Rating: 
Summary: I swear by this book.
Review: This is a excellent book whether you are learning perl (granted you have somewhat of a clue about programming in general), buffing up on your perl, or as a desktop reference. This book can very easily be the only perl book you will need in your collection.
Rating:
Summary: A Reference Book
Review: This is an excellent companion to the Learing Perl book (also by O'Reilly). If you are new to Perl like I was not too long ago, then start with the Learning Perl book first before you touch this one. This book is intended to serve as a reference as it tackles the more complicated aspects of Perl. If you start learning Perl with this book, then you will find it a very difficult language to graps. However, I do not want to take anything away from this book. This book is fantastic for those who want to dive into Perl a bit more and have passed the beginners level. I purchased both the books and once I had finished reading the Learning Perl book, I started turning to this book to get a better understanding of things, especially regular expressions.
Rating: 
Summary: Badly Organized, but a Great Reference
Review: The book itself, used as a Reference and for mastering Perl, is a five star book. But there are a quite a few disadvantages: 1. The book is not intended to the ones who have no programming experience at all. The read should be at least an intermediate programmer, because the basic programming concepts of the language (Variables, Subs and etc..) are badly explained. 2. Because of Perl's C Like Syntax, it is recommended that the reader will know C, Awk, or Grep and Some experience in the Unix Environment. 3. The Book itself is badly organized, certain complicated things are shown in examples and explanations, and those things are taught many pages afterwards. For Example: An Example of a perl program is shown on page 10, and that example contains subs and pattern matching, which are taught 100 Pages later! These are the 3 Main Disadvantages. For Conclusion, if you're new to programming, or want to learn Perl easliy, buy "Learning Perl", but if you're a somewhat experienced programmer, and want to master Perl, this book is the best one you'll find for that purpose.
Rating: 
Summary: Part intro (weak), Part reference (great), Weak Index
Review: The reference sections were great -- I read them end to end. This book would be great if that's what you were buying it for. If you've already been lightly introduced to Perl, (and you can find what you are looking for without a decent index), you wouldn't do badly with this book. However, even if you know a broad range of other computer languages, Perl is full of painfully implicit semantics and esoteric details, so a few chapters of introduction are important. The book had those chapters, to it's credit, but the writing in them was wandering and weakly structured, and not so well edited -- somewhat like the Perl language itself? I had heard Perl criticized as a collection of many individually "neat" features and shortcuts, lacking overall design and simplifying consistency. The book seemed to reinforce that feeling. With so many features, you would have expected some extra effort to have been invested into a decent index. Unfortunately, I have often found it rather hard to find what I'm looking for. The layout scheme conforms to the extremely flat OReilly Books standard (e.g. subsection levels deliniated by subtle font size differences in headings). That standard looks distinctly like old LaTeX output, or something similarly invented before graphical layout tools. In summary, even if you know lots of languages, don't buy this book expecting an easy ride into the world of Perl, based on the names "Larry Wall" or "OReilly".
Rating:
Summary: A mix between a reference manual and a learning book
Review: Designated "The Ultimate Perl Reference" by many Perl programmers, this book rates high on the expectations list. The book is aimed at programmers with some experience with Perl. If you want read an introduction take "Learning Perl", also from O'Reilly. Indeed almost anything you look for is in there. All aspects of the language are treated at a rapid pace and there are numerous small examples. Besides the official stuff there are also tips and tricks, both Perl-specific and general. The book however is a mix between a learning book and a reference manual and that is a pity, because trying to be both it fails to be either. The most severe lack is a thorough and precise index enabling you to get from "I want to do this" to "This is how you that in Perl". Still I rate it at 4 stars because it is a valuable language reference.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for mastering a great language - Perl
Review: It's said I am one of the few people who've gone through this book among my friends. Yes. I do enjoy it very much in the past months. It's a long poem, which shows the wisdom of this language from time to time. We may have to admit that the so-called 'value' is indeed the preference of people. Thus I'll free free to comment this book with my favor. I think this book is great because I like this well-designed language so much and ... Because it covers everything you need or want to know about Perl - a perfect reference book. Because it explains the thinking underlying the language - a philosophical book toward a perfect language. Because it is so concise, saving my time, but provides sufficient hints to help experienced programmers master this language - a poem. I like the apropos humor appearing everywhere in the book. It's essential to programmers' life - a good old friend. And we, Chinese, think "Fish acquired, fishnet thrown away." If you do master Perl, no treasuring the Perl books. I believe this book would be the last Perl book I throw away.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Reference
Review: While this book may not be the best way to LEARN perl, it is the ultimate reference book. As a professional perl programmer I still keep this on my desk both at home and at work! View my other recommendations at http://www.cgi-guy.com
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book, for the bright and patient
Review: While I was still working my way through Programming Perl, I wrote on comp.lang.perl.misc: "The authors aren't afraid to use a construct before they've even mentioned it, let alone described how it works, and at least some of the (mostly uncommented) examples are distinctly non-trivial. It's very dense, with a single sentence often expressing something that I'd spend a whole pp on, were I writing it for a programmer's magazine. It's not quite as slow going as some of the page-an-hour philosophy texts I read in college, but it's probably the closest I've come to that in the nearly twenty years since then. Definite perceptual bi-stability: It flickers between 'loads of fun' and 'intensely frustrating'." Having finished it and having written more than a few Perl scripts, I find it an invaluable reference - I look forward to the day when I can write a non-trivial script without referring to it! All in all, I found it a wonderful book, the One Book To Get If You're Only Getting One. I do think that the density of the book (and its free use of 'forward references') is a good preparation for Perl programming: If you can understand the book and its examples, you'll have little trouble reading any Perl you might come across. But - as you can gather from some of the pans here - this book isn't for everyone. If you already know two or three other languages and have a deep-seated need to understand a language's semantics, buy this book. If what you really want is just to quickly learn how to modify some scripts you found on the Net, then this probably isn't the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Great alround book
Review: This book has not only developed my limited knowledge in perl but has been a great reference point. I throughly recommend it for new and advanced programmers! Feel free to contact me regarding this book
Rating:
Summary: Not a beginner book, but a must-have Perl reference
Review: If you just start learning Perl, don't buy this book. It is a reference book, not a tutorial book. If you are a serious Perl programmer, I will be surprised if you don't have this book by now.
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