Since I have been getting asked this quite a bit of late, I have written up a quick synopsis of my reviews and outlooks on a number of Perl books available for those learning about and using Perl for their web based apps. I must stress that I feel it is essential for a person to learn Perl as a language before trying to learn how to use Perl in CGI programs. Otherwise, its a bit like trying to build a computer by only knowing how to assemble the case and knowing nothing about how to install the rest of the components.
By far, the best books for Perl are the following, they are all published by
O'Reilly Press:
Programming Perl - What I consider the Perl bible, written by Larry Wall, the
creator of the Perl language. It doesn't get any better than this. If you buy any
Perl book, buy this one.
Learning Perl 2nd Edition - An excellent way to initially learn Perl. To be honest,
I leaned Perl from the book Perl in 21 Days, but I wish I had learned using
this guide. You will find many Perl Learning texts teach from the aspect of Perl 4.
This can make an arduous task later to convert your programs to more advanced and
accepted structures of Perl 5. Keep in mind though that in the Perl community, both are fully acceptable.
Perl Cookbook - This is a nice set of ideas and recipes for Perl code snippets
you can use for a variety of real world applications. One thing about the O'Reilly
books is that they don't concentrate on code examples like SAMS and Cue Books
usually do, they concentrate on coding practices and raw information. This
cookbook helps to provide those examples that some programmers like to have
as a baseline for many applications.
Advanced Perl Programming - This book is an excellent resource for professionals,
but also has some good stuff for common coders. I personally like it for a learning
aid for object oriented programming, advanced data structures (arrays of hashes,
etc), networking, and learning how the Perl interpreter itself works. Much of the info
is for programmers who also have a background in othe programming languages
like C and C++ and have experience in database and network technologies.
Mastering Regular Expressions - An excellent guide to learning the specific details
of this hidden language. I have only been able to browse this book, but it is on my
to-buy list.
Perl in a Nutshell - This was out of print until recently, it is supposed to be a
companion for Programming Perl, a basic code reference rather than a learning
book. It is also on my to-buy list.
Hope this is helpful,
------------------
Fred Hirsch
Web Consultant & Programmer
By far, the best books for Perl are the following, they are all published by
O'Reilly Press:
Programming Perl - What I consider the Perl bible, written by Larry Wall, the
creator of the Perl language. It doesn't get any better than this. If you buy any
Perl book, buy this one.
Learning Perl 2nd Edition - An excellent way to initially learn Perl. To be honest,
I leaned Perl from the book Perl in 21 Days, but I wish I had learned using
this guide. You will find many Perl Learning texts teach from the aspect of Perl 4.
This can make an arduous task later to convert your programs to more advanced and
accepted structures of Perl 5. Keep in mind though that in the Perl community, both are fully acceptable.
Perl Cookbook - This is a nice set of ideas and recipes for Perl code snippets
you can use for a variety of real world applications. One thing about the O'Reilly
books is that they don't concentrate on code examples like SAMS and Cue Books
usually do, they concentrate on coding practices and raw information. This
cookbook helps to provide those examples that some programmers like to have
as a baseline for many applications.
Advanced Perl Programming - This book is an excellent resource for professionals,
but also has some good stuff for common coders. I personally like it for a learning
aid for object oriented programming, advanced data structures (arrays of hashes,
etc), networking, and learning how the Perl interpreter itself works. Much of the info
is for programmers who also have a background in othe programming languages
like C and C++ and have experience in database and network technologies.
Mastering Regular Expressions - An excellent guide to learning the specific details
of this hidden language. I have only been able to browse this book, but it is on my
to-buy list.
Perl in a Nutshell - This was out of print until recently, it is supposed to be a
companion for Programming Perl, a basic code reference rather than a learning
book. It is also on my to-buy list.
Hope this is helpful,
------------------
Fred Hirsch
Web Consultant & Programmer