Perl/Tk is the marriage of the Tk graphical toolkit with Perl, the powerful programming language used primarily for system administration, web programming, and database manipulation. With Perl/Tk, you can build Perl programs with an attractive, intuitive GUI interface with all the power of Perl behind it. Mastering Perl/Tk is the "bible" of Perl/Tk: It's not only a great book for getting started, but the best reference for learning the techniques of experienced Perl/Tk programmers. The first half of the book contains the basics on how to use Perl/Tk, and then branches out into advanced applications with a series of extensive program examples. The result is a book accessible for novices, and invaluable for experienced programmers ready to learn the next step in the elegant and effective use of Perl/Tk. The book includes:

• An introduction to each of the basic Perl/Tk widgets and geometry managers

• A dissection of the MainLoop, including how to use callbacks and bindings effectively

• Coverage of the Tix widgets, an extended set of widgets that are a part of the standard Perl/Tk distribution

• Working with images in Perl/Tk, including bitmaps, pixmaps, photos, and how to compose a compound image type

• How to create custom mega-widgets in Perl/Tk, both composite and derived

• Handling interprocess communication with Perl/Tk, both with standard Unix utilities (pipes and sockets) and with the send command designed for direct communication between Tk applications

• Developing your own Tk widget in the C language

• Examples of web applications written with Perl/Tk and the LWP library

The book also includes appendices on installing Perl/Tk, a complete quick-reference for each standard widget, and listings of all the extended examples in the book. Nancy Walsh is the author of Learning Perl/Tk, and Steve Lidie wrote the Perl/Tk Pocket Reference as well as a series of Perl/Tk articles in The Perl Journal. Together, they have written Mastering Perl/Tk to be the definitive guide to Perl/Tk.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Get this one INSTEAD of 'Learning Perl/Tk', not in addition to - 2005-08-08
Reviewer Rating:
This book has so far given me all the information I've
needed to write usable GUIs. However, I share the concern
expressed by other reviewers that the the titles 'Learning
Perl/Tk' and 'Mastering Perl/Tk' can be misleading. While
it's reasonable to assume that the 'Learning' volume is
introductory/tutorial while the 'Mastering' volume is for
advanced techniques, this is not the case. The 'History of
this Book' section of the preface describes it as an
expansion of 'Learning Perl/Tk', not a sequel or supplement.
There is no need to buy both books.

Incomplete and redundant - 2003-05-12
Reviewer Rating:
This book is heavily redundant to Learning Perl/Tk. I would say about 1/3 of the book is new content, of which the majority is poorly organized.

Textual content is written in a teaching context.

In the examples there are a lot of things being done implicitly, and comments are lacking. This defeats much of the teaching functionality of the textual content that references to the examples.

The custom widget section, is some of the most disorganized technical writing I've seen. Things that should be footnotes are left as content. In my copy of chapter 14, if you were to couple the X'd out superfluous language with the pencil notes in the margin used to decipher the remaining text (after referencing _Programming Perl_, the POD and usenet) you would nearly equal the content of the author.

They appear to have been stretching for length like a freshman year term paper, Noted by the 75 pages of options tables in the rear that are redundant to the core widget option tables in the front, or otherwise straight out of the POD.

This book leaves a lot of room for a competing title. There is however none at this time to my knowledge. Therefore buy it anyway, if you plan on working heavily in Perl/Tk.

To use the word "Mastering" in the title is begging criticism. If you are looking for a definative work, this isn't it. But it is available, and will get you through the first half of your head scratching while developing with Perk/Tk.

Outdated!! - perl/tk is not even used anymore - 2009-06-29
Reviewer Rating:
The only reason you would want to buy this book is if you want to modify an existing perl/tk program. Even then, I do not recommend buying it.

Perl/tk is discontinued!!!!!! ActivePerl now uses the package tkx to bridge tk and perl. Although similar to perl/tk, it has many new updates not included in this book. Plus, the syntax is new.

Here is a good explanation as why tkx is now used:

"Because Perl/Tk extricated Tcl from Tk, it took considerable effort to track newer Tk releases, and so has waned in modern years. The recommended Tk binding for Perl now is the "Tkx" module, a much smaller layer that provides a direct bridge to the Tcl API that Tk exposes." -tkdocs dot com

don't buy Perl/Tk book - 2007-09-27
Reviewer Rating:
I'm a big fan of the O'Reilly Perl books. Most of them are very well written, and can really increase your knowledge about a topic. But this book is an exception. Simply put, it's horrible. Don't buy this book. It's poorly written, has a bad style, and provides nothing that you couldn't easily get from online documentation.

Mastering may be an overstatement - 2008-03-25
Reviewer Rating:
This book provides a lot of information about Perl/Tk, but in a somewhat scattered fashion, making true mastery of the subject an intensive process. It is an excellent learning tool, but the reader should be aware that there is much to learn beyond what is presented here.

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