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[MacPerl Announcement] [FAQ] MacPerl Q&A
I'll try to start posting this a bit more regularly, about once a month.
Questions and Answers about MacPerl
Table of contents
General questions
1) How can I get this document?
2) Where can I get real information about MacPerl?
3) What is MacPerl and where can I get it?
4) How do I subscribe/unsubscribe from the MacPerl mailing lists
5) How do I send an article to the MacPerl mailing lists
6) Is there a searchable archive of the MacPerl mailing list?
7) How many people are using MacPerl?
Working with MacPerl
8) Why don't my droplets work?
9) Is there a collection of MacPerl scripts anywhere?
10) Is it possible to develop CGI scripts for MacHTTP using MacPerl?
Further Development
11) When will there be a stable version of MacPerl5?
12) When will there be a multithreaded/OSA Perl?
Questions
1) How can I get this document?
Well, you have it, don't you? You could always ask me for a copy by
email. The cool new way to get an updated version is by WWW in
"http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri/macintosh/perl-qa.html". Should
further information (e.g., the manual), become available online in the
future, you'll find it on "http://www.iis.ethz.ch/~neeri/macintosh/perl.html".
2) Where can I get real information about MacPerl?
Luckily, a few brave MacPerl users have started filling the huge gaps
in the MacPerl documentation.
Sandra Silcot publishes a MacPerl primer at
http://www.unimelb.edu.au/~ssilcot/macperl-primer/home.html, and also
by ftp at
ftp://www.unimelb.edu.au/pub/cwis/tools/macintosh/MacPerl-PRIMER-1.1.sea.hqx
Bob Dalgleish and Bob Wilkinson have taken over the MacPerl FAQ from
Hal Wine. It can be retrieved at
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/mac/MacPerlFAQ.html.
3) What is MacPerl and where can I get it?
MacPerl is a port of Larry Wall's Perl (Practical Extraction and
Report Language) to the Apple Macintosh.
The most recent versions of MacPerl are always available in
ftp.switch.ch software/mac/perl
This site is mirrored at
ftp.share.com pub/macperl
mors.gsfc.nasa.gov /pub/MacPerl/Applications
and in a huge number of CPAN (Common Perl Archive Network) mirror sites:
Florida
ftp://ftp.cis.ufl.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
Illinois
ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/lang/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
Massachusetts
ftp://ftp.iguide.com/pub/mirrors/packages/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
Oklahoma
ftp://ftp.uoknor.edu/mirrors/CPAN/ports/mac/
Texas
ftp://ftp.sedl.org/pub/mirrors/CPAN/ports/mac/
ftp://ftp.sterling.com/programming/languages/perl/ports/mac/
Finland
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
France
ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
ftp://ftp.pasteur.fr/pub/computing/unix/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
Germany
ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/programming/languages/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
ftp://ftp.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pub/programming/languages/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
Great Britain
ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/mirrors/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
The Netherlands
ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/PERL/CPAN/ports/mac/
Portugal
ftp://ftp.ci.uminho.pt/pub/lang/perl/ports/mac/
Sweden
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/lang/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
Switzerland
ftp://ftp.switch.ch/mirror/CPAN/ports/mac/
Australia
ftp://coombs.anu.edu.au/pub/perl/ports/mac/
ftp://ftp.mame.mu.oz.au/pub/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
New Zealand
ftp://ftp.tekotago.ac.nz/pub/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
Japan
ftp://ftp.lab.kdd.co.jp/lang/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
Taiwan
ftp://dongpo.math.ncu.edu.tw/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
South Africa
ftp://ftp.is.co.za/programming/perl/CPAN/ports/mac/
The current version of MacPerl is 5.0.7r1m and is available in the
above directories as:
- Mac_Perl_507r1m_appl.bin.
- Mac_Perl_507r1m_tool.bin.
- Mac_Perl_506r1m_src.sit.bin.
If you need to fit MacPerl on floppy disks, there is also a split version of
the same installer as:
- Mac_Perl_507r1m_appl.disk1.bin.
- Mac_Perl_507r1m_appl.disk2.bin.
4) How do I subscribe/unsubscribe from MacPerl mailing lists?
There are now two mailing lists dedicated to MacPerl. The mac-perl
mailing list is an open discussion list with maybe a dozen articles a
day. The mac-perl-announce list is a very low volume moderated mailin
list with only 1-2 messages a month.
To subscribe to the mac-perl list, send mail to
mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch whose BODY (the Subject is ignored) is
the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe". To subscribe to the
mac-perl-announce list, send this mail to
mac-perl-announce-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch instead. All traffic to the
announce mailing list automatically appears on the regular mailing
list, too, so there is no need to subscribe to both of them.
5) How do I send an article to the MacPerl mailinglists?
Articles sent to mac-perl@iis.ee.ethz.ch are automatically sent to the
list. If you have an article that you have severe doubts whether it
should be distributed, send it to mac-perl-approval@iis.ee.ethz.ch. I
will read your article, and will send it to the list unless I think I
can answer it exhaustively and neither the question nor the answer are
of general interest. Note that I'm severely backlogged in my mail and
sending articles to -approval adds to my work load.
6) Is there a searchable archive of the MacPerl mailing list?
Yes! Sandra Silcot has dedicated the time and resources to build one
at http://www.its.unimelb.edu.au:801/hma/pub/macperl/.
7) How many people are using MacPerl ?
As with most free software, this is hard to say. There are now around
800 subscribers to the mailing list, and version 4.1.8 has been
downloaded thousands of times from ftp.switch.ch alone (in August
1995, I counted close to 800 downloads).
8) Why won't my droplets work?
Due to a bug in MacPerl 4.1.8, droplets only work if you have
AppleScript installed. This bug was fixed in MacPerl 5.
9) Is there a collection of MacPerl scripts anywhere?
I'm building one in ftp://ftp.switch.ch/software/mac/perl/scripts/,
but I don't have much time to invest. If you have any interesting
scripts to offer, send me (neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch) a mail. If you have a
whole collection of scripts on your own ftp site, tell me and I'll set
up a mirror.
10) Is it possible to develop CGI scripts for MacHTTPusing MacPerl?
Yes. You'll need the MacHTTP CGI Script extension, which is available
in ftp://err.ethz.ch/pub/neeri/MacPerl/ as "PCGI". The latest version,
"PCGI_06Feb96.sit.hqx", is largely compatible with the Unix CGI
specification.
11) When will there be a stable version of MacPerl5?
5.0.7 looks pretty good, I think.
12) When will there be a multithreaded/OSA Perl?
I have not worked out all technical details yet; November 1996?
Last changed: 02Oct96