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Perl @ Web Programming
Programming Shed : Programmer Store & Resources |
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Perl Index - Perl Book :
Object Oriented Perl
by Damian Conway, Randal L. Schwartz (Foreword) Paperback: 490 pages Dimensions (in inches): 1.19 x 9.30 x 7.42 Publisher: Manning Publications Company ISBN: 1884777791; (August 1999) Perl has always been a powerful and popular programming language, but with its new object capabilities, it can do even more. Written for anyone with a little Perl experience, Damian Conway's Object Oriented Perl provides an invaluable guide to virtually every aspect of object-oriented programming in Perl. The most notable thing about Object Oriented Perl is Conway's excellent perspective on object-oriented concepts and how they are implemented in Perl. This book does a remarkable job of cutting through traditional jargon and illustrating how basic object-oriented design techniques are handled in Perl. (A useful appendix attests to the author's wide-ranging knowledge, with a comparison of Smalltalk, Eiffel, C++, and Java with Perl, including a summary of object-oriented syntax for each.) This book also features a truly excellent review of basic Perl syntax. Throughout this text, the author shows you the basics of solid object design (illustrated using classes that model music CDs). Basic concepts like inheritance and polymorphism get thorough and clear coverage. The book also points out common mistakes and provides many tips for navigating the powerful and flexible (yet sometimes tricky) nuances of using Perl objects. For instance, Conway shows how to achieve true data encapsulation in Perl (which generally allows calls across modules) as well as its natural support for generic programming techniques.He also pays special attention to popular object modules available from CPAN (like Class::MethodmakerK, which simplifies declaring classes) and discusses performance issues and the tradeoff between programming convenience and speed often faced by today's Perl developer. Advanced chapters cover a number of techniques for adding persistence and invoking methods using multiple dispatching. Filled with syntactic tips and tricks, Object Oriented Perl is a sure bet for any programmer who wants to learn how to use Perl objects effectively. --Richard Dragan Topics covered: Perl language review, CPAN, Perl objects, 'blessing' and inheritance, polymorphism, Class::Struct and Class::Methodmaker modules, Perl ties and closures, operator overloading, encapsulation, multiple dispatch, Class::Multimethods, coarse-grained and fine-grained object persistence techniques, performance issues. The Library Journal: ...it will have a big audience at the university, computer science level and in large public libraries. Book News, Inc.: Conway (computer science, Monash U., Melbourne) provides novices and experienced Perl hackers alike with a guide to writing clean, readable, and maintainable Perl programs. The book begins with object orientation and Perl basics, and moves on to topics such as encapsulation, polymorphism, operator overloading, multiple dispatch and persistence. Conway incorporates examples of databases, pattern matching, multiprocessing, encryption, and debugging among others, and he includes transition guides from C++, Java, Eiffel, and Smalltalk. -- Copyright © 1999 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR All rights reserved Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR Development Exchange, November 99: "Object Oriented Perl is well written and communicates a lot of technical know-how to its readers, both in terms of specific language features and general design concepts. You'll put this book down with more knowledge of modular Perl than you had when you picked it up. Whether object-oriented Perl programming is right for your projects is another question-but there's no better decision helper than Conway's guide." Rik's PowerBuilder Dojo: "This book is one of the best technical books that I have ever read. I've been writing applications and particularly CGI in Perl for several years and right there in Chapter 1 I started to learn all of the things that I missed in my self-education on the subject. My main problem with Perl was that I considered it a generator of 'quick and dirty' code. This book showed me right away how very wrong I was about that. Perl is a mature language that is more than ready to stand as a formidable tool in your toolbox. This book starts with a very, very good refresher on Perl concepts and doesn't ignore the more advanced functionality either. The first chapter alone is worth the price of the book . . . So as one PowerBuilder programmer to another I advise you, on my strongest possible recommendations to get this book and add it to your skill set. It will only make you a better programmer. Slashdot.org: ...Superbly organized and excellently explained, this is the definitive book on Object Oriented programming with Perl. Customer Reviews Reviewer: kurtgs from Boulder, CO USA And not only if you're interested in Object Oriented Programming! The first chapter of the book is a general overview of Perl, and I learned a lot of things just from those first 70 pages that I had never found in the other dozen or so Perl books that I have read. Of course, the rest of the book is excellent too. It explains the object oriented features of Perl very clearly, and it is full of simple, elegant and sophisticated examples. However, the author does occasionally slip in some rather arcane code. At one point he described how something could be accomplished with one simple statement, which it took me five minutes to decipher and understand. But overall, the book is excellent, and it taught me some very good lessons in programming techniques and style. I know I will be referring to this book a lot in the future. Reviewer: Reader from Kansas City, Missouri USA Written as a textbook and used as such by Stonehenge Consulting services, Object Oriented Perl may be the ultimate reference on object oriented theory and practice using the standard all-purpose programming language of the twentyfirst century. For the autodidact, this book is readable too, in much the same way as the Llama or Camel. Conway provides examples of use of the features of the very latest iteration of the Perl OO standard, 5.005, such as blessed regular expressions and _init methods, while always keeping an eye on the truth that the end goal of your programming project is probably, somewhere, somehow, "to engender a warm feeling." As Randal Schwartz (whose own books may be linked to from this page) claims in the book's forward, the wait is now over for the perfect object-oriented Perl book. I quote: "Damian Conway has written a comprehensive guide, organized well for both the casual OO hacker as well as the experienced OO user, including large reusable chunks of code (and that's what OO is all about.) "Damian's humor makes the reading light and fast. The depth of coverage from 'what's the big fuss about Perl objects?' to 'creating a self-tied inheritable overloaded filehandle with autoloaded accessors' means that this is the first and last book I need to teach Perl objects to my students. "For experienced users, the appendix comparing and contrasting Perl with other popular OO languages is by itself worth the entire price of the book." Reviewer: Timothy Dale Shoppa from Bethesda, MD USA This book gives a very excellent all-around perspective on object-oriented programming. The examples are a bit limited in scope, but this is made up for by showing the evolution of a simple class through many of the OO techniques available in Perl. He shows you how to enforce strict encapsulation, but also tells you that you probably don't have to enforce this. Various inheritance techniques and tools are extremely well explained and illustrated. And of course he makes wonderful use of the CPAN resources, letting you know that you are not developing software in a vacuum; there's a lot of resources out there and he shows you how to use them to your advantage. Perl is not C++, it's not Java, and it's not Smalltalk or Eiffel. But Conway gives a wonderful perspective about the differences (and similarities) between all of these languages, and even a straightforward glossary to help you "translate" from one to another where appropriate. Reviewer: tao_of_biology from Pacific Northwest All of the other reviews for this book pretty much get it right: This book is a must have for any moderately serious Perl programmer who needs to work with or develop object oriented code. The best thing I can say about this book is that it's actually useful. In a sea of unnecessary Perl books (Programming the Perl DBI), this book stands out as an immediately valuable tool that you will continue to use over and over again. It has a great rudamentary Perl primer section, object oriented programming primer and, of course, Perl's application of these ideas. This book has definitely helped me to write better code, period. Buy it. |
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