Title: PERL Author: Larry Wall (lwall@netlabs.com) Version: 5.001 Title From: Documentation Author From: Documentation Version From: Documentation Supplier: Steve Ellacott (S.W.Ellacott@brighton.ac.uk) Date: 05/03/96 Keywords: Report generators ; Program processors ; Programming languages Shareware: Machine: Archimedes Operating system: RISCOS Memory requirements: Peripherals needed: Other s/ware needed: Directory: micros/arch/riscos/a/a049 Date mounted/updated: 10/06/96 File names: perl5man.arc perlop.html a049h.arc perl.arc Unarchived files: 289 Unarchived size: 5368 kbytes Omissions: See also: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acquiring the package: Download the archive file(s) and extract using SparkPlug 2 (see the "tools_help" file in arch/riscos/tools for further info). Description: Perl is an interpreted language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information. It's also a good language for many system management tasks. It combines some of the best features of C, sed, awk and sh, so people familiar with those languages should have little difficulty with it. Expression syntax corresponds quite closely to C expression syntax. This is the RISC OS port originally by Luke Taylor, extended and revised by Steve Ellacott. These extensions include a port of the GNU gdbm database manager (permitting associative arrays to be stored on disc) and access to the RISCOS kernel. Several serious bugs have been fixed and some test scripts are included. A manual in Impression format is also included. The Perl package directory contains the file a049h.arc which is a !SrcEdit format help file for the programming language Perl. Although of greatest use to people using !SrcEdit the file is useful for on-line help with any editor as a search may be made for '%' which will find the entry for if it exists. Author: Ashley Oliver. See HELPUPDATE (a289) for a utility to convert to StrongHelp format. This file covers Perl versions preceding 5. perl5man.arc is a StrongHelp format help file. It contains the complete documentation for Perl 5.001, including everything you need in order to learn how to program in Perl, in an easy-access form. To read it, you will need StrongHelp version 2.02, which is available in package d126. Those using StrongEd will be able to automatically get help on a function by pressing F1. Conversion from POD to StrongHelp format by Michael Attenborough. perlop.html is an HTML file describing the Perl operators.