189 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
189 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
=head1 NAME
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perlcommunity - a brief overview of the Perl community
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=head1 DESCRIPTION
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This document aims to provide an overview of the vast perl community, which is
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far too large and diverse to provide a detailed listing. If any specific niche
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has been forgotten, it is not meant as an insult but an omission for the sake
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of brevity.
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The Perl community is as diverse as Perl, and there is a large amount of
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evidence that the Perl users apply TMTOWTDI to all endeavors, not just
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programming. From websites, to IRC, to mailing lists, there is more than one
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way to get involved in the community.
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=head2 Where to Find the Community
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There is a central directory for the Perl community: L<https://perl.org>
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maintained by the Perl Foundation (L<https://www.perlfoundation.org/>),
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which tracks and provides services for a variety of other community sites.
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=head2 Mailing Lists and Newsgroups
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Perl runs on e-mail; there is no doubt about it. The Camel book was originally
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written mostly over e-mail and today Perl's development is co-ordinated through
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mailing lists. The largest repository of Perl mailing lists is located at
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L<https://lists.perl.org>.
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Most Perl-related projects set up mailing lists for both users and
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contributors. If you don't see a certain project listed at
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L<https://lists.perl.org>, check the particular website for that project.
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Most mailing lists are archived at L<https://www.nntp.perl.org/>.
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=head2 IRC
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The Perl community has a rather large IRC presence. For starters, it has its
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own IRC network, L<irc://irc.perl.org>. General (not help-oriented) chat can be
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found at L<irc://irc.perl.org/#perl>. Many other more specific chats are also
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hosted on the network. Information about irc.perl.org is located on the
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network's website: L<https://www.irc.perl.org>. For a more help-oriented #perl,
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check out L<irc://irc.freenode.net/#perl>. Raku development also has a
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presence in L<irc://irc.freenode.net/#raku-dev>. Most Perl-related channels
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will be kind enough to point you in the right direction if you ask nicely.
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Any large IRC network (Dalnet, EFnet) is also likely to have a #perl channel,
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with varying activity levels.
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=head2 Websites
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Perl websites come in a variety of forms, but they fit into two large
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categories: forums and news websites. There are many Perl-related
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websites, so only a few of the community's largest are mentioned here.
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=head3 News sites
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=over 4
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=item L<https://perl.com/>
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Originally run by O'Reilly Media (the publisher of L<the Camel Book|perlbook>,
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this site provides quality articles mostly about technical details of Perl.
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=item L<http://blogs.perl.org/>
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Many members of the community have a Perl-related blog on this site. If
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you'd like to join them, you can sign up for free.
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=item L<http://perlsphere.net/>
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Perlsphere is one of several aggregators of Perl-related blog feeds.
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=item L<http://perlweekly.com/>
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Perl Weekly is a weekly mailing list that keeps you up to date on conferences,
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releases and notable blog posts.
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=back
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=head3 Forums
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=over 4
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=item L<https://www.perlmonks.org/>
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PerlMonks is one of the largest Perl forums, and describes itself as "A place
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for individuals to polish, improve, and showcase their Perl skills." and "A
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community which allows everyone to grow and learn from each other."
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=item L<https://stackoverflow.com/>
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Stack Overflow is a free question-and-answer site for programmers. It's not
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focussed solely on Perl, but it does have an active group of users who do
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their best to help people with their Perl programming questions.
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=item L<http://prepan.org/>
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PrePAN is used as a place to discuss modules that you're considering uploading
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to the CPAN. You can get feedback on their design before you upload.
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=back
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=head2 User Groups
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Many cities around the world have local Perl Mongers chapters. A Perl Mongers
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chapter is a local user group which typically holds regular in-person meetings,
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both social and technical; helps organize local conferences, workshops, and
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hackathons; and provides a mailing list or other continual contact method for
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its members to keep in touch.
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To find your local Perl Mongers (or PM as they're commonly abbreviated) group
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check the international Perl Mongers directory at L<https://www.pm.org/>.
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=head2 Workshops
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Perl workshops are, as the name might suggest, workshops where Perl is taught
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in a variety of ways. At the workshops, subjects range from a beginner's
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introduction (such as the Pittsburgh Perl Workshop's "Zero To Perl") to much
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more advanced subjects.
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There are several great resources for locating workshops: the
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L<websites|"Websites"> mentioned above, the
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L<calendar|"Calendar of Perl Events"> mentioned below, and the YAPC Europe
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website, L<http://www.yapceurope.org/>, which is probably the best resource for
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European Perl events.
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=head2 Hackathons
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Hackathons are a very different kind of gathering where Perl hackers gather to
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do just that, hack nonstop for an extended (several day) period on a specific
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project or projects. Information about hackathons can be located in the same
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place as information about L<workshops|"Workshops"> as well as in
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L<irc://irc.perl.org/#perl>.
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If you have never been to a hackathon, here are a few basic things you need to
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know before attending: have a working laptop and know how to use it; check out
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the involved projects beforehand; have the necessary version control client;
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and bring backup equipment (an extra LAN cable, additional power strips, etc.)
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because someone will forget.
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=head2 Conventions
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Perl had two major annual conventions: The Perl Conference (now part of OSCON),
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put on by O'Reilly, and Yet Another Perl Conference or YAPC (pronounced
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yap-see), which is localized into several regional YAPCs (North America,
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Europe, Asia) in a stunning grassroots display by the Perl community.
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In 2016, YAPC was rebranded as The Perl Conference again. It is now referred
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to as The Perl and Raku Conference.
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OSCON had been discontinued.
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For more information about either conference, check out their respective web
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pages:
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=over 4
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=item * The Perl Conference
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L<http://perlconference.us/>.
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=item * OSCON
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L<https://www.oreilly.com/conferences/>
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=back
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An additional conference franchise with a large Perl portion was the
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Open Source Developers Conference or OSDC. First held in Australia, it
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also spread to Israel and France. More information can be found at:
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L<http://www.osdc.org.il> for Israel, and L<http://www.osdc.fr/> for France.
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=head2 Calendar of Perl Events
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The Perl Review, L<http://www.theperlreview.com> maintains a website
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and Google calendar for tracking
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workshops, hackathons, Perl Mongers meetings, and other events. A view
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of this calendar is available at L<https://www.perl.org/events.html>.
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Not every event or Perl Mongers group is on that calendar, so don't lose
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heart if you don't see yours posted. To have your event or group listed,
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contact brian d foy (brian@theperlreview.com).
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=head1 AUTHOR
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Edgar "Trizor" Bering <trizor@gmail.com>
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=cut
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