Please see following description for synopsis
Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLCOMMUNITY(1)
NAME
perlcommunity - a brief overview of the Perl community
DESCRIPTION
This document aims to provide an overview of the vast perl
community, which is far too large and diverse to provide a
detailed listing. If any specific niche has been forgotten,
it is not meant as an insult but an omission for the sake of
brevity.
The Perl community is as diverse as Perl, and there is a
large amount of evidence that the Perl users apply TMTOWTDI
to all endeavors, not just programming. From websites, to
IRC, to mailing lists, there is more than one way to get
involved in the community.
Where to find the community
There is a central directory for the Perl community:
<http://perl.org> maintained by the Perl Foundation
(<http://www.perlfoundation.org/>), which tracks and
provides services for a variety of other community sites.
Mailing lists and Newsgroups
Perl runs on e-mail, there is no doubt about it. The Camel
book was originally written mostly over e-mail and today
Perl's development is co-ordinated through mailing lists.
The largest repository of Perl mailing lists is located at
<http://lists.perl.org>.
Most Perl-related projects set up mailing lists for both
users and contributors. If you don't see a certain project
listed at <http://lists.perl.org>, check the particular
website for that project. Most mailing lists are archived
at <http://nntp.perl.org/>.
There are also plenty of Perl related newsgroups located
under "comp.lang.perl.*".
IRC
The Perl community has a rather large IRC presence. For
starters, it has its own IRC network, <irc://irc.perl.org>.
General (not help-oriented) chat can be found at
<irc://irc.perl.org/#perl>. Many other more specific chats
are also hosted on the network. Information about
irc.perl.org is located on the network's website:
<http://www.irc.perl.org>. For a more help oriented #perl,
check out <irc://irc.freenode.net/#perl>. Perl 6 development
also has a presence in <irc://irc.freenode.net/#perl6>. Most
Perl-related channels 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, with varying activity levels.
Websites
Perl websites come in a variety of forms, but they fit into
two large categories: forums and news websites. There are
many Perl related websites, so only a few of the community's
largest are mentioned here.
News sites
<http://perl.com/>
Run by O'Reilly Media (The publisher of the Camel Book
among other Perl-related literature), perl.com provides
current Perl news, articles, and resources for Perl
developers as well as a directory of other useful
websites.
<http://use.perl.org/>
use Perl; provides a slashdot-style Perl news website
covering all things Perl, from minutes of the meetings
of the Perl 6 Design team to conference announcements
with (ir)relevant discussion.
Forums
<http://www.perlmonks.org/>
PerlMonks is one of the largest Perl forums, and
describes itself as "A place for individuals to polish,
improve, and showcase their Perl skills." and "A
community which allows everyone to grow and learn from
each other."
User Groups
Many cities around the world have local Perl Mongers
chapters. A Perl Mongers chapter is a local user group which
typically holds regular in-person meetings, both social and
technical; helps organize local conferences, workshops, and
hackathons; and provides a mailing list or other continual
contact method for its members to keep in touch.
To find your local Perl Mongers (or PM as they're commonly
abbreviated) group check the international Perl Mongers
directory at <http://www.pm.org/>.
Workshops
Perl workshops are, as the name might suggest, workshops
where Perl is taught in a variety of ways. At the workshops,
subjects range from a beginner's introduction (such as the
Pittsburgh Perl Workshop's "Zero To Perl") to much more
advanced subjects.
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There are several great resources for locating workshops:
the websites mentioned above, the calendar mentioned below,
and the YAPC Europe website, <http://www.yapceurope.org/>,
which is probably the best resource for European Perl
events.
Hackathons
Hackathons are a very different kind of gathering where Perl
hackers gather to do just that, hack nonstop for an extended
(several day) period on a specific project or projects.
Information about hackathons can be located in the same
place as information about workshops as well as in
<irc://irc.perl.org/#perl>.
If you have never been to a hackathon, here are a few basic
things you need to know before attending: have a working
laptop and know how to use it; check out the involved
projects before hand; have the necessary version control
client; and bring backup equipment (an extra LAN cable,
additional power strips, etc.) because someone will forget.
Conventions
Perl has two major annual conventions: The Perl Conference
(now part of OSCON), put on by O'Reilly, and Yet Another
Perl Conference or YAPC (pronounced yap-see), which is
localized into several regional YAPCs (North America,
Europe, Asia) in a stunning grassroots display by the Perl
community. For more information about either conference,
check out their respective web pages: OSCON
<http://conferences.oreillynet.com/>; YAPC
<http://www.yapc.org>.
A relatively new conference franchise with a large Perl
portion is the Open Source Developers Conference or OSDC.
First held in Australia it has recently also spread to
Israel and France. More information can be found at:
<http://www.osdc.com.au/> for Australia,
<http://www.osdc.org.il> for Israel, and
<http://www.osdc.fr/> for France.
Calendar of Perl Events
The Perl Review, <http://www.theperlreview.com> maintains a
website and Google calendar
(<http://www.theperlreview.com/community_calendar>) for
tracking workshops, hackathons, Perl Mongers meetings, and
other events. Views of this calendar are at
<http://www.perl.org/events.html> and <http://www.yapc.org>.
Not every event or Perl Mongers group is on that calendar,
so don't lose heart if you don't see yours posted. To have
your event or group listed, contact brian d foy
(brian@theperlreview.com).
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AUTHOR
Edgar "Trizor" Bering <trizor@gmail.com>
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | runtime/perl-512 |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+------------------+
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from
http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/perl-5.12.5.tar.bz2
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://www.perl.org/.
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