Dave Cross goes back to basics to show how using Perl's special variables can tidy up file-handling code. More info

When you are creating or using CGI routines, you must be careful to keep good coding techniques, security and just plain common sense in mind. Sometimes you can do things that cause serious unexpected site effects. In fact, sometimes you may think you are making your CGI routine secure only to find out it just doesn't work like you expected. More info

With spam, viruses, worms, and trojan horses consuming an ever-increasing amount of mail traffic, mail filtering is more important than ever. So is mail server flexibility. Sendmail's milters allow administrators and programmers to control almost every step of the mail process. Emmanuel Dreyfus explains how to write a milter by demonstrating his anti-spam greylisting system. More info

Michael Schwern explains how to use refactoring techniques to make code faster. More info

Perl is far more than a language for processing and parsing data. Here you'll learn several uses that you can put right to work — complete with code samples. More info

The Gang-of-Four Design Patterns book had a huge impact on programming methodologies in the Java and C++ communities, but what do Design Patterns have to say to Perl programmers? Phil Crow examines how some popular patterns fit in to Perl programming. More info

This article written by Jason Nugent will discuss the mechanisms most often used in Perl scripts to store data out to the filesystem so it can be used again at a later time. Once your data is in a file on the server, other programs may access it, you can manipulate it, graph it, or do just about anything you want with it. More info

Simon Cozens shows us how to use Perl to develop applications for Gnome, the Unix desktop environment. More info

The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard for external gateway programs to interface with HTTP servers. CGI libraries simplify the task of writing CGI scripts. The use of one widely used CGI library, CGI.pm, is discussed in detail by Pankaj Kamthan. More info

Save time, test more, and use what the CPAN has made available to enhance your development. Casey West demonstrates examples of good techniques when testing Perl-based software. More info