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Contents Listing

Preface

1. Data References and Anonymous Storage

Referring to Existing Variables

Using References

Nested Data Structures

Querying a Reference

Symbolic References

A View of the Internals

References in Other Languages

Resources

2. Implementing Complex Data Structures

User-Defined Structures

Example: Matrices

Professors, Students, Courses

Pass the Envelope

Pretty-Printing

Resources

3. Typeglobs and Symbol Tables

Perl Variables, Symbol Table, and Scoping

Typeglobs

Typeglobs and References

Filehandles, Directory Handles, and Formats

4. Subroutine References and Closures

Subroutine References

Using Subroutine References

Closures

Using Closures

Comparisons to Other Languages

Resources

5. Eval

The String Form: Expression Evaluation

The Block Form: Exception Handling

Watch Your Quotes

Using Eval for Expression Evaluation

Using Eval for Efficiency

Using Eval for Time-Outs

Eval in Other Languages

Resources

6. Modules

Basic Package

Packages and Files

Package Initialization and Destruction

Privacy

Importing Symbols

Nesting Packages

Autoloading

Accessing the Symbol Table

Language Comparisons

7. Object-Oriented Programming

OO: An Introduction

Objects in Perl

UNIVERSAL

Recap of Conventions

Comparison with Other OO Languages

Resources

8. Object Orientation: The Next Few Steps

Efficient Attribute Storage

Delegation

On Inheritance

Resources

9. Tie

Tying Scalars

Tying Arrays

Tying Hashes

Tying Filehandles

Example: Monitoring Variables

Comparisons with Other Languages

10. Persistence

Persistence Issues

Streamed Data

Record-Oriented Approach

Relational Databases

Resources

11. Implementing Object Persistence

Adaptor: An Introduction

Design Notes

Implementation

Resources

12. Networking with Sockets

Networking Primer

Socket API and IO::Socket

Handling Multiple Clients

Real-World Servers

IO Objects and Filehandles

Prebuilt Client Modules

Resources

13. Networking: Implementing RPC

Msg: Messaging Toolkit

Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)

Resources

14. User Interfaces with Tk

Introduction to GUIs, Tk, and Perl/Tk

Starting with Perl/Tk

Widget Tour

Geometry Management

Timers

Event Bindings

Event Loops

Resources

15. GUI Example: Tetris

Introduction to Tetris

Design

Implementation

16. GUI Example: Man Page Viewer

man and perlman

Implementation

Resources

17. Template-Driven Code Generation

On Code Generation

Jeeves Example

Jeeves Overview

Jeeves Implementation

Sample Specification Parser

Resources

18. Extending Perl: A First Course

Writing an Extension: Overview

Example: Fractals with Perl

SWIG Features

XS Features

Degrees of Freedom

A Detour into Fractals

Resources

19. Embedding Perl: The Easy Way

Why Embed?

Embedding Overview

Examples

Adding Extensions

Resources

20. Perl Internals

Reading the Source

Architecture

Perl Value Types

Stacks and Messaging Protocol

Meaty Extensions

Easy Embedding API

A Peek into the Future

Resources

A. Tk Widget Reference

B. Syntax Summary

Index