Free Perl Books

Writing Perl Modules for CPAN

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:07:05 -0400

Writing Perl Modules for CPAN offers Perl developers a comprehensive guide to using and contributing to the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Starting with a general overview of CPAN's history, network topology, and navigational mechanisms, the book quickly brings you up to speed regarding how to search out and install available modules. However, in the true open source spirit, author and experienced Perl developer Sam Tregar teaches you how to not only use, but also contribute to CPAN via an in-depth discussion of module creation, submission, and maintenance.

Beginning with a survey of basic design principles, Tregar takes care to discuss all issues relevant to developers wishing to create great Perl modules, including choosing a proper name, properly using Perl�s POD (plain old documentation) feature, concepts surrounding functional and object-oriented API development, and much more. Tregar then proceeds with a complete dissertation of how modules should conform to CPAN module specifications, covering required distribution files and coding considerations, in addition to offering advice regarding proper module testing. After demonstrating how to create a module and prepare it for release, Tregar guides you through the CPAN module submission process and discusses module maintenance once the module has been contributed to the CPAN service.

Writing Perl Modules for CPAN is an indispensable guide for anyone wishing to make the most of the CPAN service.

Embedding Perl in HTML With Mason

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:20:24 -0400

Mason doesn't aim to be the one true Perl-based templating system for building web sites, but it's led many programmers to abandon their custom solutions when they've seen how much easier using Mason can be. It's a powerful, open source, Perl-based web site development and delivery engine, with features that make it an ideal backend for high load sites serving dynamic content. Mason uses a concept called components: a mix of HTML, Perl, and special Mason commands. These components can be entire web pages, or bits of HTML that can be embedded in top-level components. Shared and reusable, these components greatly simplify site maintenance: when you change a shared component, you instantly change all pages that refer to it. Although using Mason isn't difficult, creating a Mason-based site can be tricky. Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason, written by members of Mason's core development team, shows you how to take advantage of Mason's strengths while avoiding the obstacles that inexperienced users may encounter. Mason's unique features, when used properly, can streamline the design of a web site or application. This concise book covers these features from several angles, and includes a study of the authors' sample site where these features are used. Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason shows you how to create large, complex, dynamically driven web sites that look good and are a snap to maintain. You'll learn how to visualize multiple Mason-based solutions to any given problem and select among them. The book covers the latest line of Mason development 1.1x, which has many new features, including line number reporting based on source files, sub-requests, and easier use as a CGI. The only book to cover this important tool, Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason is essential reading for any Perl programmer who wants to simplify web site design. Learn how to use Mason, and you'll spend more time making things work, and less time reinventing the wheel.

Practical mod_perl

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:57:14 -0400

mod_perl embeds the popular programming language Perl in the Apache web server, giving rise to a fast and powerful web programming environment. Practical mod_perl is the definitive book on how to use, optimize, and troubleshoot mod_perl. New mod_perl users will learn how to quickly and easily get mod_perl compiled and installed. But the primary purpose of this book is to show you how to take full advantage of mod_perl: how to make a mod_perl-enabled Web site as fast, flexible, and easily-maintainable as possible. The authors draw from their own personal experience in the field, as well as the combined experience of the mod_perl community, to present a rich and complete picture of how to set up and maintain a successful mod_perl site. This book is also the first book to cover the "next generation" of mod_perl: mod_perl 2.0, a completely rewritten version of mod_perl designed for integration with Apache 2.0, which for the first time supports threads.

Web Client Programming with Perl

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:42:02 -0400

If you've ever wanted to learn more about Web protocols so you could build custom client-side tools to automate tasks--or just so you have a better understanding of what's happening behind the scenes--then Web Client Programming with Perl is the book for you. Wong explains HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) requests and socket calls, then shows how you can use the LWP library for Perl to retrieve Web pages, parse HTML, check whether a server is responding, and more.

Windows NT Workstation Configuration and Maintenance

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:44:37 -0400

Anyone faced with the task of setting up and managing a large number of workstations quickly learns the limitations of a graphical user interface. Ashley Meggitt and Matthew Lavy manage the LAN at Jesus College, Cambridge, and they've developed a number of scripts and techniques to bypass the GUI limitations and administer the workstations centrally. The result is Windows NT Workstation Configuration and Maintenance, the only book on the market to focus on automating the management tasks you perform daily to keep a large workstation farm up and running. Instead of trying to provide one-size-fits-all solutions to what are in reality site-specific kinds of problems, the authors concentrate on the techniques you need to master to keep your workstations under control. Their step-by-step approach shows you how to implement Perl scripts to take care of your particular problems.