Book Review -- Learning Perl 4th Edition

Learning Perl 4th Edition
Authors: Randal L. Schwartz, Tome Phoenix & brian d foy
ISBN: 0-596-10105-8
http://www
.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/

Review by Jonathan C. Otsuka
Kansas City Perl Mongers
http://kc.pm.org
2007-10-04

I have put off this review of Learning Perl 4th Edition for
well over
a year now. One reason I let this go so long is I didn't
think at the
time after reading it that I was good enough to write a
review about
something so new to learn. I know now that this book was
only the
beginning into learning a new language, and that only
reading one book
can't make you an expert (and I don't claim to be one yet).

After reading Learning Perl. Here are a list of things
taught in the
book that make me use Perl more and more.

Scalar data is a really neat and easy way of storing data
used in Perl
programs. You don't have to know exactly what type it is
going to be
an int, char, float, string you just create a variable and
store the
data unlike you have to do in C/C++.

Having an easy way of iterating through arrays or hashes is
very
simple using a for loop. Hashes are a really neat data
structure like
arrays which instead of using numbers as indexes you use
whatever you
like as a index which is then use to retrieve a stored
value.

Perl is very strong at searching scalar data. Searching
strings and
matching a particular string is made easy with regular
expressions.

Another thing which isn't talked about much is CPAN and
using modules
others have created to make your job as the programmer even
easier.

I will have to say this book was a very good introduction
into Perl (I
still use it from time to time as a reference). It has
really helped
me in getting the basic syntax of Perl down. I would totally
recommend
this book to anyone that is wanting to begin the journey
into
programming with Perl.

Jonathan
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Thanks, Jonathan!

I'm pretty sure that O'Reilly will give a free copy of many
of their
recent books that they publish to any members who would like
to write
a book review. If there's one that any of you are interested
in
reviewing for the group, let me know and I can help you get
a copy.

-Andy


On Thu, Oct 04, 2007 at 10:52:50PM -0500, djgoku wrote:
> Learning Perl 4th Edition
> Authors: Randal L. Schwartz, Tome Phoenix & brian d
foy
> ISBN: 0-596-10105-8
> http://www
.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/
> 
> Review by Jonathan C. Otsuka
> Kansas City Perl Mongers
> http://kc.pm.org
> 2007-10-04
> 
> I have put off this review of Learning Perl 4th Edition
for well over
> a year now. One reason I let this go so long is I
didn't think at the
> time after reading it that I was good enough to write a
review about
> something so new to learn. I know now that this book
was only the
> beginning into learning a new language, and that only
reading one book
> can't make you an expert (and I don't claim to be one
yet).
> 
> After reading Learning Perl. Here are a list of things
taught in the
> book that make me use Perl more and more.
> 
> Scalar data is a really neat and easy way of storing
data used in Perl
> programs. You don't have to know exactly what type it
is going to be
> an int, char, float, string you just create a variable
and store the
> data unlike you have to do in C/C++.
> 
> Having an easy way of iterating through arrays or
hashes is very
> simple using a for loop. Hashes are a really neat data
structure like
> arrays which instead of using numbers as indexes you
use whatever you
> like as a index which is then use to retrieve a stored
value.
> 
> Perl is very strong at searching scalar data. Searching
strings and
> matching a particular string is made easy with regular
expressions.
> 
> Another thing which isn't talked about much is CPAN and
using modules
> others have created to make your job as the programmer
even easier.
> 
> I will have to say this book was a very good
introduction into Perl (I
> still use it from time to time as a reference). It has
really helped
> me in getting the basic syntax of Perl down. I would
totally recommend
> this book to anyone that is wanting to begin the
journey into
> programming with Perl.
> 
> Jonathan
> _______________________________________________
> kc mailing list
> kcpm.org
> http://mail.pm
.org/mailman/listinfo/kc
_______________________________________________
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This brought to mind a question that comes up every once in
awhile.  How did
you go about learning perl?

My experience was that I read the first half of Elements of
Programming with
Perl and then jumped it.  I happened to be in a heavily perl
shop and and
had a VB6 background. Aside from the basics I got from that
book most my
learning came from digging through code, flipping back and
forth through
Perl Cookbook and creating the occasional disaster and
asking the "real"
hackers questions. If I recall my point of enlightenment in
order were

1) variable without types, sweet!
2) damn hashes are cool
3) wow, there is a lot of stuff on CPAN
4) wow, there is a lot of crap on CPAN
5) DBI is good
6) mod_perl 
7) template toolkit = love
8) creating module packages is damn handy

I'm still working enlightenment via map, the greatness of OO
perl and what
the hell is so cool about cramming a bunch of functions in
one line (to the
point it looks like you opened a binary file in vim) but I
imagine
eventually I'll get there.

I think my experience isn't uncommon with perl people and
was wondering what
path others took. 

Scott Kahler


On 10/4/07 10:52 PM, "djgoku" <djgokugmail.com> wrote:

> Learning Perl 4th Edition
> Authors: Randal L. Schwartz, Tome Phoenix & brian d
foy
> ISBN: 0-596-10105-8
> http://www
.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/
> 
> Review by Jonathan C. Otsuka
> Kansas City Perl Mongers
> http://kc.pm.org
> 2007-10-04
> 



-- 
Scott Kahler
Systems Engineer 
uclick, LLC (an Andrews McMeel Universal Company)
scottkuclick.com
www.uclick.com www.gocomics.com


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On Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:26:03 -0500
Scott Kahler <scottkuclick.com> wrote:

> This brought to mind a question that comes up every
once in awhile.
> How did you go about learning perl?

  My Perl journey started in 1997.  Back then there weren't
a ton
  of learning options other than Programming Perl and
perldoc, 
  so that's what I used. 

  At that point I had some experience with Logo, Basic,
Pascal, 
  C/C++, and a strange little language called Lite.  Lite
was
  bundled with a free ( but not strictly Open Source )
database
  called mSQL ( not the lack of a 'y' ).  I was using
Lite/mSQL
  to build small web applications for my employer, but was
  really just a sysadmin who wrote a bit of code. I was then

  introduced to a great programmer who did everything in
Perl. 

  After he showed me a few things about Perl I was hooked
and
  really haven't looked back. I then found CPAN and the rest
is 
  history... 

  Yes I do occasionally check out other languages to make
sure I'm not
  flying down this road blind/ignorant, but so far no one
has showed me
  a compelling reason to switch to something else as my
primary
  language. 
 
 -------------------------------------------------------
   Frank Wiles, Revolution Systems, LLC. 
     Personal : frankwiles.org  http://www.wiles.org
     Work     : frankrevsys.com http://www.revsys.com 

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On Sat, 6 Oct 2007 11:01:23 -0500
"Emmanuel Mejias" <emmanuel.mejiasgmail.com> wrote:

> wow! i need to get with you guys and start picking your
brains! i
> like the functionality of perl and all the cool stuff
you can do with
> it, but it looks like i'm just barely scratching the
surface learning
> it! i'm a sysadmin and although, most seem to either
script in bash
> or korn, i thought i'd get crazy and learn some perl.

  Personally I think the days of wanting to or needing to do

  bash/korn/etc shell scripting are over.  Many people
disagree with
  me on this... 

  But I look at it as a standardization.  If bash/korn can't
easily
  do everything you want to do, then you should be using
  perl/python/etc. and use it everywhere. 

  Obviously, I don't mean go and rewrite all of your
distro's 
  default init scripts.  But if you needed to write your own
or
  heavily modify an existing one, just convert it to Perl. 

  Then your sysadmins only *really* have to understand Perl
and
  be able to read a bit of shell. 

  Not to mention I see it as a huge waste of your valuable
time
  to dig into a shell scripting language you know is of
limited 
  use, simply because "that's how it's always been
done".   

  If nothing else, the availability of CPAN modules should
put
  to rest any arguments of the merits of Perl as a
"scripting"
  language. 

 -------------------------------------------------------
   Frank Wiles, Revolution Systems, LLC. 
     Personal : frankwiles.org  http://www.wiles.org
     Work     : frankrevsys.com http://www.revsys.com 

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# from Frank Wiles
# on Saturday 06 October 2007 08:36:

>My Perl journey started in 1997.  Back then there
weren't a ton
>  of learning options other than Programming Perl and
perldoc,
>  so that's what I used.

There were more options in 2002, but Programming Perl seemed
the most 
definitive of the choices at the bookstore, so that's what I
used.  And 
perldoc, which /could/ be better organized in some places,
but always 
rewards the careful reader.

I've looked at Learning Perl and others since then, but I'm
easily 
dissappointed with the lack of completeness, correctness,
and humor.

--Eric
-- 
Peer's Law: The solution to the problem changes the
problem.
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# from Frank Wiles
# on Saturday 06 October 2007 09:12:

>  Obviously, I don't mean go and rewrite all of your
distro's
>  default init scripts.

Darn!  I've been wanting to do that for a few years now 

--Eric
-- 
"It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't
understand that
bother me, it's the parts that I do understand."
--Mark Twain
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