Beginning Perl

Rating:
Summary: Another exasperating book for newbies
Review: First of all, let me say that I so much wanted to enjoy and benefit from this book. Regrettably, the author, like so many authors of technical books, plainly does NOT understand his audience. He attempted to combine the objective of teaching programming concepts with the objective of teaching the features and syntax of Perl. In other words he was at once writing a "Beginning Programming Using Perl" book, and "Perl for Programmers of Other Languagues" book. He does a very poor job of accomplishing either goal.

For the record, I am familiar with and understand programming concepts to a reasonable extent. However, I have never worked as a programmer. The author missed me completely! Furthermore, he raised the bar of what I felt I had a right to expect from this book by saying early on that 'Perl is so easy to learn'. Apparently it is easier to learn Perl than it is to teach or write about Perl! I have looked at quite a few Perl books. I don't think there are really any excellent ones out there for a relative newbie. This book is the second one I will be returning for a refund.

If you are new to programming, (and the back cover of the book says that is designed for those new to programming) you may want to carefully consider the wisdom of relying on this book for learning programming concepts - or Perl! Mr Cozens is not thorough enough in his explanations or thoughtful enough in his writing to convey conceptual information in a way that can be readily learned. (Notice I did not say easily learned. That's a different objective entirely.) He never really explains the syntax of the language (which for me is the hardest thing about Perl to get used to). Nor does the author understand the importance of explaining terms and concepts that are specific to Perl. I suspect he expects you to pick them up by studying the examples. For someone like myself who is a verbal-conceptual learner this may prove to be too much to ask. I am not sure what his teaching paradigm was (or if he had one).

As for those who already have experience programming, you may be in a better position to benefit from this book; but I would venture to say, that you could probably do better. Maybe you are experienced and knowledgeable enough to go straight for one of the O'Reilly books? (I didn't feel that I was.)

Finally, the author is way too wordy in his explanations - explanations that don't explain! You are left to pick up concepts, the reason for why he is explaining something, on your own. He just goes straight to the explanations without much coherence or cohesion. Phrasings of several of his sentences are quite awkward. For example, he is fond of using the phrase, "As well as . . ." (meaning in addition to) in ways that jar the thought processes (at least for this reader). This perhaps is a petty criticism, but that kind of shotty writing combined with bad editing and poor execution makes for a miserable experience.

Now, it's back to the store to get my money back!

Rating:
Summary: More documentation in regards to running Windows programs
Review: First off this is a great book but there is one important thing simon forgot to mention.

1. When running programs from command line in windows you need to be in the BIN directory or higher in order for your .PL -.PLX program to work. This was not mentioned. If it was ,NO lengthly explanation was given. The reason you can't run .pl or .plx files is as follows :

C:\>perl myfile.pl --> This does not work because by default Perl and BIN are stored under c: So when you type C:\>perl myfile.pl there is NO PERL/perl.exe interpreter to be found hence you get bad command or file name

BUT if you do CD perl then cd BIN then have a directory with your file you may have full access to perl...

EX c:\perl\bin\scripts\perl myfile.pl

The above works as planned!!!

Yet to find this out I had to experiment which in a beginners book is not a good way to start off!!!

[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Very good book.
Review: I have gone through several Perl tutorials in the past, and I have to admit that this is the best one I've seen, especially if you already know how to program. I came from a C++ world, so it was relatively easy to pickup. The syntax was easy to pick up and also concepts such as hashes and lists. The tone Simon uses is very social, so it keeps you awake and interested. I also enjoyed the large amount of examples.

I think, without a doubt, the first half of the book was good - the basics (syntax, logic, scalars, arrays, hashes, basic functions, and files). The second half may seem a little weaker to many (OOP, Network Programming, CGI and databases)- but that's just because it's way too much for the book to handle. This just encourages you to continue to learn on your own. I'm glad he did mention it though. He provides code and gives you the very basic of these.

Overall this is a very good book. I agree with many that it has some errors throughout the book, but not too many (you can check the Wrox website for errata). No book is perfect. This book, however, is better than a lot of other tutorials out there that just seem to copy and paste the boring Perl documentation. If you're a beginner to Perl and have a programming background, I recommend it. If you're a beginner to programming, you will struggle a little, but that's just because it's your first programming language.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to do better than this for novice programmers
Review: I must strongly disagree with the reviewer who said that the tone of this book is inconsistent and the audience unclear. Quite the opposite---unlike many beginning Perl books (see my review of Schwartz' _Learning Perl_), this one is written simply and consistently with one person in mind---the computer user who is new to programming and wants to pick up a practical, modern language that he/she can accomplish useful things with.

The book goes into surprising but welcome depth about the features that distinguish Perl and make it more interesting (and, I think, more fun) than other languages for the beginning programmer. Also, fundamental principles of computer science (iteration, data structures, sorting, etc.) and software engineering (the design process, debugging, code style, etc.) are introduced along the way in an informal, non-threatening manner. I think the author does such a good job of mixing theory and application that this book could even be used as an introductory text in the first or second term of a computer science degree program.

Oh, and to the reviewers who said the author's English is poor: The author is British, not American. People *do* speak English outside North America, believe it or not!

Rating:
Summary: Perl syntax and nothing else.
Review: I own many of the books published by Wrox, but this was a real disappointment. The author did a fine job of explaining the examples. But it lacked any real world examples. I personnally learn best by seeing something useful in the real world.

It would be nice if Wrox would put out a perl book focused on cgi. And they should use some real world examples.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for anyone to pick up Perl programming.
Review: I'm a somewhat experienced Perl programmer but never took the time to formally train myself on the language. I decided to start with this book. It's clear and easy to understand. It will take you from crawling in the language to a good sprint. It lacks in some of the integration of certain things, but it is a beginning book. I can't wait to read the professional version.

Rating:
Summary: This is THE book for learning Perl!
Review: I've been wanting to learn Perl for awhile and debated about getting this book or the O'Reilly book, Learning Perl. I actually have tried a couple times to learn Perl from other books (one of which was from the QuickStart series), but found them inadequate for teaching me what was going on - they basically showed what looked to me like complicated code and then explained what was going on in that particular example. Both books (this book and the O'Reilly book) had a number of negative reviews, but as the O'Reilly book was described as overrated and not as great as it sounded, and as I've had that experience before with a couple O'Reilly books, I decided to go with this one. I am very glad I did.

The author covers material thoroughly and in a very understandable format. I guess I can't understand what all the negative reviews were about. 1) There are some typos, but none that affect the code or my understanding of the material and 2) the guy is British so sometimes you run across a phrase that you wouldn't in an American English book, but so what?

As for my background, I've never had a programming class, I have a basic knowledge of UNIX, and I've dabbled in C and some scripting languages enough to know a little about the sorts of things you do in a program. But I consider my knowledge in all these things very basic.

Anyway, the book has been extremely helpful and I would definitely recommend this book over any of the others I've run across.

Rating:
Summary: Beginning Beginning Perl
Review: I've just started using this book, but wanted to warn users that in the first chapter alone, there are many typos (missing and repeated words, etc) and style inconsistencies (e.g., the example to show how shading is used to emphasize parts of code LACKS any shading).

If I hadn't already put my name in the book and highlighted a few things, I would have returned the book on the spot, as any book sporting so many errors in the first chapter is likely to have been neglected in the editing and proofing stages--incorrect code is bound to pop up in examples and exercises.

Having said that, to date I am finding the book at the beginner level I was looking for. I WANT the state-the-obvious stuff, as I'm a sys admin, not a developer! If you're looking for a more advanced Introduction to Perl book, I'd go for one of the O'Reilly books, as they are of consistently good quality--both the physical paper/binding and editorially--but have an assumption of some background in coding, etc.

I'll write more as I get further along in the book.

Rating:
Summary: A good book for beginners
Review: If you are a beginner to Perl (but have some knowledge of the concepts of programming) then this is the book for you.

It explains in a clear and straightforward manner the basics of Perl. The authors go out of their way to make sure that examples are given of all the concepts that they cover.

The only thing that prevents this book from getting 5 stars are the number of typos in the book. If you can look beyond those, however, then this book is extrememly useful.

Bottom line: If you have some knowledge of programming and want to learn what Perl can do for you, then this is the book for you. If you have some Perl experience, however, you may want to go on to a more advanced book (such as O'Reilly's camel book).

Rating:
Summary: The Best Beginner book for Newbies!
Review: If you have a small programming or scripting background and wish to learn Perl, this is the book for you.

It covers things in detail and it explains things that usually will not confuse people that don't have a strong programming background.

I learned from the O'Reily book but I find this book has much more detail. I purchased a copy for people at work. As the Perl Guy, they always ask for suggestions. If they have a strong background, then the O'Reily book is for them. If they have a minor background then this book takes care of them.

If learning Perl seems a daunting cause, this book will be a great guide for you!