Wednesday, October 2, 2002

Tools like this really show the strength of opensource. I've recently upgraded my perl to 5.8 as well. Perl and CPAN for the Unknowing. Perl and CPAN for the Unknowing For those who haven't ever done more than a few lines of Perl (and, amazingly, that's most people seemingly), Perl remains this cryptic, bizarre language that often looks rife with "comic book cursing" --- from all the regular expression syntax.  And I'd have to agree with that.  Perl is cryptic but it also has one of the single best assets in the history of programming, CPAN.  CPAN or Comprehensive Perl Archive Network is a giant distributed source code repository where you can find just about anything.  And the only way to illustrate it is to really post my daily CPAN mailing from Pudge.  Here's what was new yesterday.  New CPAN Distributions for October  1, 2002 posted by pudge on Tuesday October 01, @18:30 (modules)   Link              |   * [0]Apache-ASP-2.41 -- Active Server Pages for Apache with mod_perl   * [1]Apache-iTunes-0.06 -- control iTunes from mod_perl   * [2]Benchmark-Thread-Size-0.03 -- report size of threads for different     code approaches   * [3]CGI-SpeedyCGI-2.21 -- Speed up perl scripts by running them     persistently.   * [4]ConfigReader-Simple-1.14 -- Simple configuration file parser   * [5]Decision-Markov-0.02 -- Markov models for decision analysis   * [6]EasyTCP-0.16 -- Easily create secure, bandwidth-friendly TCP/IP     clients and servers   * [7]Encode-compat-0.03 -- Encode.pm emulation layer   * [8]Graphics-RGBManipulate-0.01 -- HSV adjustment tool for RGB colours   * [9]HTML-TagReader-0.12 -- Perl extension module for reading     html/sgml/xml files by tags.   * [10]HTTP-Size-0.4 -- Get the byte size of an internet resource   * [11]Log-Agent-0.303 -- logging agent   * [12]Log-Dispatch-Jabber-0.2 -- Log messages via Jabber   * [13]Mac-iTunes-0.7   * [14]Net-DNAT-0.07 -- Psuedo Layer7 Packet Processer   * [15]Netscape-Cache-0.45 -- object class for accessing Netscape cache     files   * [16]PDF-Report-1.00 -- A wrapper written for PDF::API2   * [17]PersistentPerl-2.21 -- Speed up perl scripts by running them     persistently.   * [18]Petal-0.74 -- Perl Template Attribute Language   * [19]Scraper-2.26 -- framework for scraping results from search     engines.   * [20]Set-IntRange-5.1 -- Sets of Integers   * [21]Test-Data-0.6 -- test functions for particular variable types   * [22]Test-Data-0.7 -- test functions for particular variable types   * [23]Test-Manifest-0.8 -- interact with a t/test_manifest file   * [24]Test-Prereq-0.07 -- check if Makefile.PL has the right     pre-requisites   * [25]Thread-Conveyor-0.13 -- transport of any data-structure between     threads   * [26]Thread-Conveyor-Monitored-0.09 -- monitor a belt for specific     content   * [27]Thread-Exit-0.04 -- provide thread-local exit(), BEGIN {} and END     {}   * [28]Thread-Pool-0.28 -- group of threads for performing similar jobs   * [29]Thread-Pool-Resolve-0.08 -- resolve logs asynchronously   * [30]Thread-Rand-0.04 -- repeatable random sequences between threads   * [31]Thread-Serialize-0.05 -- serialize data-structures between     threads   * [32]Thread-Signal-1.06 -- deliver a signal to a thread   * [33]Thread-Status-0.03 -- report stack status of all running threads   * [34]Thread-Tie-0.08 -- tie variables into a thread of their own   * [35]Thread-Use-0.03 -- use a module inside a thread only   * [36]Tk-DateEntry-1.34 -- Drop down calendar widget for selecting     dates.   * [37]dbMan-0.25   * [38]load-0.02 -- control when subroutines will be loaded   * [39]load-0.03 -- control when subroutines will be loaded  That's right -- everything from thread code to PDF creation to database routines to iTunes stuff to an ASP compatible page interpreter written in Perl for Apache so you don't have to run IIS if you don't want to and more.  And that's just one day worh of updates.  I'm certainly not saying that Perl is perfect by any means or that even CPAN is perfect (it's not) but it is a tremendous resource that many folks just aren't aware of.  If you've ever wondered why people are so enthusiastic about Perl, CPAN's a large part of it. [The FuzzyBlog!] 3:21:50 PM     This is a great tip... I normally password protect my screensaver, but I like this for immediacy.   Here's a feature that many people have overlooked. The user interface for Keychain Access enjoys several improvements and one that I rely on all the time for my PowerBook is the ability to lock your keychain and most importantly, your screen, directly from the menu bar. To enable this feature, open Keychain Access and choose "Show Status in Menu Bar" from the View menu. [Ken Bereskin's Radio Weblog] 3:20:12 PM     It's good to see great tools get better. I've been in Chimera-land for the past month, and haven't opened Omniweb. That's telling, but I still love Omniweb. The popular Web browser OmniWeb gets an update to version 4.1.1 today that adds better support for RealOne multimedia files and includes fixes for a couple of crashing bugs. The English version is a 3.4MB download, and release notes are available. [Mac Net Journal] 3:19:10 PM

© Copyright 2003 George Herndon. Last update: 2/27/03; 10:39:26.