Bay View Software

PERL

PERL has been called the "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language" and the "Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister" among other things, though there is no official meaning for the acronym.

Perl Modules

With the release of Perl 5, the powers of Perl exploded when the new feature of Perl modules was introduced. These modules are files written by people all over the world which implement interfaces and utilities that make Perl programming easier. We at Bay View Consulting have tried to contribute to this pathological eclecticism by writing and making publicly available some of the Perl modules that we've written:

Number::Format

This module is used to convert numbers from their own internal representation into a form that is more readily accepted by human eyes. There are a variety of modes that it can use. Copyrighted, but freely distributable. Try the demo of this module, and if you like the results, download the module.

Stable Version: 1.44

Last updated: 05/17/2000 [ README | Download | Demo ]

Beta Test Version: 1.45

Last updated: 08/27/2002 [ README | Download ]

Barcode::Code128

Generates bar codes suitable for scanning using a standard bar code reader, using the Code 128 scheme. Public domain. Try the demo of this module, and if you like the results, download the module.

Stable Version: 2.00

Last updated: 10/29/1999 [ README | Download | Demo ]

Beta Test Version: none

Number::Words

This module is used to convert numbers into words, such as "one hundred and ten", in several different languages and dialects. This is a work in progress, and may contain bugs or inaccuracies. No documentation is available at this time. A demo of this module is available on our Web site. We welcome any assistance you might like to offer in fixing bugs or adding support for languages that you speak. Copyrighted, but freely distributable.

Stable Version: none

Beta Test Version: 0.01

Last updated: 01/11/1999 [ Download | Demo ]

Web Programming in Perl

CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is the original mechanism for incorporating programs into web sites. The Web server runs a program every time cetrain URL's are requested, and that program then generates the HTML of the resulting page. Since the dawn of CGI, Perl has been the preferred language for this, because of its excellent text processing utilities, and the speed with which a working system can be put together (rapid prototyping).

For better performance, you can embed Perl into the Apache web server itself, using a module called "mod_perl", for performance that is improved 10 times or more compared to CGI. Most CGI scripts can be converted to work with mod_perl with a minimum of changes.

Perl Links:

• The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) is a worldwide network of archives of Perl code written by hundreds of authors.
• The Perl Mongers is an international network of Perl users groups dedicated to furthering Perl and its usage.
• Perl Monks is a place where people can get answers to Perl-related questions in a supportive atmosphere.
• The Perl Directory is a Perl portal site where you can find just about anything about Perl.
• The Perl Home Page, sponsored by O'Reilly & Associates, contains news and information about Perl.
• The Perl Journal is an online magazine for Perl programmers.

Perl Web Programming:

• In 1997, Bay View's William Ward gave a presentation comparing two of the major libraries for Perl CGI, CGI.pm and cgi-lib.pl. The presentation is available on our site.
• Official CGI.pm documentation by Lincoln Stein.
• CGI "Idiot's Guide" by Tom Christiansen.
• mod_perl is the successor to CGI, embedding the Perl interpreter inside the Apache web server for up to 15x faster performance.