Lo Que Sea

Perl for Win32 - Basic Tutorial v2.22 |

Introduction
What this document is...
A basic Perl tutorial for use on Win32 platforms. Designed for the greenest newbies. It is adapted from a course I ran for novice webmasters, and have now published on the web so others may benefit (hopefully) and perl users can critique the course and suggest additions, so that others may benefit and perl userscan suggest additions.......the term "perl users" is defined as anyone with more than 20 seconds perl experience, or less. Another objective for writing this course was for me to learn more about Perl. That was certainly achieved :-)
What this document is not...
* A reference manual. You won't find all the regex stuff under Regex. I think it's more fun to learn the basics then add littleextras along the way. Keeps you awake, and it is a good excuse for not organising it better.
* A FAQ.
* Politically correct
It doesn't cover CGI programming (I'm thinking of a seperate tutorial for that). Nor does it cover the multitude of modules for Perl. It is designed as a base, after which you can specialise in systems administration, CGI or whatever else. I have a big to-do list for thistutorial. Feel free to add to it.
How to Use...
Just work through from start to finish. All you need is a Win32 PC and curiosity. Oh, and some time. When you finish, please send me a critique. In fact, send one even if you don't finish. I appreciate all input, especially error checks ! And money cheques.
Conventions :
* Sometimes you'll need to type something in on the commandline.These commands will be in green, for example :
perl changeworld.pl parm1 datafile.txt
* Code that you should load into your editor and run is in blue (don't run this now, it's just an example):
* while (<DATFILE>) {
* printf "%2s : $_",$.;
* }
* when functions are referred to in the text, their names are highlighted inred. For example, the split function.
All the code examples have been tested, and you can just cut'n'paste (brave statement). I haven't listed the output of each example. You need to run it and see for yourself. Consider this course interactive.
What you need to know
You need to be able to differentiate between a PC and a toaster. No programming experience is necessary. You do need to understandthe basics of PC operation. If you don't understand what directories and files are then you'll find this difficult. You might find it difficult even if you do :-)
Use of this document
If you want to translate this, use it for your intranet, mirror it or otherwise use it please email me. I'm agreeable to most proposals provided I know about them - which means you can get the latest versions.Remember this document is copyrighted.
--

Robert Pepper
mailto:Robert@netcat.co.uk
http://www.netcat.co.uk/rob/perl/win32perltut.html

What is Perl ?
Perl is a programming language. Perl stands for Pratical Report and Extraction Language. You'll notice people refer to 'perl' and "Perl". "Perl" is the programming language as a whole - 'perl' is the name of the core executable. Some ofPerl's many strengths are :
* Speed of development. You edit a text file, and just run it. You can develop programs very quickly like this. No seperate compiler needed. I find Perl runs a program quicker than Java, let alone compare the complete modify-compile-run-oh-no-forgot-that-semicolon sequence.
* Power. Perl's regular expressions are some of the best available. You can work withobjects, sockets...everything a systems administrator could want. And that's just the standard distribution. Add the wealth of modules available on CPAN and you have it all. Don't equate scripting languages with toy languages.
* Usuability. All that power and capability can be learnt in easy stages. If you can write a batch file you can program Perl. You don't have to learn object oriented...