Rating: 
Summary: Got me started. Very good by-example approach.
Review: Before this book I couldn't care less for Perl; but thanks to the author and this very simple and motivating book I was up using Perl in less than a week, using it right and left to automate this and that. Thanks to David Medinets and QUE!
Rating: 
Summary: Good Reference, Maybe find a better Starter
Review: Concentrates using Perl locally, CGI is covered in a few breif chapters. The examples are easy to understand and operate from the command line. Alot of the book is filled with Reference tables with brief descriptions. A whole chapter on special variables is almost totally just tables. The book stresses using strict construction for programming, but doesn't really provide much help in going about doing that. Security is constantly mentioned, but solutions are rarely addressed.
Rating:
Summary: A superior PERL book
Review: Finally! An author that knows how important examples really are. This book does not lie -- it contains many, many sample Perl scripts readers can trace through. There are appropriate questions and exercises at the end of each chapter. A CD with source code is included. The author is wonderful with his writing, and each sample script is commonly explained line by line. I don't understand why everybody likes those O'Reilly books so much more than this. I couldn't find one error in it (at least not yet). I'd rather have this one book and get everything I need instead of buying an arsenal of those O'Reilly's.... They don't even come with CD's and they're written in the worst paper ever invented with the smallest print possible.
Rating:
Summary: Yes Yes Yes!
Review: Finally! An author that knows how important examples really are. This book does not lie -- it contains many, many sample Perl scripts readers can trace through. There are appropriate questions and exercises at the end of each chapter. A CD with source code is included. The author is wonderful with his writing, and each sample script is commonly explained line by line. I don't understand why everybody likes those O'Reilly books so much more than this. I couldn't find one error in it (at least not yet). I'd rather have this one book and get everything I need instead of buying an arsenal of those O'Reilly's.... They don't even come with CD's and they're written in the worst paper ever invented with the smallest print possible.
Rating: 
Summary: I bet this review gets buried
Review: I agree with fellow reviewer, James Tolley from NYC, I honestly don't understand how this book got such high ratings. I read with amazement other reviews by people who claim to be programmers, they must be pals of the author. I will itemize in detail where I find problems with this book: 1)
This book is riddled with typos and errors. Not a good thing when you are trying to learn something new. The book leads you astray. To the authors credit, he has published his book on a web site and it seems to be much better than the printed book. But then, why would you BUY the book? The good news is that the book provides nice wide margins so you can note the typos and make corrections. 2)
Examples of perl scripts (hence, Perl 5 by EXAMPLE) are all through the book and at first glance it looks like a great way to learn. Problem is, I've just found 2 examples (one right after the other) that don't even work as examples for what was taught. In chapter 5 we are learning about the "my" and "local" functions. I took the examples provided (from the Web site, mind you) and ran them with the "my" and with the "local" operators in them and they ran great. But then I removed them and the script produced the same result. So what was the point? 3)
This book offers review questions at the end of each chapter. The answers to the review questions are provided at the end of the book in Appendix A. That's good. However, in my opinion, the review questions aren't nearly as important as the review exercises that follow the questions at the end of every chapter. The exercises are where you are asked to write perl programs to reinforce what you learned in the chapter you just read. There are no answers to these all important exercises. Not in the book, not on the CD-ROM not on the author's web site. When I wrote to the author he offered to review my work as time permits. Nice offer, but not what I had in mind. I have several books on perl and the O'Reilly books (i.e. Learning Perl) are far better. Learning Perl has exercises at the end of each chapter and the answers are provided in the back. This book will only serve to confuse beginners with misinformation and force them to extra unnecessary effort in order to combat the lax attitude in which this book was produced. A proofreader that knows how to write perl might have helped on this account. The concept for the book and the approach are terrific ideas. But do you want to have to read the book and then check the Web site and run every script to make sure you weren't given misinformation? This is a book that depends on you to allow for a "fudge factor." Expect more for your hard earned money.
Rating:
Summary: A superior PERL book
Review: I am a professional PERL programmer and I find that this book is still very usefull as a reference. It is an excellent primer for people who don't have formal training in programming. I have recommended it several times to non-programmers and have gotten many thanks for the referal. Typically I'm an O'Reilly fan but if you are trying to decide between "Learning PERL" or this book... buy THIS BOOK. Inside it's intended scope this book is the best reference you can currently buy. Even if you don't need the programming introduction you can still reference the excellant Regular Expressions Chapters and the amazing Appendicies and Index. This book will take you from a novice to an intermediate PERL programmer. For that I give this book 5 stars. If you need to do advanced PERL programming this book is still a good reference... but you are looking for another book then.
Rating:
Summary: I just want to comment on the CD
Review: I am a Professional Perl Programmer. My site is David Nishimoto's Perl Page. I've read the 'Perl by Example' book many times and find it to be one of the best written books for perl. I like the book because it takes the reader - concept by concept through the Perl Language. The large number of examples helps demonstrate how the language syntax behaves. My experience in teaching perl is that examples are very helpful in understanding syntax. Once a programmer understands the Perl Language, Perl Function modules can be created to insulate some of the complexity of the language. Perl's substitution, match, and translate grammers are explained very well in the book. I valued the explainations on user defined functions and built in functions. The 'Perl by Example' book finishes with a discussion of CGI and interface with the http server, also very valueable. The book keeps the reader enthused about learning Perl by building from simple concepts to more advanced concepts through the document. I feel comfortable in recommending this book as a valuable Perl resource.
Rating:
Summary: After Careful Evaluation, I like this book.
Review: I am a Professional Perl Programmer. My site is David Nishimoto's Perl Page. I've read the 'Perl by Example' book many times and find it to be one of the best written books for perl. I like the book because it takes the reader - concept by concept through the Perl Language. The large number of examples helps demonstrate how the language syntax behaves. My experience in teaching perl is that examples are very helpful in understanding syntax. Once a programmer understands the Perl Language, Perl Function modules can be created to insulate some of the complexity of the language. Perl's substitution, match, and translate grammers are explained very well in the book. I valued the explainations on user defined functions and built in functions. The 'Perl by Example' book finishes with a discussion of CGI and interface with the http server, also very valueable. The book keeps the reader enthused about learning Perl by building from simple concepts to more advanced concepts through the document. I feel comfortable in recommending this book as a valuable Perl resource.
Rating:
Summary: Excelent book on PERL
Review: I am currently reading this book and I feel like I am learning at a pace that amazes me. The two previous reviews stating that the electronic books arent on the CD are FALSE, the books are in the following directories: D:\ebooks\se_CGI : D:\ebooks\perl_qr : D:\ebooks\perl_be. with D:\ being the drive containing the CD. I especially liked the fact that the book is written with WIN/DOS users in mind. a must read. If you can't find the Electronic books, email me
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as its title sounds to be.
Review: I got the book from the bookstore. The book maybe of some value for the starters who have some experience in shell/C programming. But the examples are too simple and not much informative. Some of the materials are not explained clearly.
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