Message from Dean - May 8th 2007

I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.133
EAN: 9780596000271
Edition: 3
ISBN: 0596000278
Label: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 1092
Publication Date: July 14, 2000
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Studio: O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
Larry Wall wrote Perl and he wrote Programming Perl. Better yet, he writes amusingly and well--all of which comes across in this latest edition of the definitive guide to the language.

Like Topsy, Perl just grew, and as a result so has Programming Perl. It's now over 1,000 pages but needs to be as it does several different jobs. Firstly, it's an introduction to the Perl language for those new to programming. It's a guide for those coming from other languages and it's a Perl language reference.

Larry Wall is a linguist, among his other interests, and perhaps for this reason Perl is a peculiarly flexible language with many routes to achieving the same ends, as the authors ably demonstrate. It's also extensible in several ways, designed to work with many other languages and, as it's largely interpreted, Perl programs tend to run unmodified on a variety of platforms--though platform-specific Perl modules and programming practices are also discussed.

A major strength of Programming Perl is the way subject areas are approached from several directions. This constant viewpoint-shifting eliminates blind spots in the reader's understanding as well as providing a pleasing echo of the way Perl itself can take many routes from here to there.

Because the Perl community is both knowledgeable and active the language covers a lot more ground than it did at the time the last edition of Programming Perl was published. Even if you have both previous editions you'll want this latest version--if only for the new jokes. --Steve Patient




Rating: - Not If you want to learn in a hurry
This book makes good bed time reading, but it is no good for learning in a hurry. The book contains humorous comments and anecdotes, but these are just annoying to someone trying to learn in a hurry. The book is structured for somebody who wants to write a compiler for perl rather than a user of perl. Chapters often contains vague references to other chapters of the book that are difficult to follow, and end up in a dog eared book as you continuously search for references.

The idiomatic english is probably not suitable to non english speakers with technical english.

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Rating: - If your serious about Perl then get this book!
This is the first book I read on Perl and I must say it was absolutely excellent. It gives a thorough understanding of the language and is a vital reference for anyone who is serious about Perl.

It doesn't receive the full 5 for me though as inexperienced programmers may struggle with the content. If you don't have much programming experience I would suggest Learning Perl as a starter then move on to this book.

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Rating: - Essential for lovers of Perl culture, recommended for the rest of us
Perl seems capable of evoking both rapturous adoration and abject disgust from those who are exposed to it. If your feelings are closer to the former than the latter, well, you probably own this book already, and you love it.

After all, The Camel consists of the God of Perl and two Perl demigods writing the definitive reference about Perl from top to bottom. What's not to love? In particular, if you've ever heard Larry Wall give a talk, you'll be able to spot his contributions: droll, parenthetical and punning.

For those of us who just like Perl (or even just have to work with it), it's not quite as essential as you might have been led to believe. In part this might be because the third edition is getting on a bit, and plenty of other good Perl books have emerged in the intervening time. And in part, it's because definitive tomes such as this one by definition contain large chunks that you don't need, where you'll spend most of your time just nodding and thinking ... Read More

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Rating: - THE reference, but not to begin with...
This book is an in-depth and comprehensive reference about Perl Language. Despite some depreciative comments I've seen around, it is very well written and is a joy to read.
I didn't give it 5 starts because I started with Perl with this book, which was not such a good idea, Learning Perl (or a similar book) might have been a wiser choice. Nevertheless It's not impossible to start with this one, specially if you already program using another language, just don't get lost in the middle of all details about some specific issue.
You might spend more time than you wanted to start writing some usefull program but after you write it the book gives all you need to know to unleash the power of Perl.

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Rating: - Impress everyone with regular expressions
I have to admit that before using this book I used learning perl. However everything that I learned in the first book was in the first chapter of this book. I'm very impressed with the layout of this book. Beverage time I turned a new page I found something else I had to try. One paragraph in chapter six prime outlines the whole reason for really wanting to use pearl.

"Perl doesn't just glue together other computer languages. It also glues together command line interpreters, operating systems, processes, machines, devices, networks, databases, institutions, cultures, web pages, GUIs, peers, servers, and clients, not to mention people like system administrators, users, and of course, hackers, both not be in nice. In fact pearl is rather competitive about cooperative."

This book is well designed to get you off the Ground and hit the deck running. I doubt that I can give it enough stars.

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