[28975] in Perl-Users-Digest
Perl-Users Digest, Issue: 219 Volume: 11
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Tue Mar 13 06:10:03 2007
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:09:05 -0700 (PDT)
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, 13 Mar 2007 Volume: 11 Number: 219
Today's topics:
Re: adding a data field to a subclass of HTML::Parser <bik.mido@tiscalinet.it>
Re: Convert hex to bin <1usa@llenroc.ude.invalid>
Re: Convert hex to bin <paduille.4060.mumia.w+nospam@earthlink.net>
Re: Equivalent in Perl <pankaj_wolfhunter@yahoo.co.in>
Re: Equivalent in Perl <pankaj_wolfhunter@yahoo.co.in>
Re: Equivalent in Perl <scobloke2@infotop.co.uk>
how to do file1-file2? <robertchen117@gmail.com>
Re: how to do file1-file2? <ben@morrow.me.uk>
Re: Llama book exercise <persep@gmail.com>
Re: Llama book exercise <persep@gmail.com>
new CPAN modules on Tue Mar 13 2007 (Randal Schwartz)
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: tadmc@augustmail.com
Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01) (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:12:25 +0100
From: Michele Dondi <bik.mido@tiscalinet.it>
Subject: Re: adding a data field to a subclass of HTML::Parser
Message-Id: <vjqcv2ppiu9f5pjshatoa95mm2tmefnjpj@4ax.com>
On 12 Mar 2007 15:43:38 -0700, "attn.steven.kuo@gmail.com"
<attn.steven.kuo@gmail.com> wrote:
>Thanks for the tip, Anno. It's definitely time for me to upgrade:
>I've been stuck on version 5.8.7 due to my own laziness (the bad
>kind)
Well, things won't change with current stable. The versions Anno
mentioned are a blead (experimental) and a not yet existing stable.
You can install the latter for, err well... experimenting but you will
probably want to keep the current stable too.
Michele
--
{$_=pack'B8'x25,unpack'A8'x32,$a^=sub{pop^pop}->(map substr
(($a||=join'',map--$|x$_,(unpack'w',unpack'u','G^<R<Y]*YB='
.'KYU;*EVH[.FHF2W+#"\Z*5TI/ER<Z`S(G.DZZ9OX0Z')=~/./g)x2,$_,
256),7,249);s/[^\w,]/ /g;$ \=/^J/?$/:"\r";print,redo}#JAPH,
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:09:17 GMT
From: "A. Sinan Unur" <1usa@llenroc.ude.invalid>
Subject: Re: Convert hex to bin
Message-Id: <Xns98F21926B800asu1cornelledu@127.0.0.1>
Michele Dondi <bik.mido@tiscalinet.it> wrote in
news:op0bv2dnjr2tfudte5d01bcp7203vk2sl0@4ax.com:
> On Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:56:23 GMT, "Mumia W."
> <paduille.4060.mumia.w+nospam@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>> sub hex2bin {
>> unpack 'B8', pack 'H2', $_[0];
>> }
>>
>>The "perldoc -f pack" command describes the format strings.
>
> Naaah, you spoon-fed him at last! :-)
Oh, but that's what he does.
Anyway, did I understand the question correctly? One has something like:
my $s = 'deadbeaf';
and wants its binary representation. Why go through all the contortions
with pack/unpack?
C:\Home\asu1> perl -e "printf qq{%32.32b\n}, hex 'deadbeef'"
11011110101011011011111011101111
Sinan
--
A. Sinan Unur <1usa@llenroc.ude.invalid>
(remove .invalid and reverse each component for email address)
clpmisc guidelines: <URL:http://www.augustmail.com/~tadmc/clpmisc.shtml>
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:04:08 GMT
From: "Mumia W." <paduille.4060.mumia.w+nospam@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Convert hex to bin
Message-Id: <sGuJh.12359$Jl.1719@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net>
On 03/12/2007 12:49 PM, Mirco Wahab wrote:
> Mumia W. wrote:
>>
>> sub hex2bin {
>> unpack 'B8', pack 'H2', $_[0];
>> }
>>
>
> another possibility would be:
>
> ...
>
> sub hex2bin {
> base_convert (shift), 16, 2
> }
>
> ...
>
>
>
> (OK, I said "possibility") ...
>
> Regards
>
> Mirco
That's interesting. What module is "base_convert" a part of?
Yahoo-ing online, I've been able to find a base_convert() for PHP, but
not for Perl.
------------------------------
Date: 12 Mar 2007 22:55:07 -0700
From: "pankaj_wolfhunter@yahoo.co.in" <pankaj_wolfhunter@yahoo.co.in>
Subject: Re: Equivalent in Perl
Message-Id: <1173765306.759612.135810@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 12, 11:01 pm, xhos...@gmail.com wrote:
> "pankaj_wolfhun...@yahoo.co.in" <pankaj_wolfhun...@yahoo.co.in> wrote:
>
> > > > sqlplus -s orauser/orapass@oadb << eof > output_file.txt
> > > > some oracle queries
> > > > exit;
> > > > eof;
>
> > Still if we need to convert the above code using DBI, how'll that be.
> > Actually I tried myself but couldnt get through.
>
> I would start by reading the DBI docs, or maybe a book about using DBI.
> Surely you don't expect us to read the DBI docs to you, or just retype the
> docs into usenet, right?
>
> What did you try and what problems did you encounter?
>
> Did you establish a connection? If so, did you prepare and execute a
> query? If so, did you get the results? If so, do you know how to use join
> and print? If so, then what is left to be done?
>
> Xho
>
> --
> --------------------http://NewsReader.Com/--------------------
> Usenet Newsgroup Service $9.95/Month 30GB
Thanks for replying.
As I told before also i did try it with DBI and all I couldnt do is
how
to redirect the output instead of console to a file.
Neverming here's my code
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use DBI;
$dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:Oracle:oradb","username","password") || die
"Database Connection not Made : $DBI::errstr\n";
### Prepare a SQL statement for execution
$sth = $dbh->prepare( "SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL1" );
### Execute the statement in the database
$sth->execute();
$sth->finish();
$dbh->disconnect();
Now whatever is the output (error or actual output) goes to console.
How to redirect it to file instead of console.
I tried using STDERR but couldnt get it to work.
What code to put exactly where in order to achieve this?
TIA
------------------------------
Date: 12 Mar 2007 23:25:36 -0700
From: "pankaj_wolfhunter@yahoo.co.in" <pankaj_wolfhunter@yahoo.co.in>
Subject: Re: Equivalent in Perl
Message-Id: <1173767136.583401.294020@c51g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 12, 11:01 pm, xhos...@gmail.com wrote:
> "pankaj_wolfhun...@yahoo.co.in" <pankaj_wolfhun...@yahoo.co.in> wrote:
>
> > > > sqlplus -s orauser/orapass@oadb << eof > output_file.txt
> > > > some oracle queries
> > > > exit;
> > > > eof;
>
> > Still if we need to convert the above code using DBI, how'll that be.
> > Actually I tried myself but couldnt get through.
>
> I would start by reading the DBI docs, or maybe a book about using DBI.
> Surely you don't expect us to read the DBI docs to you, or just retype the
> docs into usenet, right?
>
> What did you try and what problems did you encounter?
>
> Did you establish a connection? If so, did you prepare and execute a
> query? If so, did you get the results? If so, do you know how to use join
> and print? If so, then what is left to be done?
>
> Xho
>
> --
> --------------------http://NewsReader.Com/--------------------
> Usenet Newsgroup Service $9.95/Month 30GB
Thanks for replying.
As I told before I tried this with DBI but just didnt know
how to redirect the output to a file.
here's the code I used:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use DBI;
$dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:Oracle:ndmid","ssatyasa","ssatyasa") || die
"Database Connection not Made : $DBI::errstr\n";
### Prepare a SQL statement for execution
$sth = $dbh->prepare( "SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL1" );
### Execute the statement in the database
$sth->execute( );
$sth->finish();
$dbh->disconnect();
I tried redirecting using STDERR but just couldnt make it work.
What to put and exactly where?
Any help?
TIA
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:32:58 +0000
From: Ian Wilson <scobloke2@infotop.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Equivalent in Perl
Message-Id: <45f66fce$0$2455$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk>
pankaj_wolfhunter@yahoo.co.in wrote:
>
> here's the code I used:
>
> #!/usr/bin/perl -w
>
> use DBI;
>
> $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:Oracle:ndmid","ssatyasa","ssatyasa") || die
> "Database Connection not Made : $DBI::errstr\n";
>
> ### Prepare a SQL statement for execution $sth = $dbh->prepare(
> "SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL1" );
>
> ### Execute the statement in the database $sth->execute( );
> $sth->finish(); $dbh->disconnect();
>
> I tried redirecting using STDERR but just couldnt make it work. What
> to put and exactly where?
>
Since you are apparently unable to use Google, I did it for you. I typed
in "perl DBI example" and looked at the first item returned. I recommend
you get into the habit of using Google.
http://www.saturn5.com/~jwb/dbi-examples.html has this example
------------------------------------8<--------------------------------
use strict;
use DBI;
my $dbh = DBI->connect( 'dbi:Oracle:orcl',
'jeffrey',
'jeffspassword',
{
RaiseError => 1,
AutoCommit => 0
}
) || die "Database connection not made:
$DBI::errstr";
my $sql = qq{ SELECT id, name, title, phone FROM employees };
my $sth = $dbh->prepare( $sql );
$sth->execute();
my( $id, $name, $title, $phone );
$sth->bind_columns( undef, \$id, \$name, \$title, \$phone );
while( $sth->fetch() ) {
print "$name, $title, $phone\n";
}
$sth->finish();
$dbh->disconnect();
------------------------------------8<--------------------------------
I'm assuming you know how to use Perl to open a file for writing and how
to compose a perl "print" statement to write to a file. If not try using
the perl documentattion by typing these commands:
perldoc -f open
perldoc -f print
With that knowledge you can adapt the above example to write the SQL
data to a file.
------------------------------
Date: 12 Mar 2007 22:31:26 -0700
From: "robertchen117@gmail.com" <robertchen117@gmail.com>
Subject: how to do file1-file2?
Message-Id: <1173763886.126065.33880@64g2000cwx.googlegroups.com>
my files contains all lines of host names, also file2.
I want a shell could have the result : remove all the line in file1,
if the line is in the file2.
Please help. Thanks.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 05:56:40 +0000
From: Ben Morrow <ben@morrow.me.uk>
Subject: Re: how to do file1-file2?
Message-Id: <o1rhc4-75c.ln1@osiris.mauzo.dyndns.org>
Quoth "robertchen117@gmail.com" <robertchen117@gmail.com>:
> my files contains all lines of host names, also file2.
>
> I want a shell could have the result : remove all the line in file1,
> if the line is in the file2.
>
> Please help. Thanks.
If you install the File::Slurp module, the following will do what you
want:
perl -MFile::Slurp -ne'
BEGIN{ @rej{read_file "file2"} = (); }
print unless exists $rej{$_};
' file1
To edit file1 in place use the -i switch (see perldoc perlrun).
Ben
--
Heracles: Vulture! Here's a titbit for you / A few dried molecules of the gall
From the liver of a friend of yours. / Excuse the arrow but I have no spoon.
(Ted Hughes, [ Heracles shoots Vulture with arrow. Vulture bursts into ]
'Alcestis') [ flame, and falls out of sight. ] ben@morrow.me.uk
------------------------------
Date: 13 Mar 2007 01:38:49 -0700
From: "PerseP" <persep@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Llama book exercise
Message-Id: <1173775129.066451.39040@q40g2000cwq.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 12, 10:11 pm, brian d foy <brian.d....@gmail.com> wrote:
> $_ is a global variable. Instead of getting into the bad habit of using
> it when you don't need it, we suggest that you use your own variable
> for the foreach. It might seem a bit silly for the simple exercise, but
> it's never too early to start good coding practices. :)
Hi,
thanks for answering.The answer is a bit contradictory as there are
other examples in the book that use the $_ instead of a private
variable thus not being examples of good coding but as there are only
short examples there's nothing wrong with that.
BTW, may I notice there is a typo on that same page of the book
"Learning Perl 4th edition 0-596-10105-8 " in the same exercise where
the declaration of my $element is missing so it gives a compile error.
I've already reported it to the editor.
------------------------------
Date: 13 Mar 2007 02:23:45 -0700
From: "PerseP" <persep@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Llama book exercise
Message-Id: <1173777825.551301.214420@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>
> $_ is a global variable. Instead of getting into the bad habit of using
> it when you don't need it, we suggest that you use your own variable
> for the foreach. It might seem a bit silly for the simple exercise, but
> it's never too early to start good coding practices. :)
Hi,
thanks for the reply. I think it's a bit contradictory because the are
other examples in the book that use $_ as a control variable instead
of defining a new private one. As they are only examples for a book I
guess it's not that bad.
BTW there is a typo mistake in the same exercise on page 234 "Learning
Perl 4th edition 0-596-10105-8" where the declaration of the variable
"my $element" is missing thus giving a compilation error. I've already
reported it to the editor.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 05:42:09 GMT
From: merlyn@stonehenge.com (Randal Schwartz)
Subject: new CPAN modules on Tue Mar 13 2007
Message-Id: <JEtuI9.F9s@zorch.sf-bay.org>
The following modules have recently been added to or updated in the
Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). You can install them using the
instructions in the 'perlmodinstall' page included with your Perl
distribution.
Apache-AxKit-Plugin-NotFoundIfPathInfo-1.00
http://search.cpan.org/~zeya/Apache-AxKit-Plugin-NotFoundIfPathInfo-1.00/
return 404 (NOT FOUND) if PATH_INFO is present.
----
Apache-Session-1.82_03
http://search.cpan.org/~chorny/Apache-Session-1.82_03/
A persistence framework for session data
----
Bio-Grep-v0.3.0
http://search.cpan.org/~limaone/Bio-Grep-v0.3.0/
Perl extension for searching in Fasta files
----
Business-DK-CVR-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~jonasbn/Business-DK-CVR-0.03/
a danish CVR (VAT Registration) code generator/validator
----
Business-DK-PO-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~jonasbn/Business-DK-PO-0.03/
a danish postal order code generator/validator
----
CPAN-YACSmoke-Plugin-NNTP-0.05
http://search.cpan.org/~barbie/CPAN-YACSmoke-Plugin-NNTP-0.05/
NNTP plugin for Yet Another CPAN Smoke Tester
----
CPAN-YACSmoke-Plugin-NNTPWeb-0.05
http://search.cpan.org/~barbie/CPAN-YACSmoke-Plugin-NNTPWeb-0.05/
NNTP web plugin for CPAN::YACSmoke
----
CPAN-YACSmoke-Plugin-NNTPWeb-0.06
http://search.cpan.org/~barbie/CPAN-YACSmoke-Plugin-NNTPWeb-0.06/
NNTP web plugin for CPAN::YACSmoke
----
CPAN-YACSmoke-Plugin-Outlook-0.06
http://search.cpan.org/~barbie/CPAN-YACSmoke-Plugin-Outlook-0.06/
Outlook mailbox list for CPAN::YACSmoke
----
CPAN-YACSmoke-Plugin-WebList-0.05
http://search.cpan.org/~barbie/CPAN-YACSmoke-Plugin-WebList-0.05/
WebList plugin for CPAN::YACSmoke
----
Catalyst-Model-JabberRPC-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~fmerges/Catalyst-Model-JabberRPC-0.03/
JabberRPC model class for Catalyst
----
Color-Similarity-HCL-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~mbarbon/Color-Similarity-HCL-0.02/
compute color similarity using the HCL color space
----
Crypt-OpenSSL-CA-0.05
http://search.cpan.org/~domq/Crypt-OpenSSL-CA-0.05/
The crypto parts of an X509v3 Certification Authority
----
Crypt-OpenSSL-CA-0.06
http://search.cpan.org/~domq/Crypt-OpenSSL-CA-0.06/
The crypto parts of an X509v3 Certification Authority
----
DBIx-MoCo-0.08
http://search.cpan.org/~jkondo/DBIx-MoCo-0.08/
Light & Fast Model Component
----
DBM-Deep-1.0001
http://search.cpan.org/~rkinyon/DBM-Deep-1.0001/
A pure perl multi-level hash/array DBM that supports transactions
----
Date-Holidays-0.14
http://search.cpan.org/~jonasbn/Date-Holidays-0.14/
a Date::Holidays::* OOP Adapter aggregator
----
Date-Holidays-Abstract-0.04
http://search.cpan.org/~jonasbn/Date-Holidays-Abstract-0.04/
an abstract class for Date::Holidays::* modules
----
Geo-Coordinates-UTM-0.06
http://search.cpan.org/~grahamc/Geo-Coordinates-UTM-0.06/
Perl extension for Latitiude Longitude conversions.
----
Google-Adwords-v1.1.3
http://search.cpan.org/~rohan/Google-Adwords-v1.1.3/
an interface which abstracts the Google Adwords SOAP API
----
Gtk2-1.144
http://search.cpan.org/~tsch/Gtk2-1.144/
Perl interface to the 2.x series of the Gimp Toolkit library
----
HTML-Feature-1.0.3
http://search.cpan.org/~miki/HTML-Feature-1.0.3/
an extractor of feature sentence from HTML
----
IPtables-IPv4-DBTarpit-0.37
http://search.cpan.org/~miker/IPtables-IPv4-DBTarpit-0.37/
----
Imager-Screenshot-0.005
http://search.cpan.org/~tonyc/Imager-Screenshot-0.005/
screenshot to an Imager image
----
Log-Log4perl-ConfigByInifile-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~horshack/Log-Log4perl-ConfigByInifile-0.02/
Get Log::Log4perl config from an ini-File
----
Math-GAP-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~galand/Math-GAP-0.03/
GAP interpreter controller for Perl
----
Module-Build-Convert-0.48
http://search.cpan.org/~schubiger/Module-Build-Convert-0.48/
Makefile.PL to Build.PL converter
----
Net-Amazon-0.40
http://search.cpan.org/~boumenot/Net-Amazon-0.40/
Framework for accessing amazon.com via REST
----
Net-DRI-0.70
http://search.cpan.org/~pmevzek/Net-DRI-0.70/
Interface to Domain Name Registries/Registrars/Resellers
----
PGPLOT-Simple-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~fmerges/PGPLOT-Simple-0.03/
Simple Interface to PGPLOT
----
Parse-QTEDI-0.01_07
http://search.cpan.org/~dongxu/Parse-QTEDI-0.01_07/
Parse QT/KDE preprocessed headers
----
Pugs-Compiler-Rule-0.21
http://search.cpan.org/~fglock/Pugs-Compiler-Rule-0.21/
Compiler for Perl 6 Rules
----
REST-Application-0.991
http://search.cpan.org/~moconnor/REST-Application-0.991/
A framework for building RESTful web-applications.
----
Set-IntSpan-Island-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~martink/Set-IntSpan-Island-0.02/
extension for Set::IntSpan to handle islands and covers
----
TAP-Parser-0.51
http://search.cpan.org/~andya/TAP-Parser-0.51/
Parse TAP output
----
Template-Plugin-Dump-0.01
http://search.cpan.org/~ishigaki/Template-Plugin-Dump-0.01/
alternative dumper plugin with Data::Dump
----
Test-Run-0.0105
http://search.cpan.org/~shlomif/Test-Run-0.0105/
----
WWW-Scraper-ISBN-Amazon_Driver-0.07
http://search.cpan.org/~barbie/WWW-Scraper-ISBN-Amazon_Driver-0.07/
----
WWW-UsePerl-Journal-0.15
http://search.cpan.org/~barbie/WWW-UsePerl-Journal-0.15/
A use.perl.org journal tool
----
WebService-Images-Nofrag-0.05
http://search.cpan.org/~franckc/WebService-Images-Nofrag-0.05/
upload an image to http://pix.nofrag.com
----
XML-DoubleEncodedEntities-1.0
http://search.cpan.org/~dcantrell/XML-DoubleEncodedEntities-1.0/
unbreak XML with doubly-encoded entities
----
sapnwrfc-0.08
http://search.cpan.org/~piers/sapnwrfc-0.08/
SAP Netweaver RFC support for Perl
If you're an author of one of these modules, please submit a detailed
announcement to comp.lang.perl.announce, and we'll pass it along.
This message was generated by a Perl program described in my Linux
Magazine column, which can be found on-line (along with more than
200 other freely available past column articles) at
http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/col82.html
print "Just another Perl hacker," # the original
--
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn@stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!
------------------------------
Date: 13 Mar 2007 07:10:34 GMT
From: tadmc@augustmail.com
Subject: Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.7 $)
Message-Id: <45f64e6a$0$3155$ae4e5890@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
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If You Like
- Check Other Resources
Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
Is there a better place to ask your question?
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How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
- Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
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Social faux pas to avoid
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Be extra cautious when you get upset
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.7 $)
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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: 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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------------------------------
End of Perl-Users Digest V11 Issue 219
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