Customer Reviews

Modern Perl Programming

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

 

 

I have been programming in Perl for over a year, but not on a regular basis, so I don't consider myself to be a "seasoned" Perl programmer. I've been trying to find a good Perl book that is clear and easy to understand, with enough content and examples to guide me through whatever I might need.

I purchased this book recently when tasked with a web programming project that I didn't quite know how to accomplish. This book not only helped me through my project, but is quickly becoming the resource I rely on for all of my Perl questions. This is THE book I've been looking for!

All of the other reviews were quite accurate their evaluations quite personal, so this should point out that as with all tutorial/resource books one size does not fit all. I am a programmer who does not use Perl often. When I do, a quick read of this book is always a great boost. And as a resource. It is not complete, it is short and to the point. And concise. I like it, I use it, and I use it when teaching Perl to graduate students in Engineering disciplines who have exposure to programming and now need to quickly learn Perl to use as a tool in the context of research or a career. Its not a learn-computer-programming book and it is not the-complete-and-definitive Perl book. It is a very good refresher,summary, pointer, quick-study resource book.

During the last halve chapters of the book the author started to scurry through topics too quickly. I understand that he was trying to write a book that was not too advanced but I was irritated at new syntax and processes introduced in examples but not fully explained. This was my first Perl book. I admit I did like the book alot in the beginning. But when I began to practice code and needed to look up a keyword or special character I found there was no appendix for characters and keywords and scarcely an index at all. I had to thumb through the book each and every time I wanted to find "where I had read about" something.

I wrote this book to fill in the gap between those Perl books which were too advanced and those Perl books which were too elementary. This is the perfect book for you if you are new to Perl. The style of the book is to explain concepts by giving simple details and by following these details with clear and complete Perl programs. So that the book would also have appeal for all Perl programmers, there are also many advanced topics in the book which are generally not covered in an introductory text. These include Web Programming (CGI), Database Programming (DBI) and Graphical User Interface Programming (using Tk).

I am a technical trainer and had the unfortunate task of teaching a Perl class using this book. I found this book to cover all of the essentials though not do it well.

In my opinion the author does not explain the details of the different functions of Perl he just assumes you know them and starts using them. He also starts using functions in early examples without first explaining what the function does. How can you learn arrays when his example has looping though he hasnt explained it yet? His examples are unneccesarily complex and could be written simply to get the same point accross.

A much better book is 'Teach Yourself Perl in 24 Hours' Second Edition by Clinton Pierce. Get it and get programming with Perl today.