Customer Reviews

Perl 5 Interactive Course: Certified Edition

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've read and use most of the Perl books out on the market today, but none comes close to getting you going well with Perl as does Jon Orwant's book. I still use it as a reference today, but it is the best any money can buy for learning Perl. I'm back buying another copy because I loaned mine to a friend and I miss it so much that I want to make sure I'll always have a copy handy. My old copy is so well worn that a fresh copy is enticing also. As for extras in the book: the quizzes are great for testing your understanding, and someone has done a great job at proofreading this book -- I don't know whether that person is at the Waite Group or is Jon himself, but I know that anytime I have questioned an answer, or a script, or anything in the book I have always found the book to be accurate on closer inspection. It is very much like the Camel Book in being authoritative -- what Jon says is Perl Gospel Truth - if I had to pick two Perl books, I'd pick this one for learning and the Camel Book for ultimate reference. Jon's book should be rated a 5 and a half star - this is the best that it ever gets!

After the Camel book, of course. This book is very well paced with well thought out examples. I needed it as a refresher last year, and now use it as a reference.

The only down side is that the Web Based interactive segment is no longer available. not a big deal since it's the same quizes as in the book, but there was a gee-whiz, isn't it fun factor to have it available online.

This book covers everything from soup to nuts. It starts the learner off slowly with the basic perl syntax and then smoothly moves into subroutines, OOP, DBI modules, Security, etc. all with the same interesting and amusing style.

I don't know if it's mentioned in the Editorial review, but the author is the Editor of The Perl Journal (www.tpj.com) which is a magazine devoted to the perl programming language. So Jon Orwant *knows* his topic.

This is the book I am using to learn Perl. I'm a CS student now, and I've learned C and C++. We use a lot of Perl at work. I tried to learn Perl from the Camel book (Programming Perl, 2nd ed.), but found it hard to follow, especially reg exp. I think the OReilly books are good if you already know some Perl, but this is the best one to use to start learning Perl. Plus the Camel book assumes you're on a Unix system, while this can be used on Unix or Win32, and it comes with perl on cd-rom.

When I read other people's reviews, I always wonder what kind of background these people have in programming. Well, here is my background: I know HTML, JavaScript, C++, a little bit of Java, DHTML, and databases. When I found out that I had to learn Perl, I was scared because, after 4 years of college, that is the first language that I had to learn completely on my own. However, this book made my learning experience as easy as possible. The book provides very good explanations, a lot of examples, and an EXCELLENT reference section. I think this is one of the best programming books I have read so far.

The book is a good and detailed tutorial for all novices who want to learn Perl. No hit around the bush stuff and the chapters were well thought of. Credit should be given to the author and the publishing group for these helpful information. The Source codes on the CD-Rom comes handy when when you want to test out the sample codes in the book. The questions at the end of each chapter is a good revision after scanning the chapter. I strongly recommend those who want to learn Perl to get a copy of this book as their first book.

When initially purusing the book I was impressed they had online support. Well, don't be dissappointed, they don't. And what they did have at one point was useless. BUT the book by itself is great. I've only covered the first three chapters, out of 14, but I already feel comfortable with PERL. GREAT BOOK!

I started learning Perl two years ago. I first browsed libraries, free tutorials, news groups etc... It was nice for the beginning but soon enough I understood that's not the way :)

I started looking around for good Perl books and somehow got to this one. I think I can clearly say, that this book did the work. Teached me Perl from the ground up. I'm now planning on buying "MySQL and mSQL" to start working with databases. I also consider buying "Mastering Algorithms With Perl" & "Programming Web Graphics with Perl & GNU Software".

Anyway, if you want to start learning Perl, buy this book. I also use it as a reference.

When I had first bought this book, I was scared. Scared that I couldn't understand anything. At that time, I only knew how to write HTML. So Perl was a completely new thing for me.

As I browsed through the first few pages, I could instantly comprehend whatever chunks of text the book threw at me! There were many pictures to help you understand. Not only that, but every chapter was divided into 8 lessons. And every lesson had a quiz and a programming exercise where you have to write a program to solve whatever problem they gave you.

There was even an online member place where you can login and view the entire book online with a password, or take the quizzes online. After completing the whole course, you could even download a certificate of completion.

If you are looking for a book on Perl, this is definitely the one for you. It sure is value for money.

This book taught me perl two years ago. Ever since, I have worked full-time coding in perl and still find myself frequently referring back to this book. It is the best book for anyone desiring to learn perl! I cannot code perl without this book at my side.

The problem I've seen with technical books is that either they are in tutorial/textbook format which includes lessons and then review questions at the end of each chapter, or they are purely reference type books ideal for looking up things on occasion and not really good for a beginner to learn the subject matter. This book was the first one I felt that was ideal in both textbook form as well as a reference book for looking things up.

The chapters were basic enough for the beginner to grasp the material, and the lessons were rife with hands-on examples which I thought was the best part. I like to try things out as I go through the lessons and so the material was very useful for me.

The printing of the material was interesting and draws the reader into the subject, important notes and pitfalls are highlighted between the text to avoid the paragraphs from becoming too long and drawn out. The writer's diction is sometimes humorous to avoid the reader from losing interest.

The book is kind of bulky and thick so as a consequence of regular use, the glue based binding gave way somewhere in the middle of the book so when I open it, the first half of the book is attched merely by a shred to the second half, so I have to be careful now when I lookup things in it. I wouldn't trade this book for anything.

I have never taken any instructional classes on Perl scripting and can safely say that everything I know about Perl scripting I've learned from this book. That being said I am able to write fairly sophisticated perl scripts and have the ability to understand fairly obfuscated perl code without difficulty. I use perl as a very strong and useful tool in my day to day tasks for scripting and text processing needs and I often dazzle and amaze my colleagues at work with the tricks I'm able to pull off by using perl scripting and I owe it all to this book.

In short, I give two enthusiastic thumbs up for this book and the 5 star rating that I gave this book was merely due to the amazon limitation on the number of stars you can give in your review.