George Dickey wrote: > > Hi all > > I'm reasonably new to Perl, I am an electronics engineer by trade and > I started playing with Perl last year as I needed to mangle some text
Welcome! > I'm thinking xhtml and EmbPerl for my web site. I've already got > apache running in a basic configuration with a cgi-bin. Got any > pointers for optimizing apache for Perl. I'll be starting of by > working my way through :- > http://www.perl.com/pub/q/Article_Archive#mod_perl > > Anyone recommend anywhere else to look? Things to try? Ooh... the Perl/HTML templating discussion debate... I've used Embperl and HTML::Mason, and I much prefer Mason. Both have their disadvantages. Many people here like Template Toolkit, I haven't used it but it sounds like it's approach would be contrary to my preferred way of working - YMMV. I'm not aware of anyone who's used Mason but prefers Embperl, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. If you haven't done CGI programming before I would advise becoming at least familiar with Perl programming using the standard CGI.pm module without any new-fangled templating, but YMMV again :) Before starting with mod_perl, I think it's advisable to be pretty comfortable with Perl: package variables, lexicals (and their differences), modules, references, OO. The main mod_perl book is Writing Apache Modules in Perl and C (or a very similar title) by O'Reilly (The Eagle Book). It's also advisable to have a basic knowledge of how Apache works. Optimising Apache for Perl? Install mod_perl, and try to take advantage of its features. If you're doing non-trivial server-side web programming you're likely to come across database programming at some point, but that's a whole other aquarium of hot water :-) Tony
