Using Ajax from Perl
If you’re even remotely connected to web development, you can’t have failed to have heard of Ajax at some point in the last year. It probably sounded like the latest buzzword and was one of those things you stuck…
Advanced Subroutine Techniques
In “Making Sense of Subroutines,” I wrote about what subroutines are and why you want to use them. This article expands on that topic, discussing some of the more common techniques for subroutines to make them even more useful….
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Managing Rich Data Structures
As a Perl beginner, I wrote many scripts that created text files to store snippets of data. Eventually I had hundreds of little text files in a data directory, each one holding one piece of information in the form…
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Debugging and Profiling mod_perl Applications
Because of the added complexity of being inside of the Apache web server, debugging mod_perl applications is often not as straightforward as it is with regular Perl programs or CGIs. Is the problem with your code, Apache, a CPAN…
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Test-Driving X11 GUIs
Driving X11 GUIs using X11::GUITest Introduction Interfaces to GUI applications like DCOP or D-BUS allow you to interact with GUI applications in order to get at their internal states or set some arbitrary states. Sometimes GUIs don’t allow for…
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More Advancements in Perl Programming
Around Easter last year, I finished writing the second edition of Advanced Perl Programming, a task that had been four years in the making. The aim of this new edition was to reflect the way that Perl programming had…
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Analyzing HTML with Perl
Routine work is all around us every day, no matter if you like it or not. For a teacher on computing subjects, grading assignments can be such work. Certain computing assignments aim at practicing operating skills rather than creativity,…
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What Is Perl 6
In the sixth year of Perl 6’s multi-year reinvention, some of its developers reflected on why it was taking so long.
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Lexing Your Data
s/(?<!SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE )FOOT/HEAD/g Most of us have tried at one time or another to use regular expressions to do things we shouldn’t: parsing HTML, obfuscating code, washing dishes, etc. This is what the technical term “showing off”…
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A Timely Start
This article is a follow-up to the lightning talk I delivered at the recent YAPC::Europe 2005 that took place in Braga, Portugal: “Perl Vs. Korn Shell: 1-1.” I presented two case studies taken from my experience as Perl expert…
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Logic Programming with Perl and Prolog
Computing languages can be addictive; developers sometimes blame themselves for perceived inadequacies, making apologies for them. That is the case, at least, when one defends his or her language of choice against the criticism of another language’s devotee. Regardless,…
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Testing Files and Test Modules
For the last several years, there has been more and more emphasis on automated testing. No self-respecting CPAN author can post a distribution without tests. Yet some things are hard to test. This article explains how writing Test::Files gave…
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Perl Success Story: Client-Side Collection and Reporting
Accurate software inventory management is critical to any organization. Without an accurate software inventory, organizations may either be out of compliance with their vendor licensing agreements or they may be paying extra for licenses that they do not need….
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Document Modeling with Bricolage
Previous Perl.com articles have reviewed where Bricolage fits into the universe of content management systems and worked through Bricolage installation and Bricolage configuration. Now it’s time to go through the steps required to model the structure of an existing…
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Building E-Commerce Sites with Handel
Over the years of doing various levels of web-based programming, I’ve come feel like Dante taking a trip through the nine circles of web programmer hell. There are certain things we must endure over and over, from project to…
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Making Sense of Subroutines
Editor’s Note: This article has a followup in Advanced Subroutine Techniques. A subroutine (or routine, function, procedure, macro, etc.) is, at its heart, a named chunk of work. It’s shorthand that allows you to think about your problem in…
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Data Munging for Non-Programming Biologists
Have you ever renamed 768 files? Merged the content from 96 files into a spreadsheet? Filtered 100 lines out of a 20,000-line file? Have you ever done these things by hand? Disciples of laziness-one of the three Perl programmer’s…
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Making Menus with wxPerl
In a previous article about wxPerl published on Perl.com, Jouke Visser taught the very basics of wxPerl programming. In this article, I will continue with Jouke’s work, explaining how to add menus in our wxPerl applications. I will cover…
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The State of the Onion 9
For the last couple of years, we’ve been homeschooling our two youngest kids. Gloria has been making sure they learn the easy subjects like history and mathematics. I’ve been making sure they also learn the hard subjects like, um,…
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Perl Internationalization and Haskell: An Interview with Autrijus Tang
Author’s note: Autrijus Tang is a speaker at this October’s European Open Source Convention. In the fine tradition of the OSCON, he is a Perl hacker, entrepreneur, internationalization geek, and self-proclaimed “Net activist, artist, and anarchist.” AT EuroOSCON, Tang…
