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Perl @ Web Programming
Programming Shed : Programmer Store & Resources |
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Perl Index - Perl Book :
Learning Perl (3rd Edition)
by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix Paperback: 316 pages Dimensions (in inches): 0.87 x 9.21 x 7.04 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates ISBN: 0596001320; 3rd edition (July 15, 2001) In this smooth, carefully paced course, a leading Perl trainer teaches you to program in the language that threatens to make C, sed, awk, and the Unix shell obsolete for many tasks. This book is the "official" guide for both formal (classroom) and informal learning. It is fully accessible to the novice programmer. From Book News, Inc.: A hands-on tutorial featuring exercises and complete solutions, covering basics rather than advanced issues. Contents include Perl basics, the language's broad capabilities, brief code examples, system commands, and how to manage DBM databases using Perl. This second edition contains a new chapter on CGI programming. Book Description: If you ask Perl programmers today what book they relied on most when they were learning Perl, you'll find that an overwhelming majority will name Learning Perl -- also known affectionately as "the Llama." The first edition of Learning Perl appeared in 1993 and has been a bestseller ever since. Written by two of the most prominent and active members of the Perl community, this book is the quintessential tutorial for the Perl programming language. Perl began as a tool for Unix system administrators, used for countless small tasks throughout the workday. It has since blossomed into a full-featured programming language on practically every computing platform, and is used for web programming, database manipulation, XML processing, and (of course) system administration--all this while still remaining the perfect tool for the small daily tasks it was designed for. Perl is quick, fun, and eminently useful. Many people start using Perl because they need it, but they continue to use Perl because they love it. The third edition of Learning Perl has not only been updated for Perl 5.6, but has also been rewritten from the ground up to reflect the needs of programmers learning Perl today. Informed by their years of success at teaching Perl as consultants, the authors have re-engineered the book to better match the pace and scope appropriate for readers trying to get started with Perl, while retaining the detailed discussion, thorough examples, and eclectic wit for which the book is famous. This edition of the Llama includes an expanded and more gently-paced introduction to regular expressions, new exercises and solutions designed so readers can practice what they've learned while it's still fresh in their minds, and an overall reworking to bring Learning Perl into the new millennium. Perl is a language for getting your job done. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer. Ingram: "Learning Perl" is ideal for system administrators, programmers, and anyone else wanting a down-to-earth introduction to this useful language. Written by a Perl trainer, its aim is to make a competent, hands-on Perl programmer out of the reader as quickly as possible. The book takes a tutorial approach and includes hundreds of short code examples, along with some lengthy one Pub: 7/97. Book Info: Updated edition. Hands-on tutorial designed to get you writing useful Perl scripts as quickly as possible. Covers Version 5.004. Paper. The publisher, O'Reilly and Associates: Learning Perl is designed for those who seek a rapid working knowledge of Perl. A public domain language, Perl has established itself as the premier UNIX scripting language--replacing facilities such as the shell, sed and awk. It is currently taking root in non-UNIX markets as well. Perl is a high-level, multi-purpose language. It is used in diverse system administration tasks, while also playing an endless variety of roles in other areas. These range from data reduction and report generation to distributed computing and assorted auxiliary roles in software development. Perl has even encroached upon the territory of C and other programming languages. Perl allows the programmer to combine in one script functions that previously had to be divided between the shell, sed, awk, various other UNIX utilities, and C programs. With this breadth of capability, Perl is an extraordinarily powerful and flexible language. Learning Perl, written by a leading Perl instructor, provides a systematic, step-by-step, tutorial approach to learning the language. There are numerous short code examples punctuating a relaxed, informal, and precise tour of all the main features of the language. In addition, each chapter contains exercise problems, together with their solutions. Anyone who works through the book will be capable of programming with a broad and productive range of Perl features. For a comprehensive and detailed guide to advanced programming with Perl, read O'Reilly's companion book: Programming Perl. Customer Reviews Reviewer: Surya Halim from Corvallis, OR United States I found it very suitable for beginners provided that you have some background in Unix, C, sed, awk and shell programming languages but even if you don't, it is still pretty easy to grasp if you put enough effort into it i.e. at least type in the examples on a Unix terminal and try to understand what's going on. By the way, if you don't know anything about Unix, I suggest trying Harley Han's "Student Guide to UNIX", a very good book with introduction to Unix commands and editors. The author did a great job of providing examples along with every new concepts he was trying to explain. I have to admit that the first chapter looks kinda scary for somebody without any background in computer programming but if you can figure out the 'big picture' and spend enough time trying to follow the logic, the following chapters until almost the last chapter are easy. All the exercises on the back of the chapters are of reasonable difficulty, enough to try your understanding of the material presented in the chapter. If you can do the exercises by yourself, you can be sure that you already grasp the material. The best part is, all the answers are available in the appendix to let you see how the author implemented it (since they are Perl experts, I always ended up writing solutions that were longer than necessary compared to theirs). However, to reap the maximum benefit, it's recommended that you also have "Programming Perl" by Larry Wall besides you as this book makes a lot of references to "Programming Perl reference book". Buy this book, and learn how to code in Perl, an investment that you'll not regret. Reviewer: bob@osola.demon.co.uk from Southampton, UK I came to Perl from Windows, C & Delphi and wanted a quick leg up the learning ladder. This book does just that, but with some caveats. I found it hard to get past the leaden and, to me, very un-funny foreword by Larry Wall. That apart, the book does the job as advertised. The 1st chapter (A Stroll Through Perl) is tough. It throws in a lot of code without explanation (e.g. use of =~ operator on p.11) and is very Unix-oriented. If you know C, you'll hack it, but this is heavy stuff for a non-programmer wishing to learn. Programming Perl (this book's big brother) is much tougher again. You would need to be an intermediate/advanced C & Unix hacker to go straight into Perl from there. However, if you come to use Perl regularly (and most Windows folk coming here will be using Perl for CGI stuff), you would be well advised to buy both. The remainder of the book consists of well-paced examples, culminating in a (for me) particularly useful primer on CGI. I have just completed my first fully home-grown large CGI script, and would never have got there without this book (and CGI.pm). So 4 stars for general content and concept, 1 star lost for dud humour and the whole "Stroll Through Perl" thing which I think increases, rather than flattens the learning curve. Don't be fooled by claims of Perl's natural or intuitive feel. It is only natural and intuitive for "Hello World" programmes. Beyond that, it is natural & intuitive only for those who have been practicing it for years. The rest of us use it like more forgiving version of C. Reviewer: kickstand84 from Lewiston, ME USA While this may be an excellent primer for programmers who are new to Perl (I don't know), it's not the best place to start for those who are entirely new to programming, like me. This book assumes you have some familiarity with programming. I found the Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web: Visual Quickstart guide much easier to pick up from scratch. Reviewer: Samuel D. Brown from Venice, Ca. USA There's a LOT of bad computer books. There are many good ones. There are a few that are downright fun. If you're not sure you want to learn Perl, get this book. You'll have fun and by the time it's over, you'll have learned it anyway. |
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