What it is:

	modules Net::Gen, Net::Inet, Net::TCP, Net::UDP, and Net::UNIX.
	Net::Gen is not a good name, I know that, but what's
	in it really belongs in Socket, I think.  In any case,
	I'm open to votes for a better name.

What's different from other offerings:

	Layering keeps PF_INET things in Inet, and only socket-generic
	stuff is in Gen.

	Friendly {g,s}etsockopt.

	A TIESCALAR interface for really simple socket communications.

	Properly handles connects to hosts with multiple addresses as
	long as gethostbyname() returns more than one address.  (RFC 1123)

What's still missing:

	Support for non-blocking sockets is untested at best.
	The select, fhvec, ioctl, and fcntl methods are crude hacks.

	A proper set of regression & verification tests.

	Proper handling of timeout options.

	Finished integration with 5.003_13 & later features.

	Configuration testing to get the include files right on
	more systems, and to manage to find the constants which
	at least some Linux systems have as enums rather than
	as #defines.

	Probably several other things I won't have missed (yet).


The .pm files themselves are pod-ified (somewhat), with a catalogue of
the methods.

I'm not a tech. writer, nor do I usually play one on the net.  The
documentation could still use a lot of work, I'm sure.

Making it all work requires perl 5.003_93 or later.  The 0.75 version
may be required for version 5.003_96 or later of perl.

A simple test script:

	#!/usr/bin/perl

	use Net::TCP;

	$f = new Net::TCP 0, 'finger';
	die "Can't establish finger socket: $!\n" unless $f;

	put $f "-s\n";
	$f->shutdown(1);
	print $line while defined($line = getline $f);
	undef $f;

	die "Can't tie to finger socket: $!\n" unless
		tie $f,'Net::TCP',0,'finger';

	$f = "-s\n";
	print $line while (defined $line=$f);
	untie $f;

Should be the same (on most BSD-ish systems, anyway) as
	finger ; finger
to the shell.


Anyway, bug reports & feature requests to me (spider@Orb.Nashua.NH.US).