perlfaq-5.20180915

Author: rurban

Porting/Maintainers.pl

@@ -1162,7 +1162,7 @@ package Maintainers;
     },
 
     'perlfaq' => {
-        'DISTRIBUTION' => 'LLAP/perlfaq-5.021011.tar.gz',
+        'DISTRIBUTION' => 'LLAP/perlfaq-5.20180915.tar.gz',
         'FILES'        => q[cpan/perlfaq],
         'EXCLUDED'     => [
             qw( inc/CreateQuestionList.pm

cpan/perlfaq/lib/perlfaq.pm

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 package perlfaq;
-$perlfaq::VERSION = '5.021011';
+
+our $VERSION = '5.20180915';
+
 1;

cpan/perlfaq/lib/perlfaq.pod

@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 =head1 NAME
 
-perlfaq - frequently asked questions about Perl
+perlfaq - Frequently asked questions about Perl
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-version 5.021011
+version 5.20180915
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
@@ -697,15 +697,15 @@ How can I use a filehandle indirectly?
 
 =item *
 
-How can I set up a footer format to be used with write()?
+How can I open a filehandle to a string?
 
 =item *
 
-How can I write() into a string?
+How can I set up a footer format to be used with write()?
 
 =item *
 
-How can I open a filehandle to a string?
+How can I write() into a string?
 
 =item *
 
@@ -725,7 +725,7 @@ Why do I sometimes get an "Argument list too long" when I use E<lt>*E<gt>?
 
 =item *
 
-How can I open a file with a leading "E<gt>" or trailing blanks?
+How can I open a file named with a leading "E<gt>" or trailing blanks?
 
 =item *
 

cpan/perlfaq/lib/perlfaq1.pod

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ perlfaq1 - General Questions About Perl
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-version 5.021011
+version 5.20180915
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
@@ -42,7 +42,6 @@ are a group of highly altruistic individuals committed to
 producing better software for free than you could hope to purchase for
 money. You may snoop on pending developments via the
 L<archives|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/>
-or read the L<faq|http://dev.perl.org/perl5/docs/p5p-faq.html>,
 or you can subscribe to the mailing list by sending
 perl5-porters-subscribe@perl.org a subscription request
 (an empty message with no subject is fine).
@@ -58,12 +57,11 @@ users the informal support will more than suffice. See the answer to
 
 =head2 Which version of Perl should I use?
 
-(contributed by brian d foy)
+(contributed by brian d foy with updates from others)
 
 There is often a matter of opinion and taste, and there isn't any one
 answer that fits everyone. In general, you want to use either the current
 stable release, or the stable release immediately prior to that one.
-Currently, those are perl5.18.x and perl5.16.x, respectively.
 
 Beyond that, you have to consider several things and decide which is best
 for you.
@@ -81,14 +79,21 @@ The latest versions of perl have more bug fixes.
 
 =item *
 
+The latest versions of perl may contain performance improvements and
+features not present in older versions.  There have been many changes
+in perl since perl5 was first introduced.
+
+=item *
+
 The Perl community is geared toward supporting the most recent releases,
 so you'll have an easier time finding help for those.
 
 =item *
 
-Versions prior to perl5.004 had serious security problems with buffer
-overflows, and in some cases have CERT advisories (for instance,
-L<http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-1997-17.html> ).
+Older versions of perl may have security vulnerabilities, some of which
+are serious (see L<perlsec> and search
+L<CVEs|https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=Perl> for more
+information).
 
 =item *
 
@@ -98,23 +103,23 @@ problems others have if you are risk averse.
 
 =item *
 
-The immediate, previous releases (i.e. perl5.14.x ) are usually maintained
-for a while, although not at the same level as the current releases.
-
-=item *
-
-No one is actively supporting Perl 4. Ten years ago it was a dead
-camel carcass (according to this document). Now it's barely a skeleton
-as its whitewashed bones have fractured or eroded.
+The immediate, in addition to the current stable release, the previous
+stable release is maintained.  See
+L<perlpolicy/"MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT"> for more information.
 
 =item *
 
 There are really two tracks of perl development: a maintenance version
 and an experimental version. The maintenance versions are stable, and
-have an even number as the minor release (i.e. perl5.18.x, where 18 is the
+have an even number as the minor release (i.e. perl5.24.x, where 24 is the
 minor release). The experimental versions may include features that
 don't make it into the stable versions, and have an odd number as the
-minor release (i.e. perl5.19.x, where 19 is the minor release).
+minor release (i.e. perl5.25.x, where 25 is the minor release).
+
+=item *
+
+You can consult L<releases|http://dev.perl.org/perl5> to determine the
+current stable release of Perl.
 
 =back
 

cpan/perlfaq/lib/perlfaq2.pod

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-version 5.021011
+version 5.20180915
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
@@ -85,8 +85,7 @@ contains tens of thousands of modules and extensions, source code
 and documentation, designed for I<everything> from commercial
 database interfaces to keyboard/screen control and running large web sites.
 
-You can search CPAN on L<http://metacpan.org> or
-L<http://search.cpan.org/>.
+You can search CPAN on L<http://metacpan.org>.
 
 The master web site for CPAN is L<http://www.cpan.org/>,
 L<http://www.cpan.org/SITES.html> lists all mirrors.

cpan/perlfaq/lib/perlfaq3.pod

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ perlfaq3 - Programming Tools
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-version 5.021011
+version 5.20180915
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
@@ -940,9 +940,8 @@ You probably won't see much of a speed increase either, since most
 solutions simply bundle a Perl interpreter in the final product
 (but see L<How can I make my Perl program run faster?>).
 
-The Perl Archive Toolkit ( L<http://par.perl.org/> ) is Perl's
-analog to Java's JAR. It's freely available and on CPAN (
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/PAR/> ).
+The Perl Archive Toolkit is Perl's analog to Java's JAR. It's freely
+available and on CPAN ( L<https://metacpan.org/pod/PAR> ).
 
 There are also some commercial products that may work for you, although
 you have to buy a license for them.

cpan/perlfaq/lib/perlfaq4.pod

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ perlfaq4 - Data Manipulation
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-version 5.021011
+version 5.20180915
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
@@ -128,10 +128,9 @@ need yourself.
 To see why, notice how you'll still have an issue on half-way-point
 alternation:
 
-    for (my $i = 0; $i < 1.01; $i += 0.05) { printf "%.1f ",$i}
+    for (my $i = -5; $i <= 5; $i += 0.5) { printf "%.0f ",$i }
 
-    0.0 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.7
-    0.8 0.8 0.9 0.9 1.0 1.0
+    -5 -4 -4 -4 -3 -2 -2 -2 -1 -0 0 0 1 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 5
 
 Don't blame Perl. It's the same as in C. IEEE says we have to do
 this. Perl numbers whose absolute values are integers under 2**31 (on
@@ -2664,7 +2663,7 @@ The arrays.h/arrays.c code in the L<PGPLOT> module on CPAN does just this.
 If you're doing a lot of float or double processing, consider using
 the L<PDL> module from CPAN instead--it makes number-crunching easy.
 
-See L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/PGPLOT> for the code.
+See L<https://metacpan.org/release/PGPLOT> for the code.
 
 
 =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT

cpan/perlfaq/lib/perlfaq5.pod

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ perlfaq5 - Files and Formats
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-version 5.021011
+version 5.20180915
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
@@ -626,6 +626,25 @@ related to whether they're strings, typeglobs, objects, or anything else.
 It's the syntax of the fundamental operators. Playing the object
 game doesn't help you at all here.
 
+=head2 How can I open a filehandle to a string?
+X<string> X<open> X<IO::String> X<filehandle>
+
+(contributed by Peter J. Holzer, hjp-usenet2@hjp.at)
+
+Since Perl 5.8.0 a file handle referring to a string can be created by
+calling open with a reference to that string instead of the filename.
+This file handle can then be used to read from or write to the string:
+
+    open(my $fh, '>', \$string) or die "Could not open string for writing";
+    print $fh "foo\n";
+    print $fh "bar\n";    # $string now contains "foo\nbar\n"
+
+    open(my $fh, '<', \$string) or die "Could not open string for reading";
+    my $x = <$fh>;    # $x now contains "foo\n"
+
+With older versions of Perl, the L<IO::String> module provides similar
+functionality.
+
 =head2 How can I set up a footer format to be used with write()?
 X<footer>
 
@@ -684,25 +703,6 @@ accumulator variable C<$^A>, but you lose a lot of the value of formats
 since C<formline> won't handle paging and so on. You end up reimplementing
 formats when you use them.
 
-=head2 How can I open a filehandle to a string?
-X<string> X<open> X<IO::String> X<filehandle>
-
-(contributed by Peter J. Holzer, hjp-usenet2@hjp.at)
-
-Since Perl 5.8.0 a file handle referring to a string can be created by
-calling open with a reference to that string instead of the filename.
-This file handle can then be used to read from or write to the string:
-
-    open(my $fh, '>', \$string) or die "Could not open string for writing";
-    print $fh "foo\n";
-    print $fh "bar\n";    # $string now contains "foo\nbar\n"
-
-    open(my $fh, '<', \$string) or die "Could not open string for reading";
-    my $x = <$fh>;    # $x now contains "foo\n"
-
-With older versions of Perl, the L<IO::String> module provides similar
-functionality.
-
 =head2 How can I output my numbers with commas added?
 X<number, commify>
 
@@ -850,7 +850,7 @@ To get around this, either upgrade to Perl v5.6.0 or later, do the glob
 yourself with readdir() and patterns, or use a module like L<File::Glob>,
 one that doesn't use the shell to do globbing.
 
-=head2 How can I open a file with a leading ">" or trailing blanks?
+=head2 How can I open a file named with a leading ">" or trailing blanks?
 X<filename, special characters>
 
 (contributed by Brian McCauley)

cpan/perlfaq/lib/perlfaq6.pod

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ perlfaq6 - Regular Expressions
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-version 5.021011
+version 5.20180915
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 

cpan/perlfaq/lib/perlfaq7.pod

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ perlfaq7 - General Perl Language Issues
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-version 5.021011
+version 5.20180915
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
@@ -695,19 +695,19 @@ details, see L<perlsub>.
 
 =head2 How do I create a switch or case statement?
 
-In Perl 5.10, use the C<given-when> construct described in L<perlsyn>:
+There is a given/when statement in Perl, but it is experimental and
+likely to change in future. See L<perlsyn> for more details.
 
-    use 5.010;
+The general answer is to use a CPAN module such as L<Switch::Plain>:
 
-    given ( $string ) {
-        when( 'Fred' )        { say "I found Fred!" }
-        when( 'Barney' )      { say "I found Barney!" }
-        when( /Bamm-?Bamm/ )  { say "I found Bamm-Bamm!" }
-        default               { say "I don't recognize the name!" }
-    };
+    use Switch::Plain;
+    sswitch($variable_holding_a_string) {
+        case 'first': { }
+        case 'second': { }
+        default: { }
+    }
 
-If one wants to use pure Perl and to be compatible with Perl versions
-prior to 5.10, the general answer is to use C<if-elsif-else>:
+or for more complicated comparisons, C<if-elsif-else>:
 
     for ($variable_to_test) {
         if    (/pat1/)  { }     # do something