Book Review - Learning Perl (4th Edition)
Category Book Reviews
One of the reasons I don't quite think of myself as a computer geek (although I am) is that I don't know some of the "geeky" languages like Perl. I need to rectify that some day, and one of O'Reilly's books will help... Learning Perl (4th Edition) by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy. This is one of the classic Perl guides, and it's well worth owning.
Contents: Introduction; Scalar Data; Lists and Arrays; Subroutines; Input and Output; Hashes; In the World of Regular Expressions; Matching with Regular Expressions; Processing Text with Regular Expressions; More Control Structures; File Tests; Directory Operations; Strings and Sorting; Process Management; Perl Modules; Some Advanced Perl Techniques; Exercise Answers; Beyond the Llama; Index
Randal Schwartz is *the* best-selling Perl author and writer, and it shows in this book. He knows the subject inside and out, and knows how to communicate that knowledge to an audience. In Learning Perl, he and his fellow authors set out to cover the material that you'll use 90% of the time in day-to-day situations. Keeping that as the target, you'll get a lot of value out of working through this title. Each chapter also has a number of exercises at the end that will help you apply and solidify what you just learned. You can even cheat and check out the answers at the end, even though the authors beg you not to... :)
They do assume a background understanding of basic computing and programming concepts, so this wouldn't be the best title if you are looking to learn Perl as your first programming language. Of course, I don't think many people approach Perl from that perspective anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem. With that assumption in place, you end up getting into the meat of Perl quickly. Couple that with a nice conversational approach to the writing, and you've got a book that will take you far. Oh, and don't ignore the footnotes... Some useful information (and great humor) is hidden down there...
If you need to learn Perl and you want to get there quickly, Learning Perl is the way to go. It's stood the test of time by making it to the 4th edition, and there's a reason for that...
One of the reasons I don't quite think of myself as a computer geek (although I am) is that I don't know some of the "geeky" languages like Perl. I need to rectify that some day, and one of O'Reilly's books will help... Learning Perl (4th Edition) by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy. This is one of the classic Perl guides, and it's well worth owning.
Contents: Introduction; Scalar Data; Lists and Arrays; Subroutines; Input and Output; Hashes; In the World of Regular Expressions; Matching with Regular Expressions; Processing Text with Regular Expressions; More Control Structures; File Tests; Directory Operations; Strings and Sorting; Process Management; Perl Modules; Some Advanced Perl Techniques; Exercise Answers; Beyond the Llama; Index
Randal Schwartz is *the* best-selling Perl author and writer, and it shows in this book. He knows the subject inside and out, and knows how to communicate that knowledge to an audience. In Learning Perl, he and his fellow authors set out to cover the material that you'll use 90% of the time in day-to-day situations. Keeping that as the target, you'll get a lot of value out of working through this title. Each chapter also has a number of exercises at the end that will help you apply and solidify what you just learned. You can even cheat and check out the answers at the end, even though the authors beg you not to... :)
They do assume a background understanding of basic computing and programming concepts, so this wouldn't be the best title if you are looking to learn Perl as your first programming language. Of course, I don't think many people approach Perl from that perspective anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem. With that assumption in place, you end up getting into the meat of Perl quickly. Couple that with a nice conversational approach to the writing, and you've got a book that will take you far. Oh, and don't ignore the footnotes... Some useful information (and great humor) is hidden down there...
If you need to learn Perl and you want to get there quickly, Learning Perl is the way to go. It's stood the test of time by making it to the 4th edition, and there's a reason for that...
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Comments
Posted by Richard Schwartz At 11:36:00 On 27/08/2005 | - Website - |
Posted by Randal L. Schwartz At 11:19:37 On 30/08/2005 | - Website - |
Posted by Duffbert At 14:28:23 On 28/08/2005 | - Website - |
Duffmeister: if the Wiley folks won't send you a copy, let me know and I'm happy to send you one.
Posted by Paul Hoffman At 13:11:34 On 28/08/2005 | - Website - |