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Summary: The Bible of Perl functionality
Review: This is one of three O'Reilly books I own on Perl (the other two being Learning Perl and Advanced Perl Programming). This book has the down-and-dirty on nearly everything in Perl. I think it's best used as a reference when you need look up how to do something. However, I often use the Learning Perl when I want to see an example, since it's examples seem to be better and more straightforward. However, this book does have examples as well, and often has examples for the more nontrivial cases that you have to deal with. All in all, I wouldn't want to sit down and write a lot of Perl without this book. I've written way too much Perl code in the last year, and I reference this book quite a bit. If you're serious about Perl coding then get this book. If you've never written a line of Perl code before, get the Learning Perl book first and rip through that. Then get this book.
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Summary: For Twice the Price Go Buy The CD With All 6 Books
Review: No joke. Get all of O'Reilly's Perl Books for just twice the price. Thorough, Convenient, and best of all- Cheap. Go search for it on Amazon- "The Perl CD Bookshelf".
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Summary: A must have !
Review: This book is a must have if you are in Perl, the reason i did not give it the fifth star is that there were not enough code samples for a real beginner like i was when i bought it. I've used Perl for a year now and this book is the only one i still read. This is really a great book !
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Summary: Not for beginning programmers but who ever said it was?
Review: If you don't have any programming experience then avoid this book. Perl is a very specialized language in which "Easy jobs are easy and the hard jobs are not impossible". If you are serious about Perl in any of its applications then this book is indispensible.
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Summary: A hard earned tip for tutorial use
Review: Hola! from the most wired dormatory in America, I thought my CS friends were crazy. Fell asleep to Chapter 2. I dare not even look at the alphabetical Ch. 3 and 7. How can this be the famous tutorial? The problem is simple: it's a bible. Quite literally. No nonsense details, and lots of it. Don't give up. The authors thought of you. There's hope. Heed Ch. 2's subtle suggestion as to how you might want to use the book as a tutorial: A. The >contexts< in which Perl language features, basic Perl functions, and core Perl libraries will be used are not in Ch. 2, 3, or 7--Ch. 4-6 reveals all. Look there instead. Code examples and real world use are simply saved for later. This is a great way to preserve the succinct nature of a deskside reference. B. Read it backwards! Skim pass Ch. 2, 3, and 7 if you have some programming background. Refer to them as you stumble across strange terrain during your careful study of Ch 4-6. Read this way the reference becomes a tender tutorial. Your fingers will also become very familiar with the whereabouts of each toy in this treasure chest. This book is a pearl. So is the community.
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Summary: why did I buy this?
Review: While Wall had a fair first edition - P4 the purple book - he lost it in this one. He rambles and rambles. This is a book on philosophy executed with trite phrases. And it doesn't second for a reference. Talk about arbitrary. Just try a look up. This is a novel. If you are new to PERL stay away!
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Summary: Not so good for begginers but not too bad for experts
Review: When I wanted to learn Perl this book was very difficult to understand, maybe because the perl syntax is different from other languages and the author show examples in the 1st chapter with a lot of this perlish syntax. Now that I know Perl, this book is very good for reference, however it has a few examples and is complex to understand at first sight.
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Summary: If you have already read "Learning Perl", READ THIS BOOK
Review: This is by far the best Perl book I have ever read, I have had no other book recommended to me more highly. As with all O'Reilly books, this one beats the competitors hands-down.
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Summary: Not for beginners
Review: This book is not for Perl Begginers, i found it hard to follow, it is not intended for self learning.
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Summary: Simply the best
Review: This book takes the heavy task of teaching Perl in a light way - if you don't have any sense of humour, don't buy this book. Not full of examples or sample code, but that's not the point with this book (not that "learn Perl in 21 days" stuf). You'll see Perl through the eyes of who made it.
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