Perl is a language with a rich and expressive vocabulary. Since its original release in 1987, it's moved from quick-and-dirty extraction and reporting to web programming, data munging, GUI building, automation gluing, and full-blown application development. It's the duct tape of the Internet and a Swiss-Army chainsaw. Like duct tape and multitools, Perl can do just about anything you can imagine and really want to do. If you just want to get your job done quickly, you can write the simplest, easiest Perl you know and go on to other things. If you want to build big applications, you can do thatwith some experience and a little discipline. If you want to solve your problem and don't mind a little help, the CPAN is there to give you a hand. That's all very productive, and being productive can be fulfilling...but Perl can also be fun. Imagine a litter of kittens, tumbling across the floor in a ball of teeth and claws and fur and tiny little growls. They're playing, sure, but they're also practicing the skills they need to survive in the scary wild world. They're careful not to hurt each other, but the tactics and surprises of one clever kitten can teach the others valuable lessons. What makes a Perl guru? It's knowledge, partly, but it's mostly the curiosity to play with the language, discover surprises, and even invent a few of your own. That's why this book was so much fun to write. Here are 101 tips, tricks, and techniques from some of the best Perl programmers in the world. Some are immediately productive. Some are sneak attacks that you might only use when you have no other choice. Most of them have two parts: the immediate problem you need to solve right now and a deeper, subtler technique that you can adapt to other situations. All of them are worth studying. It's good to be productive. That's why you program in Perl. Add in the fun of learningespecially lessons it took these Perl gurus years to learnand you'll be ready for anything. Amaze your friends. Astound your coworkers. Walk into the jungle of code and specifications and customer requests with the confidence that you can take down any problem that jumps out at you. You will. Why Perl Hacks?The term hacking has an unfortunate reputation in the popular press, where it often refers to someone who breaks into systems or wreaks havoc with computers. Among enthusiasts, on the other hand, the term hack refers to a "quick-n-dirty" solution to a problem or a clever way to do something. The term hacker is very much a compliment, praising someone for being creative and having the technical chops to get things done. O'Reilly's Hacks series is an attempt to reclaim the word, document the ways people are hacking (in a good way), and pass the hacker ethic of creative participation on to a new generation of hackers. Seeing how others approach systems and problems is often the quickest way to learn about a new technology. It's also fun. Of course, no single book could possibly document all of the interesting and creative and mind-expanding things people can and do achieve with Perl...but we hope this book will put you in the right mindset to hack your own crazy ideas. How To Use This BookWe've divided this book along various topics, not according to any sense of relative difficulty. Skip around and flip through the book; if you see an interesting title or some paragraph catches your eye, read it! Where possible, we've added cross references to related hacks in the text. For example, if you and your coworkers are right now celebrating beer-thirty on a lazy Friday afternoon, start with "Drink to the CPAN" [Hack #37]. How This Book Is Organized
Conventions Used in This BookThis book uses the following typographical conventions:
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The thermometer icons, found next to each hack, indicate the relative complexity of the hack: Using Code ExamplesThis book is here to help you get your job done. In general, you may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless you're reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O'Reilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your product's documentation does require permission. We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: "Perl Hacks by chromatic with Damian Conway and Curtis 'Ovid' Poe. Copyright 2006 O'Reilly Media, Inc., 0-596-52674-1." If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given above, feel free to contact us at permissions@oreilly.com. Safari EnabledWhen you see a Safari® Enabled icon on the cover of your favorite technology book, that means the book is available online through the O'Reilly Network Safari Bookshelf. Safari offers a solution that's better than e-books. It's a virtual library that lets you easily search thousands of top tech books, cut and paste code samples, download chapters, and find quick answers when you need the most accurate, current information. Try it for free at http://safari.oreilly.com. We'd Like to Hear from YouPlease address comments and questions concerning this book to the publisher:
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