Customer Reviews

Custom CGI Scripting with Perl

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

PRO: I like this book a lot because it has an easy to follow writing style. It also has a defined scope, and shows how to integrate Perl and cgi to add dynamics to your site. It shows just enough Perl to get the job done. It has a lot of small examples and 3 complete applications. Examples are clear and go from the simple to the more advanced.

CON: I think the book is targeted at beginners. Experienced programmers only need half of the current text. Also the author needs to much space to tell me again and again how good Perl actually is for the development of small to mid-sized web sites. I know that already, I bought the book, didn't I?! There are only 3 complete applications in the book, an e-mail response form, a guestbook and the use of flat file databases. The first two are very (too?) simple. I had an e-mail response form Perl-script running on my web site without any book! I also missed some "advanced" topics, like setting and retrieving cookies (or can't this be done with Perl?), retaining state at the browser site (e.g. by using variables in the URL?) and making my whole site dynamically generated from some (database) files. The author somewhere mentions "defensive programming", but most examples focus on "getting the job done" instead of showing sound software engineering principles (e.g. using subroutines without explicit return values).

BOTTOM LINE: a very useful book if you are new to programming, a still a useful book if you know programming, but don't know Perl. I do think you need another book to learn how to make really interesting dynamic websites. I only don't know which book, yet.

I don't know if the author of this book was using a different type of perl or what, but I have had to troubleshoot a lot of his code. I have read only three chapters so far, and I've had to get people to help me figure out what was wrong with the code the author has written on three different code examples. I do think this is a good book, though. From one point of view, this is a great learning process. You get to know the code pretty dang well when you have to study it sometimes as long as an hour before you figure out what was wrong with it.

I'm a new novice to Perl Scripting, and I have found this book invaluable. I work at a library, and found this book on our new book shelf. It helped so much, that I decided to buy it. It gives grwat explanations without bogging you down.

The appendixes are fantastic, I especially like the Perl Quick Reference in the back. I use it when I'm not sure about usage.
I have programmed for many years in many languages, and I have found that this is a great reference tool. I like it much better than the other book, I bought. I found so much more in this Perl book than in others.

I highly recommnend this book fro anyone who is lerning Perl, or knows it better than me, which are most people.

Kevin Hanegan's Custom CGI Scripting with Perl brings a pragmatic tutorial approach to Web programming. This book is geared towards beginning- and intermediate-level programmers who want to learn one of the most powerful programming languages for Web development.

Hanegan divides his book into four parts: "Getting Started," "Building Blocks," "Advanced Perl," and "Putting It All Together." Each chapter delivers the essential elements of programming in a familiar classroom format: objectives, tutorial, key points, exercises, and summary. The book's supporting Web site includes code samples from the book, Perl resource links, discussions, and links to necessary applications for Web development with Perl.

Custom CGI Scripting with Perl begins by giving you an overview of the CGI framework and the necessary background information to understand how it works with the Web, such as the HTTP protocol, client requests, and server responses. (It also has the integrity to reveal CGI's limitations.) Finally, Hanegan discusses the pros and cons of hosting your own site, what hardware you need, what the best Web applications are, and which platforms to run them on.

The "Getting Started" chapters give a concise explanation of the different Perl variable types, operators, statements, conditions, looping logic, and subroutines. Subsequent chapters cover more complicated areas, such as pattern matching, file I/O, and form processing (including an e-mail response system). Code samples are well described throughout the book. This is important because it helps you understand what you are doing, not just how to do it.

For those of you who work with content-heavy sites or who need skills for good content management, Hanegan covers data manipulation from all angles-from flat-file databases to the basics of SQL and the Database Independent Module-to work with dynamic database-driven content. He also explains how relational databases work and gives code samples for basic SQL queries. He shows how Perl's built-in functions can make supposed complicated tasks pleasant. Later in the book he gives fundamental information on DDL (data definition language) statements, DML (data modeling language) statements, and other vital acronyms.

Most importantly, he covers advanced techniques such as debugging and handling errors-wise skills that any professional developer should know.

Custom CGI Scripting with Perl successfully reveals how Perl is involved with all aspects, not just isolated areas, of Web development.

If you know PERL or are familiar with programming languages and are looking for a good book on PERL and CGI with lots of examples, this is the one. It's a great little book that's easy to follow.

The overall idea of Kevin Hanegan's book is a good one. An appreciation of CGI Scripting using Perl from the basics up to a couple of real world examples is exactly what anyone new to authoring CGI scripts would want from such a book.
Unfortunately, the text seems to have been written in one go and never checked as the litany of glaring errors, most noticeably in the examples, testify. I was fortunate to be coming at the book from a background in Unix and 'C', so some of the mistakes were glaringly obvious but a complete beginner would struggle to get the building blocks together to be able to make a real go of it.
I used this as my first port of call into Perl scripting but soon found myself using resources on the web as I stopped trusting what was written on the pages. Perhaps there is a second edition with the errors corrected, unfortunately, I haven't got it.

This book was useful to me as a beginner with CGI Scripting. I did not have any troubles with the code. I found the book extremely easy to follow. I feel I have gotten to know the code very well and have used it on my website. It is definately a great source for people wanting to learn or improve their skills with CGI Scripting. I would definately suggest purchasing this book. The author did a great job.

The book was very informative. I was very impressed with the author and his writing style. He uses easy to follow examples which made the learning simple. If you want a book that will make you think then this is the perl book for you.

I was hoping that this would be a useful book in helping me to write Perl CGI, but I was not impressed at all. There are numerous errors in the example code that is given - which is frustrating to say the least, but I always got the impression that I was being rushed through everything at super-fast speed without really having anything explained properly. The book "looks" nice, and flicking through it quickly one could be forgiven for thinking that it was a reasonable publication, but once one starts to study it then it's easy to see that there are probably far better books. This book might be ok if you just wanted to find out what writing CGI with Perl was all about, but to actually try using it for that purpose would be very testing.

My favorite Perl books are the O'Reilly ones, which I'd have no trouble in recommending to anyone.

This was the best computer book I have ever read. The process was easy to follow, and by the end of the book, I felt like a pro. Hanegan did something that I don't see many computer books do, he used humor. I even found myself laughing out loud. Everyone should read this book. Even if you are not a computer person, the jokes are great. But if you are, you will appreciate Hanegan's level of expertise in this subject.

OVERALL A+++