Mac Forum / Programming / Perl / March 2004

Hi all - a very quick question:
I'm a web developer (PHP, javascript etc) with a little Perl and I used
to use Applescript about 10 years ago.
I want to write a simple script that I can distribute to OS X users

I'm getting a curious result whenever I try to run the simplest osascript
In Terminal I get this
eremita:~ jd$ osascript -e 'return 100'
CFBundle 0x3734b0 </Users/jd/Library/ScriptingAdditions/XSpell.osax>

I'm trying to get the size of a folder and figure Mac::Glue would be
the way to go. However I'm getting back a 0:
use Mac::Glue;
my $finder = new Mac::Glue 'Finder';

I'm trying to understand how signals and restartable system calls interact.
Take this example:
#!/usr/bin/perl
$SIG{USR2} = sub { print "Here I Am\n"; };

I am a perl newbie and I am trying to install Mac::iTunes. When I do, I get lots  of what look to be syntax errors about missing parentheses, and deprecated function calls, and such, and then iTunes launches, does some strange things to the screen and then the install finally ...

I just put together an application using Archive::Zip that intercepts
emails sent to an address on my MacOS X 10.2.8 system. It works just
fine when the files are sent from another Mac using the built-in
archive command. However, my client is using WinZip from his system and

I used Mac::Glue to send mail using the Mail.app.  Notice in my code
below, the commmented out lines that have to do with name.  Whatever I
assign name to makes no difference, it still keeps junk in the field
from my prior versions.  How can I reset the name field and have some

(not really Perl content, so I look forward to being reamed by Randal
for polluting our bandwidth, tragifying the commons, and generally
being the vanguard of a thousand dark years of oppressive alien rule)  
I believe you can get mono via Fink, but I've soured on Fink after

I will have Perl script calls throughout complex HTML, which will set
up variables.
If my Perl script is called from say:
    <form method="post" name="entryForm" action="/cgi-bin/cwdmail.cgi">

New! Cool! Wonderful!  A Must Have!!
Flame-Deleter is a powerful, perl-based syntactic and grammatical
analyzer, that determines if messages posted to your mailing
list are flame provoking or etiquette babble.  It automatically deletes

Affrus is an excellent product.  I hate using the Perl debugger on the
command line, it gives me the willies.  Affrus makes it much easier to find
problems in your perl code, especially when it goes through many modules and
files.  I only wish I had more bugs in my code so I ...

Late Night Software is pleased to announce the release of its newest Mac OS
X scripting product: Affrus 1.0.
Affrus 1.0 is an integrated Perl editing and debugging environment for Mac
OS X.  It wraps Perl in a standard, familiar, and intuitive user interface.

I have several Perl scripts that I run on Win XP. I'd like to port them to
my OS X box. From what I've read on the web, I can run Unix Perl from the
OS X console.
--what version of Unix Perl (Linux vs Solaris, for example) should I use?

My apologies for causing all this trouble and wasted bandwidth.
I wasn't aware of a prohibition of on-topic commercial content.  Won't
happen again.
-Mark

I've been meaning to ask this question for months but never got round to it.
Why is it that when I try to use cpan for the first time after a
little while it takes an age for it to contact the sites and get
going?  I always have to go away and do something else and it might