1Perl is Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 22001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 by Larry Wall 3and others. All rights reserved. 4 5 6 7ABOUT PERL 8========== 9 10Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for 11text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including 12system administration, web development, network programming, GUI 13development, and more. 14 15The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, 16complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). Its major 17features are that it's easy to use, supports both procedural and 18object-oriented (OO) programming, has powerful built-in support for text 19processing, and has one of the world's most impressive collections of 20third-party modules. 21 22For an introduction to the language's features, see pod/perlintro.pod. 23 24For a discussion of the important changes in this release, see 25pod/perl5122delta.pod. (This will also be installed as perldelta.pod). 26 27There are also many Perl books available, covering a wide variety of topics, 28from various publishers. See pod/perlbook.pod for more information. 29 30 31INSTALLATION 32============ 33 34If you're using a relatively modern operating system and want to 35install this version of Perl locally, run the following commands: 36 37 ./Configure -des -Dprefix=$HOME/localperl 38 make test 39 make install 40 41This will configure and compile perl for your platform, run the regression 42tests, and install perl in a subdirectory "localperl" of your home directory. 43 44If you run into any trouble whatsoever or you need to install a customized 45version of Perl, you should read the detailed instructions in the "INSTALL" 46file that came with this distribution. Additionally, there are a number of 47"README" files with hints and tips about building and using Perl on a wide 48variety of platforms, some more common than others. 49 50Once you have Perl installed, a wealth of documentation is available to you 51through the 'perldoc' tool. To get started, run this command: 52 53 perldoc perl 54 55 56IF YOU RUN INTO TROUBLE 57======================= 58 59Perl is a large and complex system that's used for everything from 60knitting to rocket science. If you run into trouble, it's quite 61likely that someone else has already solved the problem you're 62facing. Once you've exhausted the documentation, please report bugs to us 63using the 'perlbug' tool. For more information about perlbug, either type 64'perldoc perlbug' or just 'perlbug' on a line by itself. 65 66While it was current when we made it available, Perl is constantly evolving 67and there may be a more recent version that fixes bugs you've run into or 68adds new features that you might find useful. 69 70You can always find the latest version of perl on a CPAN (Comprehensive Perl 71Archive Network) site near you at http://www.cpan.org/src/ 72 73 74Just a personal note: I want you to know that I create nice things like this 75because it pleases the Author of my story. If this bothers you, then your 76notion of Authorship needs some revision. But you can use perl anyway. :-) 77 78 The author. 79 80 81LICENSING 82========= 83 84This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify 85it under the terms of either: 86 87 a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free 88 Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any 89 later version, or 90 91 b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this Kit. 92 93This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, 94but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 95MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See either 96the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License for more details. 97 98You should have received a copy of the Artistic License with this 99Kit, in the file named "Artistic". If not, I'll be glad to provide one. 100 101You should also have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 102along with this program in the file named "Copying". If not, write to the 103Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, 104Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA or visit their web page on the internet at 105http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html. 106 107For those of you that choose to use the GNU General Public License, 108my interpretation of the GNU General Public License is that no Perl 109script falls under the terms of the GPL unless you explicitly put 110said script under the terms of the GPL yourself. Furthermore, any 111object code linked with perl does not automatically fall under the 112terms of the GPL, provided such object code only adds definitions 113of subroutines and variables, and does not otherwise impair the 114resulting interpreter from executing any standard Perl script. I 115consider linking in C subroutines in this manner to be the moral 116equivalent of defining subroutines in the Perl language itself. You 117may sell such an object file as proprietary provided that you provide 118or offer to provide the Perl source, as specified by the GNU General 119Public License. (This is merely an alternate way of specifying input 120to the program.) You may also sell a binary produced by the dumping of 121a running Perl script that belongs to you, provided that you provide or 122offer to provide the Perl source as specified by the GPL. (The 123fact that a Perl interpreter and your code are in the same binary file 124is, in this case, a form of mere aggregation.) This is my interpretation 125of the GPL. If you still have concerns or difficulties understanding 126my intent, feel free to contact me. Of course, the Artistic License 127spells all this out for your protection, so you may prefer to use that. 128 129 130