Errata

Perl Pocket Reference

Errata for Perl Pocket Reference

Submit your own errata for this product.

The errata list is a list of errors and their corrections that were found after the product was released.

The following errata were submitted by our customers and have not yet been approved or disproved by the author or editor. They solely represent the opinion of the customer.

Color Key: Serious technical mistake Minor technical mistake Language or formatting error Typo Question Note Update

Version Location Description Submitted by Date submitted
Printed Page i
perldoc

Anonymous   
Printed Page i
perldoc

Anonymous   
PDF Page n/a
n/a

Incorrect title and no author information in the PDF eBook. The book says "refbase.dvi" by "Unknown Author" on any eBook reader that has a library feature.

 Anonymous  Mar 23, 2010 
Printed Page 4
Command-Line Options

The command-line options for the perl command are given, but the perldoc command-line
options are not. At a minimum, these options should be listed:

perldoc PageName|ModuleName|ProgramName...
perldoc -f BuiltinFunction
perldoc -q FAQRegex
perldoc -h prints more help
perldoc perl displays the perldoc table of contents and overview

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 4
Command-Line Options

The command-line options for the perl command are given, but the perldoc command-line
options are not. At a minimum, these options should be listed:

perldoc PageName|ModuleName|ProgramName...
perldoc -f BuiltinFunction
perldoc -q FAQRegex
perldoc -h prints more help
perldoc perl displays the perldoc table of contents and overview

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 13
Operators and Precedence table, ! and ~ operators

I think the line:
"! ~ Unary negation, bitwise complement"
would be better written as:
"! ~ Logical NOT, bitwise NOT"
to be more consistent with the other entries "Bitwise AND," "Bitwise OR," "Logical
AND," and "Logical OR."

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 13
Operators and Pecedence section

The line
"| ^ Logical OR, exclusive OR"
should be
"| ^ Logical OR, logical XOR"
to be more consistent with other table entries, specifically the last two lines of
the table on page 14.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 13
Operators and Precedence table, ! and ~ operators

I think the line:
"! ~ Unary negation, bitwise complement"
would be better written as:
"! ~ Logical NOT, bitwise NOT"
to be more consistent with the other entries "Bitwise AND," "Bitwise OR," "Logical
AND," and "Logical OR."

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 13
Operators and Pecedence section

The line
"| ^ Logical OR, exclusive OR"
should be
"| ^ Logical OR, logical XOR"
to be more consistent with other table entries, specifically the last two lines of
the table on page 14.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 25
Arithmetic Function not

According to the table of operators on page 15, "not" is a low precedence operator.
But including "not" in the Arithmetic Functions section implies that it's a function,
and thus is higher in precedence, and is arithmetic. I don't think "not" belongs in
this section!

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 25
Arithmetic Function not

According to the table of operators on page 15, "not" is a low precedence operator.
But including "not" in the Arithmetic Functions section implies that it's a function,
and thus is higher in precedence, and is arithmetic. I don't think "not" belongs in
this section!

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 30
explanation for 'exists'

Paragraph states "lku must be an array a hash lookup". The word 'or' appears to be
missing, and it should state "lku must be an array OR a hash lookup"

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 30
explanation for 'exists'

Paragraph states "lku must be an array a hash lookup". The word 'or' appears to be
missing, and it should state "lku must be an array OR a hash lookup"

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 32
Regular Expressions

It would help greatly to have a precedence chart for regular expression operators
(e.g. parentheses, repetition, sequence, alternation).

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 32
Regular Expressions

It would help greatly to have a precedence chart for regular expression operators
(e.g. parentheses, repetition, sequence, alternation).

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 38
tr/// description

The description for tr/// doesn't mention that character ranges are supported, as in
tr/a-z/A-Z/

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 38
tr/// description

The description for tr/// doesn't mention that character ranges are supported, as in
tr/a-z/A-Z/

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 48
Formatted Printing %b format string

"%b An unsigned number (binary)" should be
"%b An unsigned integer (binary)" (similar to %x and %u).

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 48
Last line of Standard I/O Layers section

"PerlIO" should be "perlio".

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 48
Formatted Printing %b format string

"%b An unsigned number (binary)" should be
"%b An unsigned integer (binary)" (similar to %x and %u).

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 48
Last line of Standard I/O Layers section

"PerlIO" should be "perlio".

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 49
.number printf flag

The .number flag not only specifies the minimum width for an integer, but also causes
the integer to be right-aligned with zeroes instead of spaces.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 49
4th line

"%o An unsigned integer, in octal." should be
"%o An unsigned integer (octal)." to be consistent with %u and %x.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 49
.number printf flag

The .number flag not only specifies the minimum width for an integer, but also causes
the integer to be right-aligned with zeroes instead of spaces.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 49
4th line

"%o An unsigned integer, in octal." should be
"%o An unsigned integer (octal)." to be consistent with %u and %x.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 53,55
die and warn command descriptions

The die and warn commands also list the current line of the program and the current
line of input read. This information is suppressed if the last character of the last
element of "list" is a newline.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 53,55
die and warn command descriptions

The die and warn commands also list the current line of the program and the current
line of input read. This information is suppressed if the last character of the last
element of "list" is a newline.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 72
Section "Compiler Backends"

The "perlcc" environment still remains very experimental.

It would be better to explicitly mention the "PAR" module with
its commands at this place which appears to be quite stable and
does a reasonable good job.

AUTHOR'S COMMENTS:

Many things have changed since the 4rd edition was published in 2002,
and nowadays PAR seems to be a very good candidate to take the place
of the still experimental compiler backends.

For the last several years, the Pocket Guide has tracked the major
perl releases (2000 3rd ed -> 5.6, 2002 4rd ed -> 5.8) and it would be
logical to assume a 5th edition for 5.10. However, 5.10 is still not
definite yet. On the other hand, it has been four years now since the
previous edition and if the stock is getting low and budget planning
permits, I could do a 5th, revised, edition for 5.8. Major changes
would be to shift focus from 5.8 things 'we found not to be optimal'
to 5.10 and perl6 things 'we know better now'.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 72
Section "Compiler Backends"

The "perlcc" environment still remains very experimental.

It would be better to explicitly mention the "PAR" module with
its commands at this place which appears to be quite stable and
does a reasonable good job.

AUTHOR'S COMMENTS:

Many things have changed since the 4rd edition was published in 2002,
and nowadays PAR seems to be a very good candidate to take the place
of the still experimental compiler backends.

For the last several years, the Pocket Guide has tracked the major
perl releases (2000 3rd ed -> 5.6, 2002 4rd ed -> 5.8) and it would be
logical to assume a 5th edition for 5.10. However, 5.10 is still not
definite yet. On the other hand, it has been four years now since the
previous edition and if the stock is getting low and budget planning
permits, I could do a 5th, revised, edition for 5.8. Major changes
would be to shift focus from 5.8 things 'we found not to be optimal'
to 5.10 and perl6 things 'we know better now'.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 73
Perl Debugger command M

The debugger command "M" is in the wrong font. It should be in the monospaced font
because it is literal text.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 73
Perl Debugger command M

The debugger command "M" is in the wrong font. It should be in the monospaced font
because it is literal text.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 79
File::stat description

The text "by name interface" should be "by-name interface".

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 79
File::stat description

The text "by name interface" should be "by-name interface".

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 88
between blib and bytes (index)

The term "block" is missing.

Anonymous   
Printed Page 88
between blib and bytes (index)

The term "block" is missing.

Anonymous   
Printed Page 90
Index entries for "our"

There are two entries for "our" in different fonts in the index. However, they should
clearly be combined into one entry, because there is only one thing being indexed --
the "our" statement. There are other similar double entries in the index.

 Anonymous   
Printed Page 90
Index entries for "our"

There are two entries for "our" in different fonts in the index. However, they should
clearly be combined into one entry, because there is only one thing being indexed --
the "our" statement. There are other similar double entries in the index.

 Anonymous