Resources

Perl: The Perl home page is at http://www.perl.com/ and includes links to distributions, tutorials, documentation, frequently asked questions and more. This is a good launching pad for information about Perl, as well as for keeping up to date on the latest versions of Perl and its modules.

DBI: The Perl “Database Interface”, a set of modules to provide a generic API (DBI) and drivers to specific databases (DBD), allows for portable access to a large number of databases. Information about DBI is available from the Perl home page or from
http://www.hermetica.com/technologia/perl/DBI/.

Apache: The Apache web server, used on a majority of web sites, is freely available from http://www.apache.org/ in source format. Documentation for Apache, as well as tutorials on how to use and administer it, can be found at that web site and at http://www.apacheweek.com/, a weekly newsletter for Apache users.

MySQL: The MySQL home page is http://www.mysql.com/, although there are numerous mirrors around the world. Additional MySQL documentation can be found at http://www.turbolift.com/.

Database-Backed Web Sites by Phil Greenspun, on the creation and maintenance of databases and web sites, is a classic that should be read by anyone using these tools. See http://photo.net/wtr/ for a full copy of the book (as well as a draft of the coming sequel), along with many other useful tidbits. While I did not use his code when designing this system, I did use some of his ideas about formatting and presentation. So while the systems don't share any code, they do have a similar “look and feel”.