[1252342595.25812] READ THIS: comp.lang.perl.moderated registration

[mjd-clpm-register at plover dot com (comp.lang.perl.moderated registration)]

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Every post to the comp.lang.perl.moderated (also known as clpmod)
newsgroup consumes the time and effort of readers all over the world who
pay for their Internet access just as you do.  Each post also takes up
the time of a team of volunteer moderators who must review each
submission to determine whether it is appropriate for the group.  That's
ok, because mutual support is what USENET is all about.  But it only
works if posters check out other resources first!

To benefit everyone, Nathan Torkington <gnat@frii.com> came up with a
handy checklist.  If you have a question about Perl and run it against
this checklist, you are more likely to find at least one answer.
Learning to research Perl questions is useful because Usenet is not a
free helpdesk--there is no guarantee anyone will answer your question at
all!  It would be much easier to grep the docs and FAQs first.

There is also the added benefit that the Perl documentation and FAQs
were created and reviewed by respected Perl experts.  This means that
the answer or answers you find will almost certainly be not only
correct, but the best possible answer (they may even outline several
solutions).

So, please consider the following:

1. comp.lang.perl.moderated is for questions on the Perl language.  If
   you're interested in reading the group's charter, please go to

        <URL:http://www.plover.com/clpm/charter>

   Don't forget that there is also an unmoderated group for discussion
   of the Perl language, comp.lang.perl.misc, for topics that do not
   fall within the bounds of clpmod's charter.

   Try comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi for questions on the CGI part
   of CGI scripts.  The two leading blocks of reusable code for CGI
   purposes are CGI.pm, at

        <URL:ftp://genome.wi.mit.edu/pub/software/WWW/cgi_docs.html>

        <URL:http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/CGI/>

   and cgi-lib.pl, at

        <URL:http://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/cgi-lib/>

   You might also want to check out libwww-perl at

        <URL:http://www.linpro.no/lwp/>

        <URL:http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/LWP/>

   If you are having problems with a CGI script, look through

        <URL:http://www.cpan.org/doc/FAQs/cgi/idiots-guide.html>

2. Are you using the following?

        #!/usr/bin/perl -w
        use diagnostics;
        use strict;

   "-w" turns on all sorts of warnings about probable errors (see the
   perldiag manpage), "use diagnostics" causes the "-w" warnings to be
   explained in greater detail (with the explanations from the perldiag
   manpage), and "use strict" generates compile and run-time errors for
   certain unsafe variable, reference and subroutine constructs (see the
   strict manpage)

3. Have you read the Perl FAQ?  Many questions on sockets programming,
   an important and common problem with Solaris, text manipulation and
   the jargon of perl are answered in the FAQ.  As well as being posted
   regularly to comp.lang.perl.misc, the FAQ is on the web at:

        <URL:http://www.cpan.org/doc/FAQs/FAQ/html/>
 
4. Have you read the man pages?  Here are some subjects and the man
   pages to look in:

        Objects		perltoot, perlref, perlmod, perlobj, perltie
        Data Structures	perlreftut, perlref, perllol, perldsc
        Modules		perlmod, perlsub, perlmodinstall
        Regexps		perlre, perlfunc, perlop
                        <URL:http://www.cpan.org/doc/FMTEYEWTK/>
                        (not a man-page but still useful)
        Moving to perl5	perltrap, perl
        Linking w/C	perlxstut, perlxs, perlcall, perlguts, perlembed

   The man page for "perltoc" provides a crude table of contents for the
   perl man page set.

5. Have you tried archives of Usenet?  <URL:http://groups.google.com/>
   maintains an archive of postings to Usenet dating from March, 1995.
   Be sure to include "Perl" in your search.

6. Are you checking the return values from the functions built in to
   perl?  Most of the file and system functions set $! and have return
   values that you can test thus:

        open(PASSWD, "</etc/passwd") or
            die "error opening /etc/passwd: $!\n";

   $! will contain an error message that will give you more information
   on where your program is going wrong.  The perlfunc man page will
   give you more information on the return values from functions.

7. Have you looked at <URL:http://www.perl.com/>?  This is a great
   online reference, with documentation, pointers to modules in the
   Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN), articles on the inner
   workings of many bits of Perl, and more.

7.5. Have you checked to see if a Perl module satisfies your needs?
   Many reusable modules are available for immediate download and use.
   See <URL:http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html> for details.

8. The latest version of the "Camel Book" ("Programming Perl"),
   updated for version 5.6, is available from your bookstore or from
   <URL:http://www.ora.com/>.

   Another excellent dead tree resource is the first and only periodical
   devoted to Perl, The Perl Journal.  In fact, several moderators have
   even contributed to TPJ.  Find it on the web at

      <URL:http://www.tpj.com/>

   Check out (free!) example code from past issues at

       <URL:http://www.tpj.com/tpj/programs/>

9. To retrieve the latest, most stable version of Perl that includes
   many bug fixes and to which several useful new features have been
   added (including much more documentation!), visit

        <URL:http://www.cpan.org/src/stable.tar.gz>

   (look in <URL:http://www.cpan.org/SITES.html> for a list of FTP-based

10. Remember, USENET newsgroups are based on the idea of mutual aid.
   USENET only works if we put as much into it as we get out of it.
   Good luck with your Perl work.

                                   * * * * *

If, after having read the above, you're still interested in having your
article reviewed by a moderator, you as a new poster are required to
register.  The reason we require new posters to register is so we can
have an easy and automatic way of sending new posters the above
checklist *before* their posts show up in the newsgroup.  This has
a couple of advantages:

    o It's a nice way to provide the uninitiated with a concise list of
      Perl resources.  In fact, many questions are likely to be
      answered in at least one of the resources listed above.  When
      this does happen, it saves time for the moderators and the entire
      group as well as contributing the the quality of the group.

    o It cuts down on the time moderators would otherwise waste on
      reviewing and rejecting spam and other low-signal contributions.

Well, on to the Million Dollar Question: How the heck do I register?
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Thank you for your participation!

--The comp.lang.perl.moderated moderation panel