Rating: 
Summary: great book, nice reference
Review: Programming Perl is a great reference book for Perl which is something one would expect considering it comes from the creator of perl himself! The index is very well done and includes all of the *weird* characters which perl likes to use such as $_, @_, etc.. If you're new to perl, then I'd suggest also purchasing "Learning Perl" by the same publisher. It's probably a bit easier to use when just picking up the language - but the reference book is a must have as well.
Rating:
Summary: Best Perl book
Review: This is the definitive book on Perl. First off, it's from Larry, the main who invented and is maintaining Perl. Second, it's a very well written and edited book that provides some concise material both on the syntax and the philosophy of Perl. A must read for Perl programmers. Period.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly Written, Poorly Originized, Highly Overrated
Review: For somebody who is a "linguist", Larry Wall has a horrid writing style that interferes with learning important concepts. For example, he constantly names object "thingys". For example: ...but a hard reference just points to a thingy. It doesn't know (or care) whether there are any other references to the thingy, or whether any of those references are through variables. Hence, a hard rerefence can refer to an anonymous thingy. As such anonymous thingies... The minute you notice this, you stop reading and just count all the references to "thingy" on a page. its a staggering number. By writting in this style, it seriously detracts from the readablity. I didn't buy this book for it's writing style, I bought it as a reference to perl. Surely there is a better term then "thingy". In fact, I'm not even sure what "thingy" is susposed to refer to as I have yet to find a definition in the book. Plus he always uses "just" to modify his sentences. This gives this book a very condecending tone as if all these concepts are JUST obvious (you idiot). "to do this, just blah blah" . I hate to say it, but this "everything is obvious" attitude is rife in the perl community and it's a shame that Larry promotes it in his book. Nothing is "just" and nothing is obvious, if it was, why are you "just" spending 4 pages talking about it? Poorly written and highly overrated. No good for beginners or experts. There has to be a better book out there on perl then this "bible".
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate reference book for programming PERL
Review: At the title says, this book is about Programming Perl. For those who are looking for a tutorial on Perl, this is not the book to start with, you should try "Learning Perl", or one of the many other starter books for Perl. I use this book as my standard reference to the Perl language, and it has never let me down.
Rating:
Summary: Urghh..
Review: I have a Computer Science degree, I am familiar with C++ and Unix. I figured with the awful economy and me having a hard time finding a job, it might be about time for me to learn Perl (among other things). So I saw the glowing reviews of this book and purchased it. I honestly gleaned more about Perl from a dinky little 5 minute online tutorial than I can squeeze out of this. I just CANNOT bite into this book; there's too much garbage for people who don't know the difference betwen Unix and French. There is no decent pace, no steady flow of teaching, no way to simply and utterly learn how to program in Perl. The structure is so frustrating, I've had the urge to rip my hair out several times. Bottom line: If you want to learn ABOUT Perl, this is the book for you. If you want to LEARN Perl, don't bother. Look for a tutorial book instead.
Rating:
Summary: Most awesome PERL book
Review: This is indeed the most awesome PERL book. Written by Larry Wall, who is Mr. Perl. If you get but once PERL book, get this one,
Rating:
Summary: The camel goes into the forest with guts
Review: Ahum!. The absolute reference. If you get lost somewhere in a place without many resources for survival, food or drink, but with a book, try it not to be this one. Perhaps too caloric specifically.... yeah. Is a logical bomb of Perl... a strong weapon in the hands of an aficionado. This is the demostration that Perl wasn't intended to be easy to understand, intededly. Unfortunately, many people doesn't use pop (package oriented programming), or perl, (package entertainment reoriented language) itself and that's why the misleading. Thanks, Larry, it's one of the most imperfectly conserved books I have due and due to intellective uses only. Great!
Rating: 
Summary: bible, sure, but over-rated
Review: I guess I just prefer a book better from someone who DIDN'T invent the language. That is, a book from another perspective seems to point out the idiosyncracies of a language, etc. The only chapter of this book that I use is the 200 page one on Functions which, as its name implies, lists every Perl function and a basic couple of paragraphs about using that function. I've used Perl for years, but only resort to O'Reilly when I'm desperate. I expected a lot more from a book that is so well know. While not nerely as comprehensive, I prefer the book Cross-Platform Perl. I guess it's more of a tutorial (probably similary to O'Reilly Learning Perl). Only get this book if you're looking for a reference and already know perl. If you're looking for a book that will both teach you the language and serve as a reference after that, I'd avoid this one.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended for any Perl bookshelf
Review: I bought this book in 1998 when I was first learning Perl. Five years later as I write this review, this book doesn't cease to be the first place I turn for help. The first part of the book does a great job of explaining Perl concepts, especially pattern matching and regular expressions (which have a book of their own). The next part, which is what I now primarily use, is the function reference. I admit I have only taken advantage of part of the book's usefulness, since I haven't done much with Perl modules, a reference to which is also included. Plus, the authors inject just enough light humor to make your programming project bearable. :) If I didn't find my current copy so helpful already, I'd buy a newer edition.
Rating:
Summary: Not for Learning
Review: I bought a book, and was very unsatisfied for the following reasons: 1. It's not good for someone who wants to learn Perl. I'm fairly competent in C++, Java and VB and have more than four years of programming experience, still I could not learn what perl is about from this book. The authors seems to jump from one 'fact' to another, rather than presenting a well formed flow of teaching. The small but crutial facts (such as variable $_) are not explained in detail; may be because the authors are experts, they thought that anybody knew them by default. But that seems to be a mistake because those fatcs are not common in other languages and are new to even experienced C++ or Java programmers. 2. The author seems to prefer explaining why he designed perl in such a way to teaching how perl works. There are a lot of justifications in each section why perl is better. So, if you are a curious Perl fan, this book may be the one for you. If you are new to language and want to learn, the book will only discourage you. 3. Examples are very poorly chosen. Rather than introducing the bare minimum to understand a new concept, they provide a lot of unrelated new (probably advanced) concepts that distracts the reader. And the author goes on explaining those unrelated things on-the-spot, keeping the original topic aside; This is probably due to authors preference to real-world examples, and his dislike to write simple example programs even for a book .... 4. Almost every section has annoying forward references. Summary: If you are a computer linguist, you already know Perl and are interested in the internals of language design, this book would probably interest you. But if you want to learn, go somewhere else. I think this book would have better be named "Perl: Technical Reference". But even for such a book, it's too inconvenient having to dig the long paragraphs just to find a minute detail. Why couldn't he use techniques other authors use to make their books easy-to-read - rather than adding a lot of not-so-funny jokes as footnotes?
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