Friday, March 17, 2006
Introducing Module Reviews
Perl.com update
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Happy St. Patrick's Day, Perl hackers. Rest easily in the knowledge that
today is the day for all Irish programmers to avoid snakes (and hopefully
turn to camels instead).
* Perl News in Brief
Perl programmer and CPAN contributor Slava Bizyayev recently died
tragically and unexpectedly. use Perl has a memorial notice:
<http://use.perl.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/14/2329207&mode=nocomment>
Timothy Appnel wrote in to say:
In supporting the use of Atom syndication format in Perl, I opened a
mailing list for discussing the topic and helping others with XML::Atom
and XML::Atom::Syndication. Those interested can join the atomic-perl
mailing list via <atomic-perl-subscribe@yahoogroups.com> or
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atomic-perl/>.
Timothy is the author of XML::Atom::Syndication. Learn more about the new
distribution and its fresh release at:
<http://code.appnel.com/changelog/2006/03/000022.html>
YAPC::Brazil 2006 has an official date now: April 19th to 22nd. If you're
in South America, go!
<http://use.perl.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/07/0150229>
ActiveState has released a new version of ActivePerl, based on Perl 5.8.8.
According to the announcement, this version includes a Universal Binary
for the Mac OS X distribution, as well as initial support for 64-bit
Windows and Linux and Sparc Solaris:
<http://use.perl.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/14/1551240>
If you're in the Pacific Northwest, stop by Powell's Technical Books on
March 25th to meet Allison Randal, Randal Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, brian d
foy, Curtis "Ovid" Poe, and your editor for an afternoon discussion of
Perl and programming and, well, a small stack of books:
<http://www.powells.com/calendar.html#910>
* Perl Articles and Weblogs
Your editor has reviewed two CPAN distributions. The first is
XML::XPathEngine:
<http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2006/03/cpan_module_review_xmlxpatheng.html>
The second is KinoSearch:
<http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2006/03/cpan_module_review_kinosearch.html>
brian d foy announced the release of the new book "Intermediate Perl" (the
Alpaca):
<http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2006/03/intermediate_perl_is_out.html>
Dave Cross reports on Greg McCarroll's clever SWIM invention:
<http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2006/03/swim.html>
That wraps up this bi-weekly mailing. Check back again for interviews
with Patrick Michaud and Luke Palmer, as well as module reviews of
Jifty::DBI and possibly B::sub_generation.
March 25 is next Saturday,
- c
chromatic@oreilly.com
Editor, Perl.com, et cetera
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*** Featured Articles ***
Using Ajax from Perl
The recently rediscovered Ajax technique makes the client side of web
programming much more useful and pleasant. However, it also means revising
your existing web applications to take advantage of this new power.
Dominic Mitchell shows how to use CGI::Ajax to give your Perl applications
access to this new power.
<http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2006/03/02/ajax_and_perl.html>
***
Advanced Subroutine Techniques
Subroutines seem like a basic building block of code. They're simple and
easy to understand and use, right? That's true--but there are a few
advanced techniques to make your code more maintainable and robust. Rob
Kinyon goes beyond making sense of subroutines to making subroutines work
for you.
<http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2006/02/23/advanced_subroutines.html>
***
Managing Rich Data Structures
Perl is so good at handling plain text files that it's seductively easy to
use them when you need something better. Yet sometimes using a
full-fledged database is just Too Much Work. If only Dave Baker had
written an article on using complex, persistent data structures with
MLDBM.
<http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2006/02/16/mldbm.html>
***
Debugging and Profiling mod_perl Applications
How do you use the debugger on a mod_perl application? How do you profile
an application embedded in a web server, with multiple child processes?
Don't worry. Where there's Perl, there's a way. Frank Wiles demonstrates
how to debug and profile mod_perl applications.
<http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2006/02/09/debug_mod_perl.html>
***
Test-Driving X11 GUIs
Is GUI testing as difficult as it seems? Maybe not, with the right testing
libraries. George Nistorica shows what X11::GUITest can and can't do to
make your Unix and Unix-like applications more robust.
<http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2006/02/02/x11_gui_testing.html>
***
More Advancements in Perl Programming
What's advanced Perl programming? The definition has changed over the
years. For a while it was XS and GUIs and typeglobs and OO. Now a lot of
it is using CPAN effectively. Since completing Advanced Perl Programming,
Second Edition, Simon Cozens has discovered even more ways to work more
smartly and effectively. Here's what he's learned.
<http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2006/01/26/more_advanced_perl.html>
***
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