Who has the best package manager? Part one
Who has the best package manager and what we can we learn from all of them
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Find CPAN mirrors and configure the local CPAN mirror list
CPAN mirrors are online repositories which host or “mirror” the Perl module distributions on CPAN. There are hundreds of CPAN mirrors dispersed throughout the World. When the CPAN program is run for the first time on a machine, it will configure the CPAN mirror list to use for checking for new versions of modules and downloading Perl distributions. All CPAN mirrors are not created equally though: the distribution list’s age, speed and the geographic location vary from mirror to mirror and so you may want to re-configure your local CPAN mirror list to suit your needs. This article describes how to find CPAN mirrors and edit the local CPAN mirror configuration.
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How to track new CPAN releases
CPAN is a fantastic Perl resource with thousands of modules and new ones being added all the time. But how do you keep track of what’s being released? This article describes three techniques for keeping tabs on the latest CPAN releases.
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List all Perl modules installed via CPAN
A quick way to list all non-core modules installed via CPAN using the command line:
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PDF Processing with Perl
Adobe’s PDF has become a standard for text documents. Most office products can export their content into PDF. However, this software reaches its limits if you want advanced tasks such as combining different PDF documents into one single document…
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Making Perl Reusable with Modules
Perl software development can occur at several levels. When first developing the idea for an application, a Perl developer may start with a short program to flesh out the necessary algorithms. After that, the next step might be to…
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Option and Configuration Processing Made Easy
When you first fire up your editor and start writing a program, it’s tempting to hardcode any settings or configuration so you can focus on the real task of getting the thing working. But as soon as you have…
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Better Code Through Destruction
Larry Wall said that Perl makes easy things easy and hard things possible. Perl is good both for writing a two-line script that saves the world at the last minute (well, at least it saves you and your project)…
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Annotating CPAN
AnnoCPAN is a new website that shows the documentation for every Perl module available on CPAN and allows anyone to post annotations in the margins of the documents. The notes are public, so everyone can read and reuse them…
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Building Good CPAN Modules
When you are planning to release a module to CPAN, one of your first tasks is figure out what OS, Perl version(s), and other environments you will and will not support. Often, the answers will come from what you…
