[29051] in Perl-Users-Digest
Perl-Users Digest, Issue: 295 Volume: 11
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Tue Apr 3 03:10:04 2007
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 00:09:09 -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, 3 Apr 2007 Volume: 11 Number: 295
Today's topics:
Re: Any "consumer review generators" available? <DJStunks@gmail.com>
Re: Any good Perl coders out there? (Jamie)
Re: Apache, perl and WinXP cmd.exe - problem with perce <nospam@somewhere.com>
Re: Catching print errors (Jamie)
Re: comp.lang.perl.cgi? <stoupa@practisoft.cz>
Re: comp.lang.perl.cgi? <tadmc@augustmail.com>
Re: comp.lang.perl.cgi? krakle@visto.com
Re: Isolate lines in a text file and perform replacemen <r0bert_neville310@yah00.com>
new CPAN modules on Tue Apr 3 2007 (Randal Schwartz)
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: tadmc@augustmail.com
Re: Problem in the Perl script <please@nospam.net>
Re: Problem in the Perl script <jurgenex@hotmail.com>
Re: Regexp question joepeck02@gmail.com
Re: Trailing whitespace question <tadmc@augustmail.com>
wget with CPAN <ptri.c.k@stratsrev.corn>
Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01) (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2 Apr 2007 17:35:27 -0700
From: "DJ Stunks" <DJStunks@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Any "consumer review generators" available?
Message-Id: <1175560526.986876.297460@o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 30, 1:46 am, nullified <n...@null.null> wrote:
> On 29 Mar 2007 20:34:26 -0700, "Evil Otto" <zburn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >On Mar 29, 2:19 pm, aral...@aol.com wrote:
> >> I am looking for a fake consumer review generator that could generate realistic looking reviews for any products, kind of like on amazon.com but generated by Artificial Intelligence. Is there a package available in your favorite programing language... thx alan
>
> >I really, really hope that you're looking to generate test data or
> >filler text.
>
> >If you're not, then DIAF.
>
> Die In A Fire? Drop In A Fryer? Doug Is A Fucker? Drown In A Fart?
You knew Doug too? I could tell he was a fucker right from the moment
I met him.
-jp
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:27:29 GMT
From: nospam@geniegate.com (Jamie)
Subject: Re: Any good Perl coders out there?
Message-Id: <Lc11755387153270x8c2e15c@pong.podro.com>
In <x7648eucu7.fsf@mail.sysarch.com>,
Uri Guttman <uri@stemsystems.com> mentions:
>then you are not looking for the right jobs :)
The trouble with larger projects is that they frequently turn into white
elephants.
There must be some magic crystal ball some place you folks use to determine
which ones to take on. The risk on those is quite high.
> J> Webmasters and people who used to hire "perl monkeys" now look to
> J> PHP, I've spoken with them about doing stuff in perl, they often
> J> tell me it would be a "step backwards".
>
>that is all web stuff. perl is used for much more non-web stuff than web
>stuff. ever see a sysadmin use php to glue stuff?
Believe it or not... though, as you say, these were more script kiddie
level stuff.
So far, I've only had one smaller sysadmin project.
>you haven't been around enough perl media. try irc sometimes and that is
>what happens a lot. "oh, no one is in #otherchannel or they are too
>dumb, help me with this regex. perler all know regexes better"
IRC in general doesn't count, I pretty much wrote it off. Though, if I were
to actually consider it, I'd have to say it's about as bad. (and actually,
being fair, some of the #linux channels I've seen are a /LOT/ worse than
anything perl related on the rude-meter)
Of course, these days, everyone has "upgraded" to the newer and superior
closed, commercial systems of Yahoo! and MSN.
>or not use to being a professional programmer. simpler answer. smarts
>isn't the only thing. wanting to know how to program and putting in the
>effort is major. just being a php/html monkey doesn't TEACH you much
>other than bad coding habits.
I'd have to say I agree with you to some extent. If you're referring to
the odd case where someone takes your explanation, ignores it and then
asks you to type something they can just cut -n- paste. That does get a
little annoying.
Someone looking for small-time work can easily turn this situation around
though, it's an opportunity to sell a couple hours of your time.
> J> BTW, uri, I heard you on perlcast, good job!
>
>thanx. i was nice there? :)
I'd say so. I'm amazed at how you can meet someone in person or even hear
them and have your picture of them change.
Jamie
--
http://www.geniegate.com Custom web programming
Perl * Java * UNIX User Management Solutions
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 20:08:56 -0400
From: "Thrill5" <nospam@somewhere.com>
Subject: Re: Apache, perl and WinXP cmd.exe - problem with percent sign in arg list
Message-Id: <SOSdnUM44_OEBozbnZ2dnUVZ_qGjnZ2d@comcast.com>
"Bartek Lakomiec" <barlak@poczta.onet.pl> wrote in message
news:1175523350.073055.169320@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> Hi everybody,
>
> I'm using Windows XP, ActivePerl 5.8, Apache HTTP server 2.2.3, and
> I'm in a trouble with the following piece of code (let's call it
> "my_code.pl") which calls "cleartool" application to dump some data
> into a temporary file (to be used later):
>
> my $arg = ...;
> my $temp_output_filename = ...;
> my $cmd = "c:\\windows\\system32\\cmd.exe /c \"cleartool descr -fmt %c
> " . $arg " >$temp_output_filename \"";
> ret = system($cmd);
>
> It works fine when I execute it as "perl my_code.pl" - the result is
> the same as when I paste "cleartool..." in a command window.
>
> The code fails and generates "Cannot spawn cmd.exe" error when I try
> to execute it from a website. By trials and errors I concluded the
> reason for that is "-fmt %c". I tried some possible ways of escaping
> the percent sign, and it doesn't help.
>
> Will appreciate any comments on possible reasons/solutions.
>
> --BL
>
Had the same problem on an IIS server. The problem is that apache can't
find cmd.exe. Yes it's in your %windows%\system32 directory, but apache
doesn't know that. To fix, you need to put cmd.exe in the some directory
that apache has access to and add that directory to PATH environment
variable for the account that is running apache. To verify that this is
your problem, the result returned by "system" is 255.
Scott
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:03:07 GMT
From: nospam@geniegate.com (Jamie)
Subject: Re: Catching print errors
Message-Id: <Lc11755379923270x8c284d4@pong.podro.com>
In <slrnf11pqs.q5a.hjp-usenet2@yoyo.hjp.at>,
"Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> mentions:
>Note that in these examples I didn't actually test for the reason of the
>failure. The disk might be full, or the user may have exceeded his
>quota, or there might be an I/O error on the disk, etc. It doesn't
>matter for the program, because in any case it cannot continue. It may
>matter for the user, because he needs to do different things to remedy
>the problem before starting the program again.
Thats true, but, in drastic measures like that, *usually* (as in, all the
cases I've seen so far) other tools will tell them something is wrong.)
You're right about the 1/2 file clobbering a complete one. Hadn't considered that.
>> There is absolutely no way to "test" for a kill -9 and you could be stuck with
>> 1/2 a file written to disk, if you're updating a file, this can have
>> consequences.
>
>Yep, but the person who needs to consider these consequences is the
>person who issues the kill -9, not the person who writes the script.
Or a power out. I sometimes go to great pains to apply the rename atomic
approach to I/O.
It's funny in a way that I go through all that trouble to prevent a corrupt
file and then don't test the result of close. Especially considering this
is the one place I could actually do something about it.
Jamie
--
http://www.geniegate.com Custom web programming
Perl * Java * UNIX User Management Solutions
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 03:02:25 +0200
From: "Petr Vileta" <stoupa@practisoft.cz>
Subject: Re: comp.lang.perl.cgi?
Message-Id: <eus9id$1p0o$2@ns.felk.cvut.cz>
"Christian Winter" <thepoet_nospam@arcor.de> píse v diskusním príspevku
news:4611782b$0$20298$9b4e6d93@newsspool3.arcor-online.net...
> Gunnar Hjalmarsson wrote:
>>
>> Maybe it's time to establish the group comp.lang.perl.cgi?
>
> Maybe something like comp.lang.perl.web+cgi+mod_perl would be
> appropriate to bundle anything web related, but I can't imagine
> a short and easy to understand name that lets newbies find their
> way there.
>
Maybe comp.lang.perl.www ?
--
Petr Vileta, Czech republic
(My server rejects all messages from Yahoo and Hotmail. Send me your mail
from another non-spammer site please.)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 20:35:18 -0500
From: Tad McClellan <tadmc@augustmail.com>
Subject: Re: comp.lang.perl.cgi?
Message-Id: <slrnf13bqm.7ps.tadmc@tadmc30.august.net>
Gunnar Hjalmarsson <noreply@gunnar.cc> wrote:
> Charlton Wilbur wrote:
>>>>>>>"GH" == Gunnar Hjalmarsson <noreply@gunnar.cc> writes:
>>
>> GH> Maybe it's time to establish the group comp.lang.perl.cgi?
>>
>> The procedure for creating a new newsgroup is well-established and
>> well-known. Have fun!
>
> Well, I didn't ask how to do it. I was simply hoping for a few informal
> responses on whether it would be a good idea.
I can provide one data point.
I would vote no.
--
Tad McClellan SGML consulting
tadmc@augustmail.com Perl programming
Fort Worth, Texas
------------------------------
Date: 2 Apr 2007 23:13:38 -0700
From: krakle@visto.com
Subject: Re: comp.lang.perl.cgi?
Message-Id: <1175580818.228699.17410@d57g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>
On Apr 2, 11:18 am, Gunnar Hjalmarsson <nore...@gunnar.cc> wrote:
> The group comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgihas been down for several
> months. As far as I can understand, it means that there is no longer an
> appropriate Usenet group for those who use Perl for web applications to
> discuss CGI and HTTP matters.
>
> Maybe it's time to establish the group comp.lang.perl.cgi?
I wouldn't mind having the newsgroup comp.lang.perl.gunnar... We could
send all the spam, offtopic, and stupid posts there...
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:43:58 -0700
From: Robert Neville <r0bert_neville310@yah00.com>
Subject: Re: Isolate lines in a text file and perform replacements
Message-Id: <n7f313hscmvpkfmigdjurtkrcgd0h0r33k@4ax.com>
On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:53:45 GMT, "Mumia W."
<paduille.4060.mumia.w+nospam@earthlink.net> wrote:
>On 03/30/2007 01:16 PM, Robert Neville wrote:
>> [...] script below performs this task (yet has not been thorough tested). It
>> has a major shortcoming that the Perl line works on the entire file
>> when it should only replace the lines with mp3 pointers. Here's the
>> call for assistance since I am having code block. Maybe, someone could
>> help me with different logic or a traditional grep solution.
>>
>> find ./ -regex ".*\(m3u\|sfv\|xml\)$" -type f -print | while read FILE
>> do
>> while read -r REGEX REPLACE line
>> do
>> CODE="$CODE; s/$REGEX/$REPLACE/g"
>> done < "$PRESET"
>> echo "$CODE"
>> echo "perl -pi.bak -e "s/$REGEX/$REPLACE/g" $FILE"
>
>Is this what you're looking for?
>
>echo "perl -pi.bak -e \"s/$REGEX/$REPLACE/g if /\.mp3\b/\" $FILE"
>
>
>> #PRESET may contain over twenty five regex patterns
>> done
>>
>> btw I am doing this script in Bash, because Perl is foreign territory.
>
Thanks Mumia
This approach looks like a strong possibility. How would I search for
more information on this construct? The perl man page is extensive and
the "if" keyword is too general. Please let me know if you have links
or examples where this construct has been used. Here's the pseudo code
from your suggestion.
find ./ -regex ".*\(m3u\|sfv\|xml\)$" -type f -print | while read FILE
do
while read -r REGEX REPLACE line
do
CODE="$CODE; s/$REGEX/$REPLACE/g"
done < "$PRESET"
#PRESET may contain over twenty five regex patterns
perl -pi.bak -e \""$CODE" if /\.mp3\b/\" "$FILE"
done
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 04:42:10 GMT
From: merlyn@stonehenge.com (Randal Schwartz)
Subject: new CPAN modules on Tue Apr 3 2007
Message-Id: <JFwnqA.2Hp@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.
Acme-Placeholder-0.01
http://search.cpan.org/~nuffin/Acme-Placeholder-0.01/
----
Acme-Placeholder-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~nuffin/Acme-Placeholder-0.02/
Collecting namespaces which I like
----
Acme-Placeholder-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~nuffin/Acme-Placeholder-0.03/
Collecting namespaces which I like
----
Acme-Placeholder-0.04
http://search.cpan.org/~nuffin/Acme-Placeholder-0.04/
Collecting namespaces which I like
----
Album-1.06
http://search.cpan.org/~jv/Album-1.06/
Create and maintain browser based photo albums
----
Alien-GvaScript-1.03
http://search.cpan.org/~dami/Alien-GvaScript-1.03/
Gva extension to the prototype javascript framework
----
Audio-MPD-0.16.1
http://search.cpan.org/~jquelin/Audio-MPD-0.16.1/
Class for talking to MPD (Music Player Daemon) servers
----
Catalyst-Plugin-Authentication-Credential-Hatena-0.04
http://search.cpan.org/~typester/Catalyst-Plugin-Authentication-Credential-Hatena-0.04/
Hatena authentication for Catalyst
----
Class-DBI-MockDBD-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~teejay/Class-DBI-MockDBD-0.02/
Mocked database interface for Class::DBI
----
Crypt-GPG-1.63
http://search.cpan.org/~agul/Crypt-GPG-1.63/
An Object Oriented Interface to GnuPG.
----
DBIx-MoCo-0.10
http://search.cpan.org/~jkondo/DBIx-MoCo-0.10/
Light & Fast Model Component
----
Data-Hive-0.050
http://search.cpan.org/~hdp/Data-Hive-0.050/
convenient access to hierarchical data
----
DateTime-TimeZone-0.64
http://search.cpan.org/~drolsky/DateTime-TimeZone-0.64/
Time zone object base class and factory
----
Dir-Which-0.1_r125
http://search.cpan.org/~jacquelin/Dir-Which-0.1_r125/
Search for directory entries in a list of directories.
----
Dir-Which-0.1_r127
http://search.cpan.org/~jacquelin/Dir-Which-0.1_r127/
Search for directory entries in a list of directories.
----
Dir-Which-0.2
http://search.cpan.org/~jacquelin/Dir-Which-0.2/
Search for directory entries in a list of directories.
----
Dir-Which-0.20127
http://search.cpan.org/~jacquelin/Dir-Which-0.20127/
Search for directory entries in a list of directories.
----
ELFF-Parser-0.90
http://search.cpan.org/~mwarren/ELFF-Parser-0.90/
parse ELFF formatted log files
----
Finance-Bank-Barclays-0.11
http://search.cpan.org/~dave/Finance-Bank-Barclays-0.11/
Check your Barclays bank accounts from Perl
----
Gaim-Log-Parser-0.05
http://search.cpan.org/~mschilli/Gaim-Log-Parser-0.05/
Parse Gaim's Log Files
----
Getopt-Fancy-0.04
http://search.cpan.org/~batman/Getopt-Fancy-0.04/
Object approach to handling command line options, focusing on end user happiness
----
IMDB-Film-0.26
http://search.cpan.org/~stepanov/IMDB-Film-0.26/
OO Perl interface to the movies database IMDB.
----
Mail-SpamAssassin-Plugin-OpenPGP-1.0.0
http://search.cpan.org/~brondsem/Mail-SpamAssassin-Plugin-OpenPGP-1.0.0/
A SpamAssassin plugin that validates OpenPGP signatures.
----
Mixin-ExtraFields-Hive-0.003
http://search.cpan.org/~rjbs/Mixin-ExtraFields-Hive-0.003/
infest your objects with hives
----
Net-Connection-Sniffer-0.22
http://search.cpan.org/~miker/Net-Connection-Sniffer-0.22/
gather stats on network connections
----
Net-Frame-Tools-1.00
http://search.cpan.org/~gomor/Net-Frame-Tools-1.00/
useful network utilities created using Net::Frame
----
Net-Google-Calendar-0.7
http://search.cpan.org/~simonw/Net-Google-Calendar-0.7/
programmatic access to Google's Calendar API
----
Net-GrowlClient-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~castor/Net-GrowlClient-0.02/
Perl implementation of Growl Network Notification Protocol (Client Part)
----
Net-Milter-0.09
http://search.cpan.org/~mglee/Net-Milter-0.09/
Masquerade as the MTA to communicate with email filters through a milter interface.
----
POE-Component-Server-SimpleSMTP-1.01
http://search.cpan.org/~bingos/POE-Component-Server-SimpleSMTP-1.01/
A simple to use POE SMTP Server.
----
ProgressMonitor-0.05
http://search.cpan.org/~knth/ProgressMonitor-0.05/
a flexible and configurable framework for providing feedback on how a long-running task is proceeding.
----
RTx-Shredder-0.06
http://search.cpan.org/~ruz/RTx-Shredder-0.06/
Cleanup RT database
----
Test-MinimumVersion-0.001
http://search.cpan.org/~rjbs/Test-MinimumVersion-0.001/
does your code require newer perl than you think?
----
Tk-Calculator-RPN-HP-1.0
http://search.cpan.org/~lusol/Tk-Calculator-RPN-HP-1.0/
Hewlett-Packard RPN calculators
----
Tk-Calculator-RPN-HP-1.2
http://search.cpan.org/~lusol/Tk-Calculator-RPN-HP-1.2/
Hewlett-Packard RPN calculators
----
Verilog-Perl-2.373
http://search.cpan.org/~wsnyder/Verilog-Perl-2.373/
----
WebService-Nestoria-Search-0.04
http://search.cpan.org/~kaoru/WebService-Nestoria-Search-0.04/
Perl interface to the Nestoria Search public API.
----
base-ball-v0.0.2
http://search.cpan.org/~dmuey/base-ball-v0.0.2/
"b" all the namespaces under the given one(s)
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: 03 Apr 2007 06:09:57 GMT
From: tadmc@augustmail.com
Subject: Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.7 $)
Message-Id: <4611efb4$0$3156$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
- 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: 1.7 $)
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://www.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 that they do
know and are being the "bad kind" of Lazy.
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: Mon, 02 Apr 2007 13:05:31 -0700
From: Xiong Changnian <please@nospam.net>
Subject: Re: Problem in the Perl script
Message-Id: <please-A48B93.13053002042007@free.teranews.com>
In article <slrnf12n8o.71i.hjp-usenet2@yoyo.hjp.at>,
"Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> wrote:
> On 2007-04-02 11:07, Xiong Changnian <please@nospam.net> wrote:
> > I like to think of integers as digital values, floats as analog values.
> Floating point values are not analog...
Yep. You're right. I said, I like to *think* of them that way. I don't
even think of them that way all the time. I just like to, when I can.
Often it's a useful approximation. Sometimes it's not. There is no
obvious, blatant, and exact analogy to floats in the real world, so when
I can, I settle for obvious, blatant, and inexact.
> > my $click = 1/8; # one-eighth of a turn
> > my $turn = 1;
> Bad example. Given a binary floating point representation, this cannot
> fail, because 1/8 is representable exactly.
Hey, you're right! But only if I abandon abstraction to the point of
recognizing how floats are represented. I don't like to do that. I
prefer to assume (my) ignorance. If I want to be informed, I'll
assemble. I'm learning Perl so I can ignore all that stuff.
You win. Okay?
--
Xiong Changnian
xiong102ATxuefangDOTcom
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:35:09 GMT
From: "Jürgen Exner" <jurgenex@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Problem in the Perl script
Message-Id: <NqgQh.3295$%G4.1644@trndny05>
Michele Dondi wrote:
> On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 04:07:38 -0700, Xiong Changnian
> <please@nospam.net> wrote:
>
>> I like to think of integers as digital values, floats as analog
>> values.
>
> Nope, on a computer all values are discrete, period.
True. But Xiong is talking about mental models "like to think ... as". And
humans have an amazing ability to adjust the current mental model to
whatever is most useful at the time.
Example: Hopefully 99% of us agree that the earth is not flat. Still when
driving around town or laying out a route on an auto map we do not bother
about spherical trigonometrie but simply pretent that our town is flat.
Experience has shown us that for this specific application (driving a car)
we can safely ignore the much more complex model of the earth being a geoid.
Same with floats as analog values. Of course that's not what they are and
Xiong realizes that. But using that mental model helps Xiong to avoid the
common pitfall of comparing two values for equality. That doesn't imply, he
believes in the flat earth. I think it is a great idea.
jue
------------------------------
Date: 2 Apr 2007 19:12:40 -0700
From: joepeck02@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Regexp question
Message-Id: <1175566360.174920.213960@d57g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>
> $test =~ s/^(.*?)\{.*\}(.*)$/$1$2/s;
> $test =~ s/\s+/ /sg;
> Petr Vileta, Czech republic
I like Petr's solution. He uses the /s modifier which is probably the
best way to go here! It also breaks things down into 2 clear steps.
He also strictly follows the format of the text you provided. Some of
the other solutions are specific to the example you provided but may
not be nice to other strings. But if you want another cookie cutter
solution you can do it quite simply with this single regex:
$test =~ s/\s+{.*}\s+/ /s;
Replace any white space before the first {, everything until the
last }, and whitespace after the las }, all with a single space. If
you MUST use {{ and }} as the delimiters (meaning you could have a
single { or } in the text that you want to keep) you can change the
regex to this: s/\s+{{.*}}\s+/ /s;
Joe P
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 21:33:22 -0500
From: Tad McClellan <tadmc@augustmail.com>
Subject: Re: Trailing whitespace question
Message-Id: <slrnf13f7i.7ps.tadmc@tadmc30.august.net>
nun <junk@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm reading data from a text file into an array like this:
>
> push @AoA, [(
> substr($_, 0, 4),
> substr($_, 4, 20),
> substr($_, 24, 30),
> substr($_, 54, 8),
> substr($_, 70, 8),
> substr($_, 103, 20),
> substr($_, 123, 1),
> )];
>
>
> I'd like to trim any trailing spaces from the substr($_, 24, 30) entry.
>
> I see from Google that:
>
> s/ *$//;
Removing zero spaces is rather silly.
There is no point unless there is at least one space.
> should do what I want, but I'm unsure how to modify my script to include
> this. Can someone help?
$AoA[-1][2] =~ s/ +$//;
--
Tad McClellan SGML consulting
tadmc@augustmail.com Perl programming
Fort Worth, Texas
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 23:59:55 -0700
From: "patrick" <ptri.c.k@stratsrev.corn>
Subject: wget with CPAN
Message-Id: <57ecbgF2c1nobU1@mid.individual.net>
While using CPAN to install some module groups, I often meet with failure
when it attempts:
Trying with "lynx -source" to get ...
and then after some time gives up, and meets with success using "wget -O -
..."
Is there a way to prevent trying to use lynx, and default to using wget?
------------------------------
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 V11 Issue 295
**************************************
