Learning Perl, better known as "the Llama book", starts the programmer on the way to mastery. Written by three prominent members of the Perl community who each have several years of experience teaching Perl around the world, this edition has been updated to account for all the recent changes to the language up to Perl 5.8. Perl is the language for people who want to get work done. It started as a tool for Unix system administrators who needed something powerful for small tasks. Since then, Perl has blossomed into a full-featured programming language used for web programming, database manipulation, XML processing, and system administration--on practically all platforms--while remaining the favorite tool for the small daily tasks it was designed for. You might start using Perl because you need it, but you'll continue to use it because you love it. Informed by their years of success at teaching Perl as consultants, the authors have re-engineered the Llama to better match the pace and scope appropriate for readers getting started with Perl, while retaining the detailed discussion, thorough examples, and eclectic wit for which the Llama is famous. The book includes new exercises and solutions so you can practice what you've learned while it's still fresh in your mind. Here are just some of the topics covered:

• Perl variable types

• subroutines

• file operations

• regular expressions

• text processing

• strings and sorting

• process management

• using third party modules

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 point to the Llama. With good reason. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 301 Ratings

Start from the beginning and read every word - 2009-08-05
Reviewer Rating:
There could not ever be a better book for learning the Perl programming language than this one. The clarity of thought is unbelievable - the authors manage to provide a huge amount of detail while never going off on a tangent about exceptions to rules (something Perl, like English, is abundant with). If you want to get the basics of Perl under your fingertips in a *very* short amount of time, this is the book for you.

Let's face it - Perl can be a mess sometimes, and if you don't learn it from just the right angle, you'll find yourself knee-deep in a swamp. By choosing this book to learn from I effectively avoided all those pitfalls, and more importantly, adopted a clear way of using the language that has enabled me to write sophisticated, readable, even beautiful Perl code.

After some experience with the language I find it incredibly enjoyable to use, and when Perl is written well, it's easy to read someone else's code (to all you naysayers - yeah, Perl LETS you write bad code, but you don't have to!). This book was key to getting off on the right foot. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest whatsoever in the language. Even if you only plan to write Perl for your own purposes, recreational or otherwise, this is the perfect beginner's tool. Buy it.

Great Book for Beginners - 2009-08-28
Reviewer Rating:
To go along with everyone else, this book is great for beginning to learn how to program in PERL. A must for everyone.

Good, well-written introduction - 2009-08-26
Reviewer Rating:
I was pleased, as I often am with this publisher's books, with the clarity of the text. Within a few hours I was able to write my first useful perl scripts.

This book and a PC (with Perl downloaded, to permit you to execute & test your programs) make for a complete learning environment.

Learning Perl - 2009-08-22
Reviewer Rating:
This book is a great place to start your programming adventure. It clearly lines out complex concepts in a way beginners can understand. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in systems administration or web development.

Good fast shipping - 2009-08-06
Reviewer Rating:
Good fast shipping. Shipped in the state that was stated. I have not had much time with the book so i will not comment on the contents of the book.

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