| Overview
Perl is a powerful programming language that has grown in
popularity since it first appeared in 1988. The first edition of
this book, Programming Perl, hit the shelves in 1990, and
was quickly adopted as the undisputed bible of the language. Since
then, Perl has grown with the times, and so has this book.
Programming Perl is not just a book about Perl. It is also a
unique introduction to the language and its culture, as one might
expect only from its authors. Larry Wall is the inventor of Perl,
and provides a unique perspective on the evolution of Perl and its
future direction. Tom Christiansen was one of the first champions
of the language, and lives and breathes the complexities of Perl
internals as few other mortals do. Jon Orwant is the editor of
The Perl Journal, which has brought together the Perl
community as a common forum for new developments in Perl. Any Perl
book can show the syntax of Perl's functions, but only this one is
a comprehensive guide to all the nooks and crannies of the
language. Any Perl book can explain typeglobs, pseudohashes, and
closures, but only this one shows how they really work. Any Perl
book can say that my is faster than local, but only
this one explains why. Any Perl book can have a title, but only
this book is affectionately known by all Perl programmers as "The
Camel." This third edition of Programming Perl has been
expanded to cover version 5.6 of this maturing language. New topics
include threading, the compiler, Unicode, and other new features
that have been added since the previous edition.
Editorial ReviewsProduct DescriptionPerl is a powerful interpreted programming language that has matured steadily since it first appeared in 1988. The first edition of this book, Programming Perl, hit the shelves in 1990, and was quickly adopted as the undisputed Bible of the language. Since then, Perl has grown with the times, and so has this book. Programming Perl provides a unique introduction to the Perl language and its culture, as you might expect only from its authors. This third edition of the book has been expanded to cover version 5.6 of Perl. New topics include threading, the compiler, Unicode, and other features that have been added or improved since the previous edition. | Amazon.com ReviewLarry 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 the need for a third edition came about. It's now over 1,000 pages, which it needs to be, as it performs several different duties. First, it's an introduction to the Perl language for those who are new to programming; also, it's a guide for those who are coming from other languages; and, finally, it's a Perl language reference. Among Larry Wall's other pursuits is being a linguist, and it's perhaps for this reason that 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. Also, as it's largely interpreted, programs written in Perl tend to run unmodified on a variety of platforms--although 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 shift of viewpoint eliminates blind spots in the reader's understanding and provides 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 much more ground here than in the previous edition. Even if you have both previous editions, you'll want this latest version--if only for the new jokes. --Steve Patient, amazon.co.uk |
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Reader Reviews From Amazon (Ranked by 'Helpfulness') Average Customer Rating: based on 111 reviews. Too much waffle, not enough content, 2009-05-28 Reviewer rating: This book is absolutely terrible. I'm giving it 2 stars because I have managed to tease some capacity to program in Perl out of it, but at great personal effort.
The book's tone is largely condescending, and full of awful "jokes", which get in the way of the actual content. It's most significant failing, though, is the weight given to waffle over actual programming examples. For example, the chapter on Threads spends 4 pages making analogies about threads with cooks in kitchens, and saying what a great effort it was to get threading into Windows, but goes on to give bare examples of threaded code with little to no commentary at all, leaving the reader largely in the dark. You are supposed to "just understand" the code snippets. This is completely the reverse of what you actually need out of a comprehensive programming book.
Do your best to find an alternative way of learning Perl. | Programming Perl, 2009-02-24 Reviewer rating: This is THE BOOK. If you need to learn perl, this books explains all the insides of the language. The book will explain why everything is the way it is in perl. Now, if you are looking for examples to practice, you should get Learning Perl. You can read both books simultaneously. | Definitive manual for Perl, 2008-08-22 Reviewer rating: If you are programming in Perl, this is a required book to have. It is the definitive manual on the language written by the author of the language, yet is very readable. | It is difficult to study perl using only this book., 2008-04-24 Reviewer rating: It is difficult to study perl using only this book.
Learning perl is the best way to study perl.
This book should be a reference of perl.
And there are many examples on the Net.
You can use these examples to modify for your purpose.
Sometimes, you should study how to debbug perl.
| Perfect!, 2008-03-12 Reviewer rating: I decided to buy this book because I needed to learn Perl after having programmed in several other languages for my new job.
I was looking for a reference guide that pretty much outlined EVERYTHING that Perl can do. Proper syntax, short cuts, how to properly go about writing code in this language, how do write certain operations... etc
I was also looking for something that could be authoritative and set the STANDARD for how something should and should not be done... and not be written by some sloppy idiot who thinks he knows what he's doing.
And last but not least, I was looking for something that was funny and entertaining to read and not a dry boring textbook.
This book, as others call it "The Camel" or "The Camel Book", meets all those criteria. This is truly the BEST book on Perl out there, written by the inventor himself, Larry Wall, and some of his Perl-guru buddies. If you came to this page wondering if this is the book to get to learn to program in Perl, look no further.
Absolutely 5 stars on this one. And trust me, this book is pretty funny. It's almost as if it's written by your best friend or your roommate who you drink beers with, yet still goes into amazingly tidy and meticulous detail on how to do things properly. I couldn't have asked for a better book.
If you're like me and learning this for work, see if your boss will even buy it for the office. Mine did!
I hope you enjoyed my review. I've gone from knowing NOTHING about Perl to writing some pretty robust scripts in a matter of a few short weeks and I truly LOVE writing stuff in Perl because it is very easy once you get the idea of how the syntax is written in your brain. Anyways, I felt I had to share my experience with you so you can do the same. Enjoy.
PS: There is a correction I've found since there have been a few newer releases than the Perl 5 explained in this book. (As I write this, I'm using Perl 5.8.8).
pg. 513: At the very bottom should tell you that the period character "." will display the current position of the debugger.
pg. 514: The w command no longer lists a window of lines around your position. It is now the "v" as in [v]iew. |
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