Learn Perl In a Weekend [Paperback]

Thomas Nowers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2002 | ISBN-10: 1931841772 | ISBN-13: 978-1931841771 | Edition: 1

Get ready to learn the most popular programming language of the Internet! Begin your journey into the world of Perl Friday evening as you install ActivePerl and create an HTML page. On Saturday, cover the basic building blocks of Perl, Perl operators, statements, and expressions. On Sunday, learn object-oriented programming and pull your earlier sessions together in a complete Perl game program. Wrap things up as you touch on advanced Perl topics including security, XML integration, and using Perl with CGI.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Who Should Read This Book?

This book starts from the very beginning; I assume that you have never done any programming. That doesn't mean that this book is remedial; programming and Perl are both complex subjects. It simply means that the book explains each and every lesson in detail (sometimes painstakingly).

The tutorials assume that you have some computer experience and know your way around the Windows operating system. You should be comfortable with files and folders, using a browser, such as Internet Explorer (which I use for all examples where a browser is present), and maneuvering around your computer's file system. If you are uncomfortable on a Windows system, I suggest that you pick up a copy of Learn Windows XP In a Weekend or Windows XP Fast and Easy, published by Premier Press.

Perl was actually born in UNIX, but most nonprogrammers today haven't had any experience with UNIX systems, so I chose to write this book with a Windows frame of mind. All of the code samples were written and tested on the Windows XP operating system. If you are a UNIX guru and you want to learn Perl on a UNIX-based system, much of this book still will be applicable, although you will want to pay particular attention to the Sunday Evening session, "Learning Advanced Perl Techniques," for an advanced section on Windows and UNIX compatibility.

About the Author

Thomas Nowers writes a regular column for Developers.com call Tacit Records, which focuses mostly on software security, quality, and web-based technology. He's also a freelance writer and within the last year, his articles have appeared on EarthWeb, Saved Online, and Gameland. Nowers currenlty works as a full-time software test engineer for Weidevine Technologies. He uses Perl extensively in creating small, simple utlilities to unit test C++ code, web based applications, and Linux applications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (May 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931841772
• ISBN-13: 978-1931841771
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,073,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars There's only *one* saving grace for this book., July 14, 2003

By 

Jim Henk (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn Perl In a Weekend (Paperback)

Since the code samples in this book are positively rife with typos, it forces the reader (if truly interested) to seek out the correct answers from other sources, and to experiment until something actually works. So I suppose that's intensive, but certainly not my favorite way to learn. *Why* didn't I keep my receipt? The code samples on the companion web site are also wrong. Incidentally, I sent an email to customer service. As expected. No response. AVOID!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not what you'd hope, January 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Learn Perl In a Weekend (Paperback)

Learn Perl in a weekend ? Yes if all perl consists of is writing a print statement n different ways.
Many of the examples do not work or are poorly edited.
Page 56 for example has an example of the split command that shows two quotes rather than two slashes.
It may sound trivial but it is important when the student has no other frame of reference.
The flock command does not work on win2000/nt the author acknowledges this but offers no other example a student could learn from.
After this the only this the rest of the book consists of is print statements with differing contents.
By the way. The game the cover refers to.. You guessed it... More print statements.
My advice is not to waste your money. Purchase another book such as one from O'Reilly

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where was the proof reader?, July 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Learn Perl In a Weekend (Paperback)

It might be possible to learn the basics of Perl in a weekend by studying this book, IF there weren't so many mistakes and typos in the code examples to slow you down. The author keeps referring to a companion web site from which to download the code if you have problems running the examples. Apparently, it was known early on that much of the code in the book wouldn't work. Frustrating.