Customer Reviews

Perl to Python Migration

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

 

 

I'm an avid Perl programmer who's wanted to do more with Python, but never seem to have the time to actually _do_ something in Python because I run out of time and end up doing it in Perl. This book has helped me get over that hurdle by providing a useful cross reference, so if you want to do X in Perl (with a perl code example that looks very typical), do Y in Python (with a plausible code fragment).

I would have rated this book 5 stars, as it very clearly achieves its stated goal. Unfortunately it is absolutely riddled with minor typo's. Perhaps that will be fixed in a future edition, but for now it makes life a bit more difficult since you have to pay very close attention to what is in the book vs. what you might already know and correct the book where it is wrong.

If you happen to be a Perl Hacker who wants to get into Python, this book is just what you're looking for. It's written from the perspective of a Perl programmer who has made the switch to Python. It introduces Python while explaining the relevant differences to Perl as it goes. There are also lots of code snippets showing Perl code along with its Python equivalents.

This book does have some problems however. It has more typos in it than any other programming book I've ever read. That applies to both the text itself as well as some of the code samples. There are also some places in which it explains things assuming knowledge of something else that isn't described until further on in.

That said, I still found the book useful, and for me it was probably worth the purchase price. I would just recommend that readers be very wary of the typos as you go along.

This book is a reasonable cross-reference, but it can't be trusted at all, for the simple fact that it has so many typos, spelling mistakes, and code samples with errors in that it's a dangerous book to give to a python learner. Bad show.