[29411] in Perl-Users-Digest
Perl-Users Digest, Issue: 655 Volume: 11
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Tue Jul 17 06:09:53 2007
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 03:09:04 -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, 17 Jul 2007 Volume: 11 Number: 655
Today's topics:
Re: Array <wyzelli@yahoo.com>
Re: Array <zen13097@zen.co.uk>
Re: Array <joe@inwap.com>
Re: Handling Large files (a few Gb) in Perl <sydches@gmail.com>
Re: Handling Large files (a few Gb) in Perl <wahab@chemie.uni-halle.de>
how do i print/report my class hierarchy anon24u@gmail.com
Re: improvement suggestion for File::Find: pre-parsed e <m@rtij.nl.invlalid>
new CPAN modules on Tue Jul 17 2007 (Randal Schwartz)
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: tadmc@seesig.invalid
Use UTF-8 in Log::StdLog? jerry@ieee.org
Re: Use UTF-8 in Log::StdLog? anno4000@radom.zrz.tu-berlin.de
Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 6 Apr 01) (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:11:53 GMT
From: "Peter Wyzl" <wyzelli@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Array
Message-Id: <J2Smi.7730$4A1.5491@news-server.bigpond.net.au>
"Ved" <vedpsingh@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1184596604.268665.93140@o11g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
> Hi All,
> I am simply printing as shown in program below.
>
> number of elements in @signal keeps on changing. So how do I maintain
> same length in the print statement below.
> As of now I keep changing manually.
>
> #!/usr/local/bin/perl
> use strict;
> use warnings;
>
> my @signal = qw{ mode_20mhz #This keeps on changing
> indexEn
> txctrl_ltf_fld_index
> rotate90
> pilot_position
> null_position
> doneFlag
> ltf_sel
> };
Find the maximum length $signal[0] is ever likely to be and use defined
string length printf
# assuming 30 is the longest it ever is...
printf "%30s%s%s%s%s%s", $signal[0], $signal[1], $signal[2], $signal[3],
$signal[4], $signal[5];
perldoc -f printf
perldoc -f sprintf (all the formats are documented here)
Though looking at that, since you're typing $signal[x] repetitively, that
might be a clue there is a better way to do that...think loop over the array
of arrays, rather than just the master array.
P
------------------------------
Date: 17 Jul 2007 07:30:27 GMT
From: Dave Weaver <zen13097@zen.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Array
Message-Id: <469c7013$0$15854$fa0fcedb@news.zen.co.uk>
Dr.Ruud <rvtol+news@isolution.nl> wrote:
> Jens Thoms Toerring schreef:
>
> > print join( ',', @signal ) . "\n";
>
> There will not be a "\n" at the end.
??
There is a "\n" when I try it.
% perl
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my @signal = qw(one two three);
print join( ',', @signal ) . "\n";
print "next line\n";
__END__
one,two,three
next line
%
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 02:37:05 -0700
From: Joe Smith <joe@inwap.com>
Subject: Re: Array
Message-Id: <5YGdnUT2xuZUEAHbnZ2dnUVZ_hWdnZ2d@comcast.com>
Dr.Ruud wrote:
> Jens Thoms Toerring schreef:
>
>> print join( ',', @signal ) . "\n";
>
> There will not be a "\n" at the end.
Why do you say that? There is clearly a "\n" which gets
appended to the string that join() creates.
-Joe
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 01:47:33 -0700
From: "sydches@gmail.com" <sydches@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Handling Large files (a few Gb) in Perl
Message-Id: <1184662053.574358.102040@g37g2000prf.googlegroups.com>
Hi,
My apologies. The times were off the mark. It takes less than 3
seconds (277 milliseconds).
The start time is: 14:04:35.97
The end time is: 14:04:38.74
Here's the source code in C.
***************************************Begin*******************************=
********
# include <stdio.h>
# include <conio.h>
# include <fstream.h>
# include <time.h>
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
//
// This program reads a file - terminated by a carriage return and
reports //
// the length of the longest record in a
file. //
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
//
int main ( int argc, char *argv[] );
void handle ( char input_file_name[], int *wide_line_width,
int *wide_line_number);
void timestamp ( void );
int main ( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
int i;
char input_file_name[80];
int wide_line_number;
int wide_line_width;
clrscr();
textattr(6 + ((1) << 5));
highvideo();
cprintf("\n\n\n\n");
cprintf("
=DA=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=BF ");
cprintf(" =B3 CHECK THE MAX RECORD LENGTH IN A DOS/PC
FILE =B3 ");
cprintf("
=C0=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=D9 ");
printf("\n");
if ( argc < 2 )
{
cout << " Enter the input file name:\n";
cout << "\n ";
cin.getline ( input_file_name, sizeof ( input_file_name ) );
cout << "\n";
cout << " Started - ";
timestamp ( );
handle ( input_file_name, &wide_line_width, &wide_line_number);
cout << "\n";
cout << " The longest line of \"" << input_file_name
<< "\" has length " << wide_line_width;
}
else
{
for ( i =3D 1 ; i < argc ; ++i )
{
handle ( argv[i], &wide_line_width, &wide_line_number);
cout << " The longest line of \"" << argv[i]
<< "\" has length " << wide_line_width;
}
}
cout << "\n";
cout << " Ended - ";
timestamp ( );
textattr(6 + ((1) << 5));
highvideo();
cprintf("\n\n\n\n");
cprintf("
=DA=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=BF ");
cprintf(" =B3 WRITTEN BY VINAY
MAKAM =B3 ");
cprintf("
=C0=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=D9 ");
getchar();
return 0;
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
//
void handle ( char input_file_name[], int *wide_line_width,
int *wide_line_number )
{
int big_number;
int big_width;
char c;
ifstream input_file;
int input_file_width;
int line_number;
int line_width;
big_width =3D -1;
big_number =3D -1;
input_file.open( input_file_name );
if ( !input_file )
{
cout << "\n";
cout << "Fatal error!\n";
cout << " Cannot open the input file " << input_file << ".\n";
return;
}
big_width =3D 0;
line_width =3D 0;
line_number =3D 0;
while ( 1 )
{
input_file.get ( c );
if ( input_file.eof ( ) )
{
break;
}
if ( c =3D=3D '\n' )
{
line_number =3D line_number + 1;
if ( big_width < line_width )
{
big_width =3D line_width;
big_number =3D line_number;
}
line_width =3D 0;
}
else
{
line_width =3D line_width + 1;
}
}
input_file.close ( );
*wide_line_width =3D big_width;
*wide_line_number =3D big_number;
return;
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
//
void timestamp ()
{
#define TIME_SIZE 40
static char time_buffer[TIME_SIZE];
const struct tm *tm;
size_t len;
time_t now;
now =3D time ( NULL );
tm =3D localtime ( &now );
len =3D strftime ( time_buffer, TIME_SIZE, " %I:%M:%S %p", tm );
len =3D len ;
cout << time_buffer << "\n";
return ;
#undef TIME_SIZE
}
****************************************End********************************=
********
I am generating test files by copying a reasonable large file
iteratively, in DOS.
copy TestFile + TestFile TestFileDoubled
Thank you very much for all the suggestions!
Syd
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:36:22 +0200
From: Mirco Wahab <wahab@chemie.uni-halle.de>
Subject: Re: Handling Large files (a few Gb) in Perl
Message-Id: <f7i2il$pva$1@nserver.hrz.tu-freiberg.de>
sydches@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My apologies. The times were off the mark. It takes less than 3
> seconds (277 milliseconds).
> The start time is: 14:04:35.97
> The end time is: 14:04:38.74
>
> Here's the source code in C.
...
> while ( 1 )
> {
> input_file.get ( c );
>
> if ( input_file.eof ( ) )
> {
> break;
> }
>
> if ( c == '\n' )
> {
> line_number = line_number + 1;
>
> if ( big_width < line_width )
> {
> big_width = line_width;
> big_number = line_number;
> }
> line_width = 0;
> }
> else
> {
> line_width = line_width + 1;
> }
> }
>
> input_file.close ( );
This is entirely impossible. I guess your
C++ "test situation" doesn't touch the 1G
file at all. Your 0,3 msec or 3,0 sec are
the time needed to load the application
into ram - which terminates after startup.
Thats it (possibly).
The perl solution *does* obviously check
each line and returns the expected result.
My fast-hacked C solution reads a 1G file
in ~28 sec (2M Lines, mean length 500 Bytes)
on a Athlon64/3200 1Gig WinXP.
my 0,02 €
Regards
M.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:31:23 -0000
From: anon24u@gmail.com
Subject: how do i print/report my class hierarchy
Message-Id: <1184617883.722298.70050@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com>
Hi,
I would like to generate a report of the class hierarchy of my
application. What is the easiest way? Are there any utilities for
this in CPAN? I don't need anything fancy.
Since I am using the Class::Std infrastructure, I have thought of
leveraging the CUMULATIVE functionality somehow. But ideally, I could
just tell a utility to slurp up my code and report the hierarchy for
me.
A simple, text/tabular format suffices, but graphical is good too!
Thanks!
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:38:31 +0200
From: Martijn Lievaart <m@rtij.nl.invlalid>
Subject: Re: improvement suggestion for File::Find: pre-parsed extensions
Message-Id: <pan.2007.07.16.21.38.56@rtij.nl.invlalid>
On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:09:14 +0000, Abigail wrote:
> _
> Ted Zlatanov (tzz@lifelogs.com) wrote on VLVI September MCMXCIII in
> <URL:news:m2ir8y8vtu.fsf@lifelogs.com>: __ On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:02:24
> -0700 merlyn@stonehenge.com (Randal L. Schwartz) wrote: __
> __
> __ RLS> This isn't Windows.
> __
> __ File::Basename runs everywhere and understands extensions (it calls
> them __ suffixes).
> __
> __ Lots of software looks at file extensions. GNU Make and Emacs, for
> __ example. Let's not forget Perl uses .pm for modules.
>
>
> No they don't.
Yes, they do.
Make can transform .c files into .o files[1]. If your C source does not
end in .c, it will (probably[2]) not compile. Make does NOT look into the
file to guess the language the source is written in.
In Emacs, I can add some magic markers to tell what filetype it is. In
absence of these magic markings, Emacs looks at the ...... drum roll ....
extension.
Unix does not use extensions as extensively as Windows, but the are
certainly used.
M4
[1] Well the default rules do.
[2] You could call it .c++ or .C and have a fair chance of it compiling.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:42:17 GMT
From: merlyn@stonehenge.com (Randal Schwartz)
Subject: new CPAN modules on Tue Jul 17 2007
Message-Id: <JLB3qH.16rL@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.
Alter-0.05
http://search.cpan.org/~anno/Alter-0.05/
Alter Ego Objects
----
Alter-0.06
http://search.cpan.org/~anno/Alter-0.06/
Alter Ego Objects
----
Alvis-TermTagger-0.4
http://search.cpan.org/~thhamon/Alvis-TermTagger-0.4/
Perl extension for tagging terms in a corpus
----
Apache-StrReplace-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~askadna/Apache-StrReplace-0.03/
Filter between string replace
----
CDB_Perl-0.51
http://search.cpan.org/~plank/CDB_Perl-0.51/
Perl extension reading and creating CDB files
----
CPANPLUS-Daemon-0.02
http://search.cpan.org/~kane/CPANPLUS-Daemon-0.02/
Remote CPANPLUS access
----
Catalyst-Plugin-Session-0.17
http://search.cpan.org/~nuffin/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-0.17/
Generic Session plugin - ties together server side storage and client side state required to maintain session data.
----
Class-Autouse-1.28
http://search.cpan.org/~adamk/Class-Autouse-1.28/
Run-time load a class the first time you call a method in it.
----
Class-MOP-0.42
http://search.cpan.org/~stevan/Class-MOP-0.42/
A Meta Object Protocol for Perl 5
----
Config-Apt-Sources-0.10
http://search.cpan.org/~iank/Config-Apt-Sources-0.10/
Parse and manipulate apt sources
----
DateTime-Format-Flexible-0.01
http://search.cpan.org/~thinc/DateTime-Format-Flexible-0.01/
DateTime::Format::Flexible - Flexibly parse strings and turn them into DateTime objects.
----
E-Mail-Acme-1123
http://search.cpan.org/~rjbs/E-Mail-Acme-1123/
----
Email-MIME-Modifier-1.442
http://search.cpan.org/~rjbs/Email-MIME-Modifier-1.442/
Modify Email::MIME Objects Easily
----
Encode-HanConvert-0.34
http://search.cpan.org/~audreyt/Encode-HanConvert-0.34/
Traditional and Simplified Chinese mappings
----
File-BSED-0.5
http://search.cpan.org/~asksh/File-BSED-0.5/
Search/Replace in Binary Files.
----
Gentoo-Probe-1.0.4
http://search.cpan.org/~rpaul/Gentoo-Probe-1.0.4/
----
HTML-DOM-0.003
http://search.cpan.org/~sprout/HTML-DOM-0.003/
A Perl implementation of the HTML Document Object Model
----
HTML-Mail-0.10
http://search.cpan.org/~plank/HTML-Mail-0.10/
Perl extension for sending emails with embedded HTML and media
----
IPC-Locker-1.472
http://search.cpan.org/~wsnyder/IPC-Locker-1.472/
Distributed lock handler
----
Image-ImageShack-0.01
http://search.cpan.org/~plank/Image-ImageShack-0.01/
----
Lemonldap-Handlers-Generic-3.5.0
http://search.cpan.org/~egerman/Lemonldap-Handlers-Generic-3.5.0/
Perl extension for Lemonldap sso system
----
Locale-US-1.2
http://search.cpan.org/~tbone/Locale-US-1.2/
two letter codes for state identification in the United States and vice versa.
----
Module-Mask-0.03
http://search.cpan.org/~mattlaw/Module-Mask-0.03/
Pretend certain modules are not installed
----
NL-File-Lock-0.2
http://search.cpan.org/~nickola/NL-File-Lock-0.2/
Extended file locking (based on lockfiles)
----
Net-Dopplr-0.1
http://search.cpan.org/~simonw/Net-Dopplr-0.1/
interface with Dopplr.com's web service
----
Net-Google-AuthSub-0.1
http://search.cpan.org/~simonw/Net-Google-AuthSub-0.1/
interact with sites that implement Google style AuthSub
----
Net-Google-AuthSub-0.2
http://search.cpan.org/~simonw/Net-Google-AuthSub-0.2/
interact with sites that implement Google style AuthSub
----
Parse-Eyapp-1.071
http://search.cpan.org/~casiano/Parse-Eyapp-1.071/
Extensions for Parse::Yapp
----
Parse-Eyapp-1.072
http://search.cpan.org/~casiano/Parse-Eyapp-1.072/
Extensions for Parse::Yapp
----
Perl-MinimumVersion-0.15
http://search.cpan.org/~adamk/Perl-MinimumVersion-0.15/
Find a minimum required version of perl for Perl code
----
Pod-Manual-0.04
http://search.cpan.org/~yanick/Pod-Manual-0.04/
Aggregates several PODs into a single manual
----
Pod-Manual-0.05
http://search.cpan.org/~yanick/Pod-Manual-0.05/
Aggregates several PODs into a single manual
----
TM-1.29
http://search.cpan.org/~drrho/TM-1.29/
Topic Maps, Base Class
----
Test-Config-System-0.51
http://search.cpan.org/~iank/Test-Config-System-0.51/
System configuration related unit tests
----
Verilog-Perl-3.002
http://search.cpan.org/~wsnyder/Verilog-Perl-3.002/
----
Want-0.15
http://search.cpan.org/~robin/Want-0.15/
A generalisation of wantarray
----
WebService-CRUST-0.5
http://search.cpan.org/~heschong/WebService-CRUST-0.5/
A lightweight Client for making REST calls
----
WebService-CRUST-0.6
http://search.cpan.org/~heschong/WebService-CRUST-0.6/
A lightweight Client for making REST calls
----
Weed-0.0083
http://search.cpan.org/~hooo/Weed-0.0083/
Don't use it. It's in development. For test purposes only!
----
XML-FeedLite-1.004
http://search.cpan.org/~rpettett/XML-FeedLite-1.004/
Perl extension for fetching Atom and RSS feeds with minimal outlay
----
pip-0.11
http://search.cpan.org/~adamk/pip-0.11/
The Perl Installation Program, for scripted and third-party distribution installation.
----
re-engine-PCRE-0.13
http://search.cpan.org/~avar/re-engine-PCRE-0.13/
Perl-compatible regular expression engine
----
re-engine-Plan9-0.13
http://search.cpan.org/~avar/re-engine-Plan9-0.13/
Plan 9 regular expression engine
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: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:10:59 GMT
From: tadmc@seesig.invalid
Subject: Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.8 $)
Message-Id: <7YZmi.22295$RX.11375@newssvr11.news.prodigy.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: 1.8 $)
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.rehabitation.com/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 and many others on the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup.
--
Tad McClellan
email: perl -le "print scalar reverse qq/moc.noitatibaher\100cmdat/"
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:27:48 -0700
From: jerry@ieee.org
Subject: Use UTF-8 in Log::StdLog?
Message-Id: <1184624868.864809.30060@m37g2000prh.googlegroups.com>
I've been using Log::StdLog for logging, but find that when I tell it
to log a utf-8 string containing non-ASCII characters, I get the ol'
warning:
Wide character in print at....
Now, when writing to a file, the fix for this is
binmode (FILE, ":utf8") ;
But is there a way to fix Log::StdLog without going in and hacking the
source code?
Log::StdLog is initialized like this:
use Log::StdLog { level => 'all', file => "PerlRun.log"} ;
and then when you want to log a message, you do
print {*STDLOG} info => "This is a message.\n" ;
So, I probably need to do something like
binmode (STDLOG, ":utf8") ;
but I can't get any such syntax to work. I've looked at the
Log::StdLog source code but it's way over my head. I don't understand
what the asterisk does prefixing STDLOG. I thought that perl did not
have an asterisk dereferencing operator.
Thanks,
Jerry Krinock
------------------------------
Date: 17 Jul 2007 09:31:46 GMT
From: anno4000@radom.zrz.tu-berlin.de
Subject: Re: Use UTF-8 in Log::StdLog?
Message-Id: <5g3gk2F3bg5ffU1@mid.dfncis.de>
<jerry@ieee.org> wrote in comp.lang.perl.misc:
> I've been using Log::StdLog for logging, but find that when I tell it
> to log a utf-8 string containing non-ASCII characters, I get the ol'
> warning:
>
> Wide character in print at....
>
> Now, when writing to a file, the fix for this is
>
> binmode (FILE, ":utf8") ;
>
> But is there a way to fix Log::StdLog without going in and hacking the
> source code?
>
> Log::StdLog is initialized like this:
>
> use Log::StdLog { level => 'all', file => "PerlRun.log"} ;
>
> and then when you want to log a message, you do
>
> print {*STDLOG} info => "This is a message.\n" ;
>
> So, I probably need to do something like
>
> binmode (STDLOG, ":utf8") ;
try
binmode \ *STDLOG, ':utf8';
> but I can't get any such syntax to work. I've looked at the
> Log::StdLog source code but it's way over my head. I don't understand
> what the asterisk does prefixing STDLOG. I thought that perl did not
> have an asterisk dereferencing operator.
It doesn't. The asterisk refers to the typeglob associated with a
package variable. See "typeglob" in perldata.
Anno
------------------------------
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 655
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