Where can I get more information on Perl?

    We'll cover five areas here: USENET (where you're probably reading
    this), publications, the reference guide, examples on the Internet,
    and Perl instructional courses.

    A.  USENET

    You should definitely read the USENET comp.lang.perl newsgroup or
    mailing list for all sorts of discussions regarding the language,
    bugs, features, history, humor, and trivia.  In this respect, it
    functions both as a comp.lang.* style newsgroup and also as a user
    group for the language; in fact, there's a mailing list called
    ``perl-users'' that is bidirectionally gatewayed to the newsgroup; see
    question #38 for details.  Larry Wall is a very frequent poster here,
    as well as many (if not most) of the other seasoned Perl programmers.
    It's the best place for the very latest information on Perl.

    B.  PUBLICATIONS

    If you've been dismayed by the ~80-page troffed Perl man page (or is
    that man treatise?) you should look to ``the Camel Book'', written by
    Larry and Randal Schwartz <merlyn@ora.com>, published as a Nutshell
    Handbook by O'Reilly & Associates and entitled _Programming Perl_.
    Besides serving as a reference guide for Perl, it also contains
    tutorial material and is a great source of examples and cookbook
    procedures, as well as wit and wisdom, tricks and traps, pranks and
    pitfalls.  The code examples contained therein are available via
    anonymous FTP from ftp.uu.net in
    /published/oreilly/nutshell/perl/perl.tar.Z for your retrieval.
    Corrections and additions to the book can be found in the Perl man
    page right before the BUGS section under the heading ERRATA AND
    ADDENDA.  

    If you can't find the book in your local technical bookstore, the book
    may be ordered directly from O'Reilly by calling 1-800-998-9938 if in
    North America and 1-707-829-0515.  The book's ISBN is 0-937175-64-1.
   
    Autographed copies are *NO LONGER* available from TECHbooks --
    you'll have to nab the authors in person if you want one.  Larry
    routinely carries around a camel stamp for just such an occasion.

    Reasonably substantiated rumor has it that there will be another Perl
    book out pretty soon, this one aimed more at beginners.  Look for it
    from ORA towards the beginning of 93.
   
    Another ORA book by Randal Schwartz is scheduled for imminent
    release.  It is entitled _Learning Perl_ (``The LLama Book'') and
    covers the basics of Perl in a tutorial fashion.

    Larry Wall has published a 3-part article on perl in Unix World
    (August through October of 1991), and Rob Kolstad also had a 3-parter
    in Unix Review (May through July of 1990).  Tom Christiansen also has
    a brief overview article in the trade newsletter Unix Technology
    Advisor from November of 1989.  You might also investigate "The Wisdom
    of Perl" by Gordon Galligher from SunExpert magazine;  April 1991
    Volume 2 Number 4.  The Dec 92 Computer Language magazine also
    contains a cover article on Perl, "Perl: the Programmers Toolbox".

    Many other articles on Perl have been recently published.  If you 
    have references, especially on-line copies, please mail them to 
    the FAQ maintainer for inclusion is this notice.

    The USENIX LISA (Large Installations Systems Administration) Conference
    have for several years now included many papers of tools written in
    Perl.  Old proceedings of these conferences are available; look in
    your current issue of ";login:" or send mail to office@usenix.org 
    for further information.

    C.  INTERNET

    For other examples of Perl scripts, look in the Perl source directory in
    the eg subdirectory.  

    The site with the biggest repository of Perl scripts right now
    seems to be coombs.anu.edu.au [150.203.76.2].  That directory
    has an INDEX with over 300 lines in it, each describing what
    the script does.  This is maintained by mark@coombs.anu.edu.au .

        Note:  European users please use the mirror site on
        src.doc.ic.ac.uk[149.169.2.1 in
            /pub/computing/programming/languages/perl/coombs-scripts
        The link speed would be a lot better for all.  Contact
        L.McLoughlin@doc.ic.ac.uk for more information. It is updated daily.

    Another source for examples, currently only for anonymous FTP, is on
    convex.com [130.168.1.1].  This contains, amongst other things,
    a copy of the newsgroup up through Aug 91, a text retrieval database
    for the newsgroup, a rather old and short troff version of Tom Christiansen's
    perl tutorial (this was the version presented at Washington DC USENIX),
    and quite a few of Tom's scripts.  You can look at the INDEX file
    in /pub/perl/INDEX for a list of what's in that directory.   

    The Convex and Ohio State archives are mirrored on uunet
    in /languages/perl/scripts-{convex,osu}.

    There's also a #Perl channel on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) where
    Tom and Randal have been known to hang out.  That's real-time,
    free Perl support.  What more can you ask? :-)

    D.  REFERENCE GUIDE

    A nice reference guide by Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> is also available;
    It is distributed in LaTeX (source) and PostScript (ready to
    print) forms. Obsolete versions may still be available in TeX and troff
    forms, although these don't print as nicely. The official kit
    includes both LaTeX and PostScript forms, and can be FTP'd from
    ftp.cs.ruu.nl [131.211.80.17], file /pub/DOC/perlref-4.035.tar.Z.
    The reference guide comes with the O'Reilly book in a nice, glossy
    card format.

    E.  PERL COURSES

    Various technical conferences, including USENIX, LISA, SUG, WCSAS, AUUG,
    FedUnix, and Europen have been sponsoring tutorials of varying lengths
    on Perl at their system administration and general conferences.  You
    might consider attending one of these.  These public classes are
    typically taught by Tom Christiansen <tchrist@usenix.com>.  Both Tom
    and Randal Schwartz <merlyn@ora.com> also teach Perl at customer
    sites.  Classes can run from one day up to a week ranging over a wide
    range of subject matter (most are two or three days), and can include
    lab time if you want; having lab time with exercises is generally of
    great benefit.  Send us mail if your organization is interested in
    having a Perl class taught at your site, or if you'd like to know when
    the next public appearances are.