type files tend not to be portable across platforms/versions or
perhaps even nominally similar computers (depending on what compilation
options were used for each system). You may need to go back to the same
platform/version where the file was written in order to read it, and
there generate an ASCII dump of the key/value pairs to bring to your
current system to regenerate the DB_File file. DBM-type files are not a
good choice for archiving data.
> I am using perl 5.8.4 on Debian.
...
> mark
--
Bob Walton
Email: http://bwalton.com/cgi-bin/emailbob.pl
------------------------------
Date: 30 Nov 2004 10:19:43 +0100
From: Arndt Jonasson <do-not-use@invalid.net>
Subject: Re: perl trim function
Message-Id: <yzdpt1vn174.fsf@invalid.net>
Uri Guttman <uri@stemsystems.com> writes:
> >>>>> "AJ" == Arndt Jonasson <do-not-use@invalid.net> writes:
> AJ> sub trim ($) {
> AJ> if (! defined wantarray) {
> AJ> trim1 \$_[0];
> AJ> return;
> AJ> }
>
> eww, prototypes! steer clear of them in general.
Oh. I thought they were meant to be useful, for example catching incorrect
calling usage. What are the arguments against them?
------------------------------
Date: 30 Nov 2004 08:22:16 GMT
From: tadmc@augustmail.com
Subject: Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.5 $)
Message-Id: <41ac2db7$0$27771$8b463f8a@news.nationwide.net>
Outline
Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Must
- Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
Really Really Should
- Lurk for a while before posting
- Search a Usenet archive
If You Like
- Check Other Resources
Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Is there a better place to ask your question?
- Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
- Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
- Use an effective followup style
- Speak Perl rather than English, when possible
- Ask perl to help you
- Do not re-type Perl code
- Provide enough information
- Do not provide too much information
- Do not post binaries, HTML, or MIME
Social faux pas to avoid
- Asking a Frequently Asked Question
- Asking a question easily answered by a cursory doc search
- Asking for emailed answers
- Beware of saying "doesn't work"
- Sending a "stealth" Cc copy
Be extra cautious when you get upset
- Count to ten before composing a followup when you are upset
- Count to ten after composing and before posting when you are upset
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.5 $)
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.
The article at:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
describes how to get answers from technical people in general.
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
something, we mean that if you don't do that something, then
it's unlikely that you will benefit much from this group.
We're not bossing you around; we're making the point without
lots of words.
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
"top-posting", "Jeopardy" (because the answer comes before the
question), or "TOFU" (Text Over, Fullquote Under).
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: 30 Nov 2004 01:25:06 -0800
From: azbycx_47@yahoo.com
Subject: Regarding Usage on Perl
Message-Id: <8de10490.0411300125.e33f986@posting.google.com>
Hello All,
I heard that perl has lot many features within it some of which
specifically cater to the windows operating system, the Win32 API
series. I had specific question relating to the Win32 API sets
supported through it and so thought of posting a query to this mailing
list.
First thing, I wanted to know is that, Can Perl scripting be used in
an Embedded Windows Platform like WinCE? If so, can it be supported
for all versions of WinCE till the latest release(WinCE-5.0 i.e.
Macallan)?
Second thing, I wanted to know is that,suppose I have a scenario in
which some application is running in WinCE and on a target board. Are
there any features in Perl wherein the user intervention with the
application can be automated? What I mean is that, instead of using
the display for giving in the necessary commands, is it possible to
simulate these commands by scripting through perl?
Please help me with providing in with the info if possible.
Regards,
xyz.
------------------------------
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>
Administrivia:
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------------------------------
End of Perl-Users Digest V10 Issue 7463
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