Customer Reviews

Perl 5 Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition: Programming Tools (O'Reilly Perl)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a Perl programmer I often need to look up a word or command to see how it is used. This reference makes it tough because it is organized by categories, instead of alphabetically. So if you're not sure what a command does - you'll look forever trying to find it. The book could also use a highlighted index along the side of the book like "Perl in a Nutshell" (This is the book you SHOULD get instead). They should expand the reference to include minor examples as well. Out of all the O'Reilly Perl books, this is the one I find myself going to the least - when it should be an indispensible reference...

This is a great little book for those who already know perl, but don't program in it enough to remember it all. I always carry it in my bag. Not the best book for the beginner.

At $5-6, this is very affordable and a necessity when you work at more than one location (home and office) but only keep one set of books. Though sometimes cryptic with notations, I find it to be quite complete and easier to use than thumbing through a complete reference book.

The book does nothing more than nudge your memory and sometimes show you language features you knew nothing about. For the latter, a complete reference is required to use the feature (or some tedious experimentation). I expect nothing more from a pocket reference.

The author has grouped the language components into sections and there is a TOC. However, I would augment the TOC with an index - I tend to use a pocket reference to find a specific item rather than an entire group.

I would buy the next edition of the book if it were to contain an index and embolden the function names in certain sections to make scanning the pages a bit easier.

I guess if your have to carry documentation around with you all day, this is the book to have. Otherwise, get Perl In A Nutshell.

Maybe there is too much to Perl to squeeze into one tiny guide? Maybe Perl can't be organized like that? For whatever reason, I find Learning Perl (another great O'Reilly book) to be the perfect "Pocket" reference, even though it's a standard book. This Pocket reference is too small to be of any real use, unlike many of their other Pocket references.

This book is little more than a list of perl methods to help jog your memory. If you're fluent in perl but sometimes need to remember the name of a method, this book can help you. But you'd better be able to remember the proper syntax on your own, since the book doesn't include it (granted, perl is fluid enough to make that an easy guess too). If you want a language reference, this book isn't it. It's like carrying a set of flash cards. If you don't know it to begin with, this book won't help you learn it. Even as a reference I found it lacking.

This is a great book for people who know how to program and are just learning Perl. If you don't know how to program, then forget about it.

You really can't beat the price. If you really want to know Perl, you should really go for the big book. This is a great reference to accompany the full reference.

As the other reviewers mention, the book is poorly organized and lacks an index. Additionally, it is cavalierly incomplete in places. For example, the definition given for "\n, \r, \f, \t, etc." is "have their usual meaning" (p. 21).

This is just what I needed - a quick reminder to refresh my memory occasionally without referring to the other perl books or docs. It's small and inexpensive -I keep one at home and one at the office. This book is great for jogging your memory to remind you of use and syntax but it should not be relied on as a true "reference". If you have the Camel and the Llama book this is a perfect addition.

This reference is perhaps too brief. I find myself skipping it and going straight for Programming Perl. If I need to quickly look up the usage of a function, the Unix man pages are far more useful -- and faster.