OverviewA brief overview of the Perl communityDaftar Isi NAMEperlcommunity - a brief overview of the Perl community DESCRIPTIONThis document aims to provide an overview of the vast perl community, which isfar too large and diverse to provide a detailed listing. If any specific nichehas been forgotten, it is not meant as an insult but an omission for the sakeof brevity. The Perl community is as diverse as Perl, and there is a large amount ofevidence that the Perl users apply TMTOWTDI to all endeavors, not justprogramming. From websites, to IRC, to mailing lists, there is more than oneway to get involved in the community. Where to Find the CommunityThere is a central directory for the Perl community: http://perl.orgmaintained by the Perl Foundation (http://www.perlfoundation.org/),which tracks and provides services for a variety of other community sites. Mailing Lists and NewsgroupsPerl runs on e-mail; there is no doubt about it. The Camel book was originallywritten mostly over e-mail and today Perl's development is co-ordinated throughmailing lists. The largest repository of Perl mailing lists is located athttp://lists.perl.org. Most Perl-related projects set up mailing lists for both users andcontributors. If you don't see a certain project listed athttp://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 undercomp.lang.perl.*. IRCThe Perl community has a rather large IRC presence. For starters, it has itsown IRC network, irc://irc.perl.org. General (not help-oriented) chat can befound at irc://irc.perl.org/#perl. Many other more specific chats are alsohosted on the network. Information about irc.perl.org is located on thenetwork'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 apresence in irc://irc.freenode.net/#perl6. Most Perl-related channels willbe kind enough to point you in the right direction if you ask nicely. Any large IRC network (Dalnet, EFnet) is also likely to have a #perl channel,with varying activity levels. WebsitesPerl websites come in a variety of forms, but they fit into two largecategories: forums and news websites. There are many Perl-relatedwebsites, 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 otherPerl-related literature), perl.com provides current Perl news, articles, andresources 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 conferenceannouncements with (ir)relevant discussion.
Forums- http://www.perlmonks.org/
PerlMonks is one of the largest Perl forums, and describes itself as "A placefor individuals to polish, improve, and showcase their Perl skills." and "Acommunity which allows everyone to grow and learn from each other."
User GroupsMany cities around the world have local Perl Mongers chapters. A Perl Mongerschapter is a local user group which typically holds regular in-person meetings,both social and technical; helps organize local conferences, workshops, andhackathons; and provides a mailing list or other continual contact method forits members to keep in touch. To find your local Perl Mongers (or PM as they're commonly abbreviated) groupcheck the international Perl Mongers directory at http://www.pm.org/. WorkshopsPerl workshops are, as the name might suggest, workshops where Perl is taughtin a variety of ways. At the workshops, subjects range from a beginner'sintroduction (such as the Pittsburgh Perl Workshop's "Zero To Perl") to muchmore advanced subjects. There are several great resources for locating workshops: thewebsites mentioned above, thecalendar mentioned below, and the YAPC Europewebsite, http://www.yapceurope.org/, which is probably the best resource forEuropean Perl events. HackathonsHackathons are a very different kind of gathering where Perl hackers gather todo just that, hack nonstop for an extended (several day) period on a specificproject or projects. Information about hackathons can be located in the sameplace as information about workshops as well as inirc://irc.perl.org/#perl. If you have never been to a hackathon, here are a few basic things you need toknow before attending: have a working laptop and know how to use it; check outthe involved projects beforehand; have the necessary version control client;and bring backup equipment (an extra LAN cable, additional power strips, etc.)because someone will forget. ConventionsPerl has two major annual conventions: The Perl Conference (now part of OSCON),put on by O'Reilly, and Yet Another Perl Conference or YAPC (pronouncedyap-see), which is localized into several regional YAPCs (North America,Europe, Asia) in a stunning grassroots display by the Perl community. For moreinformation 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 theOpen Source Developers Conference or OSDC. First held in Australia it hasrecently also spread to Israel and France. More information can be found at:http://www.osdc.com.au/ for Australia, http://www.osdc.org.ilfor Israel, and http://www.osdc.fr/ for France. Calendar of Perl EventsThe Perl Review, http://www.theperlreview.com maintains a websiteand Google calendar(http://www.theperlreview.com/community_calendar) for trackingworkshops, hackathons, Perl Mongers meetings, and other events. Viewsof this calendar are at http://www.perl.org/events.html andhttp://www.yapc.org. Not every event or Perl Mongers group is on that calendar, so don't loseheart if you don't see yours posted. To have your event or group listed,contact brian d foy ([email protected]). AUTHOREdgar "Trizor" Bering <[email protected]> | 
