Perl: The Complete Reference [Paperback]

Martin C. Brown (Author)

Book Description

Series: Complete Reference | Publication Date: July 21, 1999

Programmers are including Perl in their toolboxes more often because of its ease of use, flexibility and portability to other platforms. This complete reference book is for Perl programmers of all skill levels'

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The most definitive and comprehensive Perl resource available. Master Perl--the multi-platform, flexible scripting language--with help from this authoritative reference. Programming expert Martin Brown shows you how to write portable Perl scripts that can be used to report on text files, handle complex data structures, enhance the user interface, program for the Web, and much more. Plus, you'll learn to deploy Perl programs across all platforms. Packed with hundreds of real-world examples and expert techniques, this is a book no Perl programmer should be without. Inside, you'll find out how to: learn the building blocks of a Perl program--structures, code blocks, statements, and variables; execute basic Perl programs, interface with the user, and process and report on files; manage the inter-process communication with pipes and inter-machine communication with networking; handle complex data structures using Perl's object-oriented capabilities; store Perl data using both built-in and external modules; enhance the user interface by enabling various cross-platform solutions; process Perl scripts for the Web via the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and interface to external Web-based programs; write clients and servers within a single application; extend and embed Perl using eXternal Subroutine (XS).

About the Author

Martin C. Brown is the author of Perl: The Complete Reference and Perl Annotated Archives. He has more than 15 years of multi-platform programming experience in Perl, Shellscript, Basic, Pascal, C/C++, Java, JavaScript, VBScript, and Awk.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1179 pages
• Publisher: Osborne Publishing; 2nd edition (July 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072120002
• ISBN-13: 978-0072120004
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,543,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hacking PERL scripts? This book is for you., December 10, 1999

By 

Brian Donnelly (Tigard, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PERL (Paperback)

If you are not a heavily experienced PERL programmer and enjoy hacking other people's scripts, this is an excellent companion. This book makes it easy to look up just about any perl syntax you can dream up and it also gives examples of how the function is called. Not very usefull if you want to look up a function and you don't know what it is called, but if you want to understand whats going on behind the perl curtain I would recommend that you get this. Besides, it will look good on your shelf. Trust me.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Big Easy Perl Reference Guide, April 5, 2000

By 

Kevin Stone (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perl: The Complete Reference (Paperback)

After spending about 12 hours in Borders reading Perl reference books I finally decided on this one, and I do not regret my decision. This big book is by far the most thurough and easiest to follow Perl5 reference available. I have only one gripe about this book, and that I wish the Appendix contained Index page numbers. When I look something up in the Appendix I don't want to have to go to the Index to locate a page number for that item. But it's a minor inconvenience that I'm willing to live with. Otherwise this is a great book for anyone who already has a basic grasp of Perl syntax and needs a thurough yet easy-to-follow reference guide to help in more advanced programming.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference for the DIY type, March 27, 2000

By 

Wynand (South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perl: The Complete Reference (Paperback)

I found this book to be an excellent reference for the type of Perl hacker who mostly figures things out for himself but still might end up trawling through the man pages alot. To be able to quickly browse to a subject that you have in black and white helps alot. I found the areas covering DBI and CGI lacking although, granted, that is not the aim of this publication. Strictly not to read from cover to cover but rather, to quickly look up a consice, detailed explanation of something.