Web Programming Languages

Web Coding in Perl

Perl code files can consist of nothing but Perl code. They can't have straight text or HTML tags like PHP files can. All straight text or HTML tags need to be printed using print() statements or other printing mechanisms.

Fortunately, Perl has the  print <<end; syntax, which allows us to embed straight text within a kind of comment inside the Perl code.

I also wrote a subroutine to include a file (the sidebar) within the code as a kind of include file. Perl doesn't make this kind of a function available by default, but it is easy to write one.

To make the CGI work, I needed to add this .htaccess file:

OPTIONS Indexes
AddHandler cgi-script .pl
Options +ExecCGI

It took me a while to get the DBI and DBD modules working on my home computer. Eventually, I did it using Cpann. I used the instructions on this page starting at the section that says Install Perlbrew then Install Perl modules. The big secret is running everthing with sudo so it gets put in the right place completely.

curl -L http://install.perlbrew.pl | bash
echo 'source /perl5/perlbrew/etc/bashrc' >> ~/.bash_profile
sudo perlbrew install --notest --as 5.14.4 --thread --64all \
  -Duseshrplib perl-5.14.4
sudo perlbrew install-cpanm
sudo cpanm DBI
sudo cpanm Test::Differences Test::Exception Test::Perl::Critic
sudo cpanm DBD::mysql
sudo cpanm HTML::Entities Archive::Zip IPC::Run Crypt::DSA \ 
  Crypt::SSLeay XML::Parser XML::Atom Mail::Sendmail \
  Net::SMTP::TLS Net::SMTP::SSL Imager