perlplayer has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:
hell all,
i am new to perl ,recently installed perl-5.10
there are many basic modules present in the perl distribution itself but where can i found sufficient documentation for them
i mean to say how to use them and where in which situation to use them
please guide me...as without module knowledge programming is so much tedious
Re: how to get documentation of perl modules
by marto (Cardinal) on Jun 20, 2008 at 12:23 UTC
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Hi perlplayer,
At the command prompt try perldoc File::Find, for example this should display the documentation for File::Find. Documentation is also available on cpan.
Hope this helps
Martin | [reply] [Watch: Dir/Any] [d/l] |
Re: how to get documentation of perl modules
by moritz (Cardinal) on Jun 20, 2008 at 12:23 UTC
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There's a document in your distribution called perlmodlib. It lists all core modules, along with one line that describes what it does.
If you want the documentation for a particular module, say CGI, just type perldoc CGI (or in general, perldoc followed by the module name) on the command line.
ActivePerl also ships the documentation in HTML format, which might or might not be easier for you to read. | [reply] [Watch: Dir/Any] [d/l] [select] |
Re: how to get documentation of perl modules
by toolic (Bishop) on Jun 20, 2008 at 13:24 UTC
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After you use the aforementioned methods for accessing the module documentation (via the command line or on-line), if you still find yourself craving more information, you can use Super Search here at the Monastery. For example, if you search for File::Find, you will probably get:
- More detailed examples of usage scenarios.
- An idea of the module's limitations in practical situations.
- Opinions on where and when it is best to use the module (or avoid its use).
- Suggestions for alternate approaches.
In some cases, it will be more than you ever wanted to know about the module :)
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Re: how to get documentation of perl modules
by b10m (Vicar) on Jun 20, 2008 at 13:46 UTC
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Our fine monk Juerd (who I still suspect of actually enjoying encoding issues, but that's besides the point) created an awesome redirect tool (in the likes of php.net) to look up the documentation fast.
When in need for the documentation of say the CGI module, type this in your browser's location bar: http://tnx.nl/CGI. If you want more than one, module, use a comma, like:
http://tnx.nl/CGI,WWW::Mechanize.
Of course, functions like map or split can be looked up too: http://tnx.nl/map, http://tnx.nl/split. And, sure, http://tnx.nl/perlunifaq will work.
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Re: how to get documentation of perl modules
by sasdrtx (Friar) on Jun 20, 2008 at 12:46 UTC
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Somewhere over to the right in one of the nodelets, you should find a link called Perl documentation. Might be a good place to start looking.
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Re: how to get documentation of perl modules
by zentara (Archbishop) on Jun 20, 2008 at 13:35 UTC
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Also searching google.com and groups.google.com for the module, will often reveal many code snippets to demonstrate usage. I find a good working example gives me a better start than the perldocs. You will find the quailty of the perldocs vary in quality, and some are of little help in explaining the actual working of the module. Gtk2 is particularly gruesome, the perldocs are auto-generated from the c code, and leave you helpless to figure out usage. But google for "Perl Gtk2 tutorial" and you will find really good reading. Also, always look at any demo or .t (test) scripts that come with the module, they show proper usage.
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Re: how to get documentation of perl modules
by Anonymous Monk on Jun 20, 2008 at 14:51 UTC
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