Re: [tlug] Good Books on Perl

[Jake Morrison <jake_morrison@example.com>]

--- Godwin Stewart <gstewart@example.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Feb 2002 00:28:47 +0900, Gavin <gauin_36@example.com>
> wrote to
> tlug@example.com:
> 
> > I need some advice, I'm intrested in learning perl, what books 
> > do you suggest for a super NEW programmer..
> 
> I'd go for "Programming Perl, 3rd edition" by none other than Larry
> Wall et al. (O'Reilly).
> 
> This is considered to be *the* reference in Perl books, mainly
> because Larry Wall wrote Perl in the first place. It starts 
> really at the basics and doesn't assume any prior knowledge 
> of Perl, and yet it also goes into great
> details later on. Well worth it IMO.
> 
 
Gavin,

Programming Perl is great (pretty much mandatory) as 
a reference, but it is tough to use as an introduction
unless you already have a good background in awk/sed/shell/C. 

I myself learned from the first edition of "Learning Perl" 
back in the days of Perl 4 about seven years ago. It is pretty
readable, but I found that I had to read Programming Perl in 
order to get any useful work done -- Learning Perl didn't go 
into enough details (this may have changed, it has been a while). 

An "intermediate" book that I enjoyed a lot is "Perl,
The Programmer's Companion" by Nigel Chapman. 

I haven't read Simon's book, so I can't comment from direct experience,
but he certainly knows his way around Perl. It
might be a better place to start.

You might also have a look at Python ("Learning Python" is
a good introduction). Python has about 95% of the power of 
Perl with better readability (nice when you have to deal with
other people's code). I am currently working to introduce
Python into my company's Java-centered world. The Jython
Python interpreter for the Java JVM is quite nifty.

Another fun language is Ruby, which is kind of a cross between
Perl and Python. 

Regards,
Jake


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