Customer Reviews

Perl 5 Interactive Course

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

 

 

The concept was excellent: have a hardcopy text in front of you, an interactive version on your web browser, and a CDROM with a snapshot of the CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) in your CDROM drive.

Unfortunately, they were much too hasty to get the package on the shelves. In several chapters, the illustrations have been completely scrambled and are rendered useless (wrong figures over each caption). Also, there are many typos in the code samples, several of the scripts in each chapter are miscoded (can't do what they are supposed to do), and the quizes at the end of each section and the chapter tests contain many mistakes also.

As I noticed this, I said to myself 'Oh well, surely they will revise the website version.' Wrong. Since I have done plenty of scripting and programming in several languages, I was able to filter out most of the noise (although I am still left a bit confused about some topics), but I think the editorial botch of an otherwise excellent work will tend to confuse new-comers and non-programmers.

If you can deal with typos and such, get this book--it is a great reference as well as tutorial. Otherwise, wait for the second edition.

08-30-99 The eZone is now closed to new registrations with the exception of academic institutions who have integrated the eZone into this semesters course work. The eZone will officially close December 31, 1999. Current enrollees can continue taking courses until the official deactivation of the site in December. If you have pre-registered for an eZone course before this date we will continue "Business As Usual" until all course closings

This book will teach you Perl. However, if you are on a Windows platform, do NOT follow the installation instructions unless you fully understand them and can tell at a glance what is wrong with them.

It is dangerous for an author to instruct people to muck around in the Windows registry and autoexec.bat when he isn't even careful enough to realize he is instructing you to insert registry keys referencing a directory that does not exist, and telling you to add a path statement that is incorrect according to his own instructions.

The problem with all this is that, (assuming you don't give up the installation), if later in the book your code doesn't work, you will be reduced to confusion, wondering whether you or the author made the mistake.

That's why God made editors. Too bad this author didn't have one.

Supurb. Few computer books are written as intelligently as this. Perl is a complex and subtle language, and this book is therefore necessarily quite long. If you want to learn perl quickly, read chapters 1-5 of this book and do ALL of the example problems, which are an integral part of this author's didactic method. The problems draw out subtleties not explicitly covered in the text. An excellent, excellent book. Thanks, Jon.

As graphic designer with no programming knowledge, I found it thorough with excellant examples and explanations. I did wish it had more on CGI. However, as the fourth book on Perl that I have, its the only one that even mentions CGI.pm. Which is a must for web development. For that reason, I would recommend Stein's Official Guide to Programming with CGI.pm as the perfect companion if you're interested in web development. This book is truely the best book on Perl.

This is an excellent book for learning perl. It gets you started on all aspects, such as CGI, but it is not the last word, of course. It is also a good reference. Because of the editorial mistakes in the first edition, this books reputation has suffered. That is unfortunate. It is not the only Perl book to own, but it is a useful one that you can rely on as you learn more and more of what Perl has to offer.

This book had 15 pages of printed errata (errors) that I ended up going to the Waite group and downloading. The concept is cool -- take on-line quizzes and a discussion list (which was inoperative at the time I bought the book). The many errors in editing made it frustrating and the installation of the CD was not easy for a novice. The book sits on my shelf collecting dust.

I was able to learn basic PERL by using this book. If you are developing CGI applications, however, this book isn't going to teach you much about that. I had to buy another book on CGI for additional information.

This book is a good reference and does a pretty good at teaching the basics. The web site I found useless. The quizzes aren't very useful in teaching you the language, and their are no answers to the programming challenges they give you.

I haven't gone tried other Perl books, but I doubt this one is the best.

The concept of this book was great. I looked forward to the quizzes and exercises in the book, to verify what I was going to learn. Unfortunately, there are too many typos to even count. Answers to quizzes were wrong, and code examples were inaccurate. The lack of the Waite Group's concern for the customer was evident when I called for a refund, and they were not even interested why I wanted to return the book. Too many careless mistakes leave a beginner even more confused. Not bad for a free "beta" version of a product, but completely unacceptable as a final release. Find a better book (and let me know when you do) Andy

Being a student at college, I was taking a course on Perl. The text book was O'Riley & Associates Programming Perl. A couple of weeks into the course, several of the students, myself included, wanted a supplementary book -- Interactive Perl 5.
This book became the envy of those who had not purchased it. The easy to follow lessons with exercises and quizes helped speed along our understanding of this powerful language. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning to program in Perl, for any reason.