Description

This document helps to solve problems you may encounter while using perl.apache.org.

FAQ

Please read this FAQ first.

Q. The site looks very bad/unusable in the browser that I use.

A. The site was developed using the open standards: HTML 4.01 and CSS 2.0. Any browser that follows these two standards shouldn't have a problem to properly render this site. If you are using some very old browser, you should upgrade it.

Text-only browsers are definitely supported.

If you are using a latest stable browser and you still have a problem, please contact the docs-dev mailing list. Please post to the list a snapshot of the what seems to be looking bad and/or unusable along with the name and version of the browser and the platform you are running it on. Preferably upload the snapshot somewhere and post the URL to the location of the shapshot, especially if the snapshot is of a big size.

Q. Fonts are too small/unreadable.

This is a known problem with Internet Explorer, which comes shipped with its Font setting to Smaller. You'll have to set it to Medium unless you have extremely good eyes, which can be done by going to View -> Text Size and selecting Medium.

Q. I cannot read the PDF version of the documents

A. The PDF files require a browser plugin or standalone PDF reader to be read: You can get the Adobe Acrobat Reader for many different platforms from their website: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html .

Q. How the site search works

A. The search page reachable from the menu includes a complete usage documentation. But here is a short description:

In the menu on the left there is a search widget which can search the current subset of documents, or the whole site. For example if you are reading one of the documents in the mod_perl developers guide the search will return hits within this document subset. If you are searching at the root of all documentation, all documentation subsets will be searched. And finally if you search at the root of the site, the whole site will be searched. This widget is not intended to replace the Find in the current document feature implemented in most web browsers.

The dedicated search page provides a more flexible search options, including the explanation of these options.

Q. The pages take too long to download!

A. Yes, we have a lot of documentation. That is definitely a good thing. But, for example, the guide alone takes 735 pages in PDF format, so you might be overwhelmed by the size of the files if you're downloading them each time from the net. In that case, we suggest that you download the sources, build the documentation and read it off your hard disk.

Another idea to make it load faster is to adjust your browser's caching. By caching the pages, you might not have to download them each time.

Q. Why isn't your site running mod_perl?

A. 99% of this site is comprised of a static content, so it doesn't make sense to run mod_perl to serve it. You can see mod_perl in action here.

Q. I can't send an e-mail to the author/maintainer!

To reduce spam problems for our authors, we use a pretty simplistic email-address-hiding system which consists of replacing the @ character with (at). To send an e-mail, just change it back.

Q. What is all this about Authors and Maintainers?

It's quite simple. As many sections of our site are documents which have been written by individuals, we like to credit our authors and guide you to the person to contact. The authors are the original authors of a document or someone who has contributed big sections of it, but might not be available to contact anymore. In any case, the person listed as a Maintainer should be contacted with any changes or remarks (you can also CC the documentation mailing list). See the download documentation section about information on submitting patches. If in doubt, contact the documentation mailing list.

However, do not email the maintainer with general questions, even if they are related to the material in the doc they maintain, but always ask at the modperl user list. While we make e-mail addresses available, that doesn't mean you should just hope for them to answer any questions you might think they have the answer to. If you need help, ask your question at the mailing list. Otherwise you run a very high risk of your e-mail just being deleted immediately without ever being answered. All questions are usually answered at the list, so don't worry about asking there.

The rule is:

  If you feel you can help out a document, contact the Maintainer.
  
  If you don't understand something or need help, contact the mailing
  list.

Remember that, and you'll be fine.

Contact Info

If you've read the FAQ and you still have a problem, please email docs-dev (at) perl.apache.org and supply as much information as possible to help us solve your problem.

How this site was created

The site is automatically generated from a collection of HTML and POD files, using Perl DocSet Framework available from CPAN, which in turn is based on Template Toolkit.

If you are interested in downloading the site sources, please see the relevant section.