CSCI44B Programming Perl II

Announcements

• 05/11/03 - The MLDBM.pm module still hasn't been installed on the Linux server. However, Lecture 11 tells you how to obtain and install this module in your home directory so you can use it to complete homework #4. Because of the delays in getting the server running, there will be no lectures on 05/13/03 or 05/15/03. We will use the lecture time as lab time instead. I will be in the lab from 6:30-9:30 on Tuesday and Thursday, ready to help you complete the last assignment. The last homework is now due 05/15/03. The final grade will be determined by attendance and the four equally weight homework assignments. There is no final.
• 05/04/03 - The Linux server is still not running. Stay tuned.
• 05/01/03 - The class Linux server had a hardware failure. The lab techs are working on the system.
• 04/27/03 - Homework 3 & 4 assignments are below. Note that they are both due on the same day.
• 04/27/03 - Lecture 8 is available below as a zipped Word doc. You can extract the orginal using the WinZip utility below.
• 04/01/03 - The first homework assignment is posted below. Due date was changed. See below.
• Class on 04/08/03 is cancelled as I'll be away on business.

Reading Assignments

• 03/18/03 - Bring the CSCI44A solutions. We'll review them in class.
• 03/25/03 - Lecture 2: HTML Forms.
• 03/27/03 - Lecture 3: CGI I.
• 04/01/03 - Lecture 4: CGI II.
• 04/03/03 - Lecture 4-5: Finish CGI II and start CGI III.
• 04/10/03 - Lecture 5-6: Finish CGI III and CGI IV.
• 04/22/03 - Lecture 7: DB I.
• 04/24/03 - Lecture 8: DB II.
• 05/01/03 - Lecture 9: map and grep. We'll also go over HW 1 & 2.
• 05/06/03 - Lecture 10: map, grep, and POD.
• 05/13/03 - Lecture 11: Installing CPAN modules.

Lecture Notes (bring your own copy of the day's lecture to class)

• 03/20/03 - Basic HTML
• 03/25/03 - HTML Forms
• 03/27/03 - CGI I
• 04/01/03 - CGI II
• 04/03/03 - CGI III
• 04/10/03 - CGI IV
• 04/22/03 - DB I
• 04/24/03 - DB II
• 05/01/03 - map and grep
• 05/06/03 - POD
• 05/13/03 - Installing modules

Homework Assignments

• Homework 1: Due Tuesday 04/22/03.
• Homework 2: Due Tuesday 04/24/03.
• Homework 3: Due Thursday 05/08/03.
• Homework 4: Due Thursday 05/15/03.

Homework and Exam Solutions

Recommended Books (just a partial list)

• Perl Power! by Michael Schilli, ISBN 0-201-36068-3. The class text book.
• Beginning Perl by Simon Cozens and Peter Wainwright, ISBN 1861003145. This is the original class text but the bookstore has reported that it is out of print. You may be able to get a copy at a local bookstore or online. I am not very familiar with this book yet.
• Perl by Steven Holzner, ISBN 1576104656. I use this book extensively at work. It is good intermediate to advance book filled with many examples. This is a good book to have for Perl I and Perl II. Makes a good reference.
• Learning Perl by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Pheonix, ISBN 0596001320. This is a beginner's book. You might find it useful for the first few weeks but you will quickly out grow it.
• Effective PERL Programming: Writing Better Programs with PERL by Joseph N. Hall and Randal L. Schwartz, ISBN 0201419750. This book will teach you many of the Perl idioms that separate career Perl programmers from everyone else. It is a good book to have as you progress from intermediate to advance. Also useful for deciphering an expert's code.
• Programming Perl by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, Jon Orwant, and Mike Loukides (Editor), ISBN 0596000278. This is THE Perl bible. It's better as a reference than as a text book. If you are going to do any Perl coding beyond this class, this is a must have book.
• Perl Cookbook by Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington, and Linda Mui (Editor), IBSN 1565922433. A very popular book but also very advanced.

Perl Websites

• http://www.perl.org: A Perl portal.
• http://www.perl.com: Another Perl portal.
• http://www.perlmonks.com: For advance users.
• http://www.perldoc.com: Perl reference documentation.
• http://www.cpan.org: THE archive of Perl software.

Linux/Unix Related Websites

• UnixTools Tutorials: A collection of links to Unix tutorials and summaries of useful Unix commands.
• Unix is a four letter word: Contains a pretty nice tutorial on Unix and vi (one of the most popular Unix text editors). You may prefer to print out the PDF version.
• UNIXhelp for users: Another useful tutorial.
• VI lovers home page: Contains many links to vi tutorials and references.
• Emacs Beginner's HOWTO: If you've never used emacs, this is a good place to start.
• GNU Emacs Manual: This is the bible for emacs. Skip this if you are using emacs for the first time.

Useful Software

• WinZip: Windows compression utility.
• PuTTY: A local copy of a Window SSH client (requires WinZip). This is an alternative to the one that Chabot uses in their computer lab. Here are instructions on how to use PuTTY to login in to the Chabot Linux server.
• PuTTY: The PuTTY home. You'll find PuTTY documentation here as well as the original executable. Download putty.exe if you don't want to use the local zipped version.
• SSH: This is the home of the SSH client that the Chabot computer lab has installed on their Windows computers. Before you go to the website, you should read this installation and usage guide.
• ActiveState: A free version of Perl for Windows. Here is an installation guide.
• WinSCP: This is a Windows GUI front end for scp, the secure file copy program. Try WinSCP v2.0 beta first; I had problems with v1.0. scp is the only way you can transfer files to and from linux.cschabot.org. If you are transferring files from a Linux/Unix machine to linux.cschabot.org, you may have to use scp on the command line.