Rating: 
Summary: A really great and concise book
Review: This book is wonderful. Different books will suit different people, and for different purposes of course. While searching for a Perl book I was looking specifically for one that would teach Perl quickly and concisely--so I would be able to implement it immediately. Later, if I desire to search out understanding at a deeper level I would peruse the Camel books or the other ones that can beat around the bush for scores of pages before arriving at a useful example. This book however, is for those who want to go straight to the point and start doing something.
Rating: 
Summary: Perl by trivial and repetitive examples
Review: This book was the required and only text for an introductory Perl class that I took. The students generally panned the book. While we appreciated having an extensive source of examples (the book is over 800 pages long), the examples often seemed trivial and repetitive.Let's look at what the book is not. This book is not an introductory programming book-it does not cover basic principles of programming. This book is not a Perl tutorial-it does not introduce Perl concepts and features in a systematic and integrated way. For example, consider the various array functions. All you get in the book is a series of separate sections on each function. There is no discussion that push and pop might somehow be related. This book is not a Perl reference-it does not provide complete and easy-to-access information. For example, it only rarely covers exception conditions. Consider the pop function-the book never indicates what happens if you apply the pop function to an empty array. So what is this book? It is an extensive source of trivial and repetitive examples. This book might be a good supplementary text for people who learn best through numerous repetitive examples. Also, the systematic three-part layout of each example is helpful (the format of the Perl language element, an example script with output, and an explanation). If you want a book of Perl examples, you might consider the "Perl Cookbook" by Christiansen and Torkington.
Rating: 
Summary: Helpful for beginning, I hope
Review: This was my first Perl book. At the time I was first using it, I barely knew what programming was(not that I do now). The examples helped me solve many problems, but they were solved the way the author would have solved them. The other reviewers are right, there are errors in the examples, but despite that, the book gave me what I hope to be a good first look at how problems can be solved. I have since moved on to Programming Perl, and Advanced Perl Programming(both O'Reilly). If it wasn't for the examples in Quigley's book, I wouldn't have the background for the kinds of problems I solve today. I recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: Very good Book
Review: Typically, I hate technical manuals. They often assume that you are already an expert on what the book is about. (Think nutshell) No, If I already knew the subject I would not need to buy the book. This book contains examples for everything and explains everything throughly. It will be a great reference manual.
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