Perl in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition
by Stephen Spainhour, Ellen Siever, Nate Patwardhan 

The unconfirmed error reports are from readers.  They have not yet been 
approved or disproved by the author or editor and represent solely the
opinion of the reader.

Here's a key to the markup:
        [page-number]: serious technical mistake
        {page-number}: minor technical mistake
        <page-number>: important language/formatting problem
        (page-number): language change or minor formatting problem
        ?page-number?: reader question or request for clarification

This page was updated April 18, 2007.


UNCONFIRMED  errors and comments from readers: 


[1]  1;
Does not document the ithreads interface (threads.pm, threads/shared* etc.)

Does not mention Pod::Usage either.

Both are in Perl 5.8


[43]  Endemic;
minor omission rather than an error. Chapter 4 does not give the definition or syntax of a slice.


(45)  Examples for Number formats;
As of Perl 5.6 and higher, the binary-format (leading 0b) is supported and should be
mentioned.

Example:

0b1110 means decimal 14.


[51]  Code example of while block;
Within the example of the "while loops" the line

print OUTFILE, "$_\n";

should read

print OUTFILE "$_\n";

that is without the comma.


[53]  Code example of Loop control;
The statements within the loop

    print;
    next LINE if /^#/;    # Discard comments

should be swapped:

    next LINE if /^#/;    # Discard comments
    print;

Otherwise the next statement has no effect (besides evaluation of /^#/)


(55)  First Paragraph;
The Global special variable for LIST_SEPATATOR is shown as $ or $LIST_SEPARATOR ,
there is no mention of $".


(58)  last paragraph;
Original text:
$'
$POSTMATCH

Should be:
$`
$POSTMATCH

or at least I think so. I'm just getting into Perl (that's why I bought the book!).

Basically the apostrophe (ascii 0x27) should be an open single quote (ascii 0x60).


{66} First item under "Pattern-Matching Operators";
In the modifiers listed for pattern match:

m/pattern/gimosxe

The 'man perlop' documentation for 5.8.6 still mentions the m//cg combination 
which is missing here. (The incorrect "e" modifier already mentioned in earlier 
errata). 


{70} In the table under "Anchors";
The entry \c seems to be unique to this manual and its description mentions 
\g which is also unique. I'm guessing this entry shouldn't be here at all 
and what's really being discussed is m//cg vs. m//g (i.e. modifiers, not anchors.)


{72}  Lines 4 & 5;
Two of the backreferencing variables listed S' and S` actually function in the
opposite manner than that presented.

They currently read:

S' Returns everything before the matched string.
S` Returns everything after the matched string.

They should correctly read as follows:

S' Returns everything AFTER the matched string.
S` Returns everything BEFORE the matched string.

Also line 5 indicates a grave'(sp?) instead of the correct "back tick". It causes you
to pause and have a good look around your keyboard to see where you misplaced that
key if you're trying to type it as indicated :)

Page 36 of the 3rd edition of the Perl 5 Pocket Reference stands in agreement with
the above findings and observations as a sanity check.


[72]  paragraph beginning with (?<!=...);
The description of the extension

(?<!=...)
   A zero-width negative lookbehind assertion. For example, /(?<!=bad)boy/ matches
any occurrence of "boy" that doesn't follow "bad". This only works for fixed-width
lookbehind.

is wrong. It should be

(?<!...)
   A zero-width negative lookbehind assertion. For example, /(?<!bad)boy/ matches any
occurrence of "boy" that doesn't follow "bad". This only works for fixed-width
lookbehind.

to make it work (the equal sign must be removed at two places).
I noticed the error on the Perl CD 2 containing the first edition
of this book. As this paragraph is included in the sample chapter
and is still wrong, I report it even I will not own this book until
it will be published on a Perl CD.


{101}  5th function (endprotoent);
Closes the prototypes file (usually /etc/prototypes on Unix systems) if open.
should be:
Closes the protocols file (usually /etc/protocols on Unix systems) if open.

Now this matchs with getprotoent file name.


{131}  5th function (setprotoent);
Opens the prototypes file (usually /etc/prototypes) and resets ...
should be:
Opens the protocols file (usually /etc/protocols) and resets ...

same as page 101


{173}, Tie::Memorize is actually Tie::Memoize.


(255)  2nd section (finddepth);
The section that describes the second exported function for File::Find, the finddepth
function has a typo.

It reads: finddepth (\wanted, dir1[,dir2...])
It should read: finddepth (\&wanted, dir1[,dir2...])

Otherwhise the call to the sub wanted won't work.


(270)  LInkage specification definition;
The linkage specifier can also be a reference to a "hash"; that should be mentioned.

Excerpt from "man Getopt::Long":

       Options with hash values

       If the option destination is a reference to a hash, the
       option will take, as value, strings of the form
       key`='value. The value will be stored with the specified
       key in the hash.

           my %defines = ();
           GetOptions ("define=s" => \%defines);

       When used with command line options:

           --define os=linux --define vendor=redhat

       the hash `%defines' will contain two keys, `"os"' with
       value `"linux' and `"vendor"' with value `"redhat"'.  It
       is also possible to specify that only integer or floating
       point numbers are acceptible values. The keys are always
       taken to be strings.


(316)  Pod:: Module listing;
The Module "Pod::Usage" should be listed. This is an important module for auto
generation of usage, help and manpage output.

For detailed input see "man Pod::Usage".


(336) in the Switch pragma;
The double quotes are all curly quotes, instead of straight quotes.


(437,439)  Right edge of the page;
The text in the black box at the right edge of the page reads "XML and SOAP" but the
chapter is "SOAP".


(527)  Request example;
Example

	use LWP::UserAgent;  # This will cover all of them!

	$hdrs = HTTP::Headers->new(Accept => 'text/plain',
                          User-Agent => 'MegaBrowser/1.0');

	$url = URI::URL->new('www.ora.com/index.html');

Should read

	use LWP::UserAgent;  # This will cover all of them!

	$hdrs = HTTP::Headers->new('Accept' => 'text/plain',
                          'User-Agent' => 'MegaBrowser/1.0');

	$url = URI::URL->new('http://www.ora.com/index.html');


(726)  right column of index;
"rotocols_forbidden()" should read "protocols_forbidden()"



(726) Bottom of the page under "Q";
There's an index entry:

q// pattern match operator, 66, 124

But there's no mention of q// on page 66, but there is a discussion
of qr// This probably should be two entries, something like:

q// regexp quote-like operator, 124
qr// regexp quote-like operator, 66