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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A real outdated masterpiece that may not appeal to everyone, June 7, 2000
This review is from: Advanced Perl Programming (Paperback)
This is, as the title implies, a book for advanced programmers. You are not supposed to be reading it until "Learning Perl" seems really basic to you and when you are ready to make the progression from browsing "Programming Perl" (the Camel book) -a reference guide to ALL of Perl- to writing a real & complex application. This book serves then as an introduction to several complex topics (DBI, data structures, Tk, OO, & Perl C internals) and gives a better explanation in some areas where the Camel book falls short or becomes too complex (here the explanations are better, but don't expect full tutorials from A to Z). I warn you. It is the perfect companion to introduce you to a new subject while reading the online docs or other. You also might want to browse thru it if you are an experienced programmer with other scripting languages like TCL, Java or Python, since the comparisons at the end of each chapter is really excellent. As anything that was once considered advanced (and therefore, cutting edge), the book has aged. Things like the persistent data manipulation module presented in the book have since been improved upon by newer ones. Some of the TCL comparisons are not entirely fair anymore (although mostly still correct). Tom Christiansen's perltoot for OO included with Perl is a much better and thorough introduction than the one offered here. Also, if you are the type of programmer that reads every single little piece of documentation that comes with Perl, then well, you won't find anything new here --but some concepts that could have been unclear might be clarified here (the ideas presented are still correct, even if some of the code is not anymore).
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book for intermediate Perl programmer., December 6, 1999
This review is from: Advanced Perl Programming (Paperback)
Normally, I would not feel the need to review this book, had I not seen the review: "Why are there so many good reviews for this book?" by Eric Vogan (see above). I would like to add that it is a great book and that it has thought me a lot. Having mastered basic to intermmediate Perl, "Advanced Perl Programming" really took me further. But as the name says, this is "advanced" Perl programming, and not a beginner's book. So Eric, even though you are a C++ programmer, you have to go through the basics before you try to use this book. The Preface clearly says what you are expected to know before you start with this book. For beginning Perl programmers I would recommend the "Perl 5 by Example" and "Programming Perl", both of which are an excellent entry point to Perl. But for taking your studies further, "Advanced Perl Programming", among others, is a gold-mine.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The author loves his work, July 17, 2000
This review is from: Advanced Perl Programming (Paperback)
Compared to "Programming Perl" the explanations of references and complex data structures are worth the price alone. They are clear and concise. The OOP chapters are a little thick, but if you are new to OOP they are a decent introduction. But one of the great things about this book is its overall passion for programming and computer science; you can tell the author loves his work. It really shows. I bought "Programming Pearls" (not "Perls") as a result of this, and there's a neat chapter on dynamic code generation, an essential tool for the web developer's toolbox. All Perl hackers need this one.
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