Perl Pocket Reference, 4th Edition (Paperback)

by Johan Vromans (Author)
Key Phrases: special variables, uninitialized scalar variable, scalar context, Perl Pocket Reference, Index Name Description, Formatted Printing (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The Perl Pocket Reference provides a complete overview of the Perl programming language, all packed into a convenient, carry-around booklet. It is updated for Perl 5.8, and covers a summary of Perl syntax rules, a complete list of operators, built-in functions, and standard library modules, all with brief descriptions. Also included are the newest Perl features, such as enhanced regular expressions, multithreading, the Perl compiler, and Unicode support. The Perl Pocket Reference, 4th Edition, is the perfect companion to the authoritative books on Perl published by O'Reilly & Associates: Programming Perl, Learning Perl, and the Perl Cookbook. This pocket reference will never make it to the bookshelf--dog-eared and well worn, it will remain within arms reach of the keyboard or tucked in a back pocket, where it will be referred to on a daily basis.

About the Author
Johan Vromans has engaged in software engineering research since 1975. Convinced of the importance of a good programming environment, he became an expert in using GNU Emacs and the Perl programming language. Recently he was instrumental in bringing the Internet to the Netherlands as a commercial activity. He currently owns his own typesetting and consulting business called Squirrel Consultancy. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 4 edition (July 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596003749
• ISBN-13: 978-0596003746
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #107,360 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The O'Reilly Pocket Guides Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just right, April 10, 2003

By	skiggety (Framingham, MA United States) - See all my reviews

"Perl Pocket Reference" has the dense information content of "Perl in a nutshell" with extra readability and decreased size. However, in it's subject matter it more closely resembles "programming perl" (aka: camel), because it only covers the language itself. I own all three of these books, and even when they are all within arms reach, I still use this pocket reference more than the other two books, for two reasons:

1)As a beginner (in Perl), many of my questions can be answered with a small book such as "Perl Pocket Reference".
2)I don't have to sift through a lot of extraneous information to get answers quickly.

This pocket reference is no substitute for the Camel, (or for a more complete reference such as "Perl in a nutshell") but it's a great solution for
-finding succinct answers quickly
-reminding yourself of the basics of some feature that you don't use much
-serving as a beginner's reference, or
-bringing to an open-book exam. ;-)

Buy this book if you have another perl book and you want to get answers more efficiently.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't program Perl without this cool reference book, February 10, 2003

By	Gregor Theis (Meerbusch Deutschland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you are not one of the great Perl Wizards that know the syntax for every commands by heart, you should by this very handy book. This booklet is a reference book. Do not expect to learn Perl from scratch with this booklet (although I learned a lot of details :-). If you do not know Perl I recommend "Learning Perl" first.

The 4th edition of "Perl Pocket Reference" has been enhanced to cover Perl 5.8. It adds some small enhancements for the new IO libraries, regular expressions and Unicode handling. The basics are still as good as in the 3rd edition (although a bit more cleaned up).

I love this book because it is without any useless overhead. The information density is very high so make sure that you read this book slowly.

This book covers "only" the Perl language (which is quite big compared to e.g. "C") It does not cover your favourite Perl module (e.g. DBI, LWP and so on). There are almost no examples in this book. If you look for examples I recommend e.g. "Perl Cookbook" from O'Reilly.

I really like this book. What it tries to do, it does very well (small reference book of the Perl language). I have it always on my desk at work and I already gave away more than 20 copies (German and English versions) to my coworkers.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy a clue, Gerald, August 25, 2005

By	The Sardonic Wit (Silicon Valley) - See all my reviews

Gerald W. Irmler writes in his review "I also have two very large Perl books that are also almost useless, so maybe it's a Perl problem." Well yes, Perl is not an easy language, but I suspect that the main problem here is an Irmler problem. This book does a very good job of doing what it intends to. Another clue that Irmler is lacking a clue is the baffling comment that "The author seemed more interested in being clever and funny, then (sic) imparting information." Huh? The book is comprised entirely of very succinct facts about the language. There is no style here to speak of, due to the nature of the book.

I rate this book 5 stars, Irmler -5 stars.