Customer Reviews

Advanced Perl Programming

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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).

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.

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.

I've been playing with Perl (where playing I guess is the operative word) for about 6 years now.

That means I've read -- or tried to read -- what have been rated as some of the best books on Perl. But I've read them intermittently, as I do all technical works: a bit here, a bit there, pause a bit, try a bit of code, look up a chapter... etc.

This book was different. Within 12 hours of getting it, I had read continuously through to the end of Chapter 7 (120+ pages), taking it all in voraciously. Somehow, this has picked up on every important cranny in the language I had skipped over as "too hard" or "too confusing" -- with all deference to Larry, Tom and Randal.. It hits the spot with examples just where I need them, and with concepts and analogies that clicked into place beautifully.

If you know about pointers, but puzzle about refs and typeglobs and $$this and \$that and *somethingelse, if talk of aliases, closures, and variable suicide have made you feel inadequate... if the works of modules, objects and stuff like that still has you confused, this book is for you.

The only problem: I used to think of myself as a tech writer... they still pay me for it. Now I just feel inadequate. But I'm learning.

I am unable to categorize this book. As the title says, this is about advanced Perl programming, but chapter 1-9 really belongs in "Programming Perl" (but are totally missing from it), and should really not be considered advanced (on the other hand, quite elementary, but since they appear nowhere else, you should probably consider this book a must read, if you are serious about Perl).

The rest of the book is pretty random, covering various topics the author thought was neat, and wanted to write about. This is ranging from trivial use of CPAN libraries (Tk), to trivial Perl but involving knowledge from other disciplines (networking), to actual useful advanced Perl programming (persistence, template-driven code-generation, and the C programming interface). This part of the book is also highly recommended (and in fact the reason I bought it), but should have been much longer.

I bought this book for two reasons.

First, I wanted to get it because I didnt have it and I own the rest of the oreilly perl books. For this purposes, the book is excellent. It definitely rounds out a collection.

Second, I wanted to write some complex data storage and data parsing algorithms. I was going to be using complex data structures, and I was going to need efficient algorithms. Furthermore, I was going to need to implement some C code because parts of the task involved legacy code.

This book provided sort of indirect hints into what might be a good idea. However, as a whole, it is one of the least useful of my perl books.

I think that most people who are going to be able to understand this book arent going to need it for 75% of the tasks theyre going to be embarking on. Something like Mastering Algorithms With Perl and, to a lesser extent, Mastering Regular Expressions, would definitely be more useful.

Advanced Perl Programming contains one section that none of the other perl books out there contain -- a section on embedding C in perl and perl in C. This is something I found absolutely necessary, and this book was the only real source of that information. However, the examples and code provided are all but useless. Furthermore, the Inline:: group of modules for perl... make almost all the examples and code in this book obsolete.

To sum this up in two sentences: This book does not provide anything that you cannot glean from perldoc with equal efficiency or retention. This book provides examples and instruction that are largely obsolete or better provided by other books.

The book does a nice job of explaining some of the obscure areas of Perl. Each chapter is summarized by showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of Perl with Java,Python,C++,TCL. This is a good refresher book for intermediate level Perl programmers. It was definitely a fun read. I think O'Reilly is readying a second edition.

This is one of the four critical books you need to learn Perl; Programming Perl, Learning Perl, Perl Cookbook and Advanced Perl Programming. This book provides a deep understanding of how references (pointers) can be used to increase performance. In addition the book gives you a deeper understanding about how to make better use of hash tables as data structures. The section on code generation using templates is great as well.

If you have read the famous "Llama Book" (Learning Perl by O'Reilly) and need a book to show you more advanced features, I highly recommend reading this book next.

This book provides a introduction many advanced topics in Perl Programming, such as referencing, eval, Object-Oriented Programming and so on. The topics are quite varied and the chapters are brief and not too verbose. I really think this format is helpful for new Perl Programmers, especially those without a strong programming background, who aren't familiar with these concepts.

I really like the author's easy-going, no-nonsense style. He will tell you how something works without too much technical terminology, and also will admit when another language is better suited for something.

Readers who find Larry Wall's "Programming Perl" book difficult to understand will find this book refreshing. It provides a good introduction to advanced topics, and if the reader is interested they can read more detailed books such as the afore-mentioned "Programming Perl". This book is a definitely must-read for intermediate Perl Programmers.

O'Relly books are generally great sources and this one is no exception. I've been programming with Perl for CGI, NetAdmin, SysAdmin, and various data tasks for almost 4 years. Anybody who knows Unix will know a lot more by knowing Perl and advanced Perl takes you to the next level. Tell archie to stop whining and cop to his real name...