Perl from the Ground Up [Paperback]

Michael McMillan (Author)

Book Description

Series: From the Ground Up | Publication Date: May 28, 1998

This edition teaches the basics of Perl using lessons and real-world examples. It also provides an advanced treatment of Perl's use in information processing. Covering both UNIX and Windows 95/NT, the book begins with a description of the Perl language and gradually progresses to explain how it is used for Internet and Web programming. Appendices include the resources of the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network and a glossary of Perl terms. The book covers version 5.003. Perl is a freely distributed scription and general-purpose programming language that has become very popular as a systems administration and Internet programming tool. It has been described as the "Swiss-Army chain saw" of UNIX tools, but over time has become the language of choice among system administrators for quickly cobbling together utility programs. The dramatic popularity of the Internet and World Wide Web has pushed Perl into the forefront of professional programming. Much of the back-end processing on Web servers is done with CGI scripts written in Perl. Its rising use in mission-critical applications, ranging from financial transactions to aeronautical design has transformed Perl from a simple programming tool to a means for obtaining dynamic data and printing out easily formatted reports. Perl currently runs on DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, VMS, OS/2, Windows and many flavours of UNIX.

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill Osborne Media (May 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0078824044
• ISBN-13: 978-0078824043
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,914,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I wish I could sell it back on ebay, June 8, 2000

By 

Daniel "seekortry" (Schaumburg, Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perl from the Ground Up (Paperback)

I don't know about anyone else, but I am so tired ofprogramming books with bad code, typos, and broken promises. Despitewhat this book says, you will not finish it as a pro. The only thing I really use it for is to look up built-in functions - but I can do that for free online...I wish I could auction the book off but the damned binding broke the first week I had it. I think anyone wanting to find a good introduction to this language should buy one of the animal books - this is a waste of money.

p.s. Did anyone else have problems with the code in chapter 20 (web programming) ?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Inefficient way to learn Perl, May 4, 2000

By 

John A. Justin (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perl from the Ground Up (Paperback)

The author doesn't know how to write a book in a didactic way. He uses concepts in his examples without explaining them until later chapters. In the chapter where he finally attempts to explain something that he used earlier, he refers you back to the beginning chapters where he mentioned its use. His chapter on OOP should be skipped all together. His explanation of patterns is sketchie. His chapter on CGI programming is a poor introduction.

The typos, grammar, and overall flow of the book demonstrate that he wasn't interested in spending the time to put some thought into the project.

I have over 12 years of experience with C++ and other languages, and I think that this is one of the worst presentations I've come across in years.

He really makes the learning process a lot harder than it needs to be. Look elsewhere.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Perl Reference Ever, January 9, 2000

By 

Andy Rogers (Washington, DC (USA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perl from the Ground Up (Paperback)

The book started off alright. Its discussions of variabletypes, subroutines, loops, etc. was mediocre to decent, however it'spretty hard to screw those up because EVERY beginner level book for ANY programming language is basically the same. When McMillan began discussing regular expressions, he seemed a bit lost himself, his examples were not concise and he went into little or no detail, then went on to say how IMPORTANT the preceding topics and examples were. From there it went from bad to worse, the examples were very simple until a certain point when he gives an email parsing example. I actually felt like I'd skipped a chapter! It was like, Where the heck did that come from. I had very little Perl experience going into this book and didn't learn much about the more advanced features of it, which is what I set out to do. If you can write a for loop in C, C++, Java or pretty much any language it's almost exactly the same. This one is a paperweight... It does make the bookshelf look good tho.