Learning Perl: 2nd and 3rd editions
By: Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix
Published by O'Reilly
All I can say about these books is - WOW. I have read more then a few books on various programming languages and never have I read one that was both entertaining (I actually laughed a few times) and incredibly informative. By : Ligaya Turmelle First thing you must learn about Perl is that it is different from any other language (C, PHP, etc.). As long as you accept that and don't try to make it work like another programming language - you will be fine. If you don't know another language - even better. You can start from scratch (though knowing a little bit about servers will definitely help you). Your probably sitting there saying "Second and Third edition? Why did she read both editions?". Let me explain... My company ordered me 3rd edition to read... but for various reasons it was taking forever to show up. So I (being the impatient fool that I am) decided to see if the local library had a copy of the book so I could at least get started learning. It did - the 2nd edition - so I checked it out and started reading figuring - "How different can the various editions be since Perl works so hard to stay backwards compatible." Little did I know there was a major rewrite between the 2 editions. Anyway... I have read 2nd edition and skimmed 3rd edition for any alterations/additions and made sure I read them as well. Not a lot of change in content between the 2 books - most of it was in the way the information was presented to the reader. The 3rd is much easier to digest as a new programmer so I suggest you go that route. (FYI - I think a 4th edition has just been released but I haven't taken a look at it yet.) Now what does the book cover? Just about anything a beginner Perl programmer would need to get up and going writing scripts that can actually be used that day (references for more advanced topics are also provided for research in "Programming Perl" (The Camel Book) ). In this book you are introduced to is Perl's 3 data types (Scalar, Arrays (Lists) and Hashes), shown its many control structures (if/else, if/elsif/else, while, for, until, unless, do while, do until, and a few more), given a nice introduction and explanation of regular expressions (one of Perl's powerhouse features), shown some of its I/O capabilities, shown how to create user defined functions, shown how to create filehandles and what you can do with them, shown how to use formats for your reports, how to deal with process management, and shown how to move around and work with your directories and files. Before you ask - no that is not all that is covered... a lot more is waiting for you in this book. You should also know the book has real world problems for you too solve using the skills introduced to test how much you actually learned with full answers and explanations of how the authors solved the problems. According to the authors each chapter should take about a hour to read with about 45 minutes for the exercises but I found myself taking longer then that. About 1.5 hours was my norm for the reading and the exercises... well some took 5 minutes but others took an hour or 2. All in all - I loved this book and highly recommend it for anyone who wants to take a walk on the wild side. | DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
More Miscellaneous Reviews Articles
More By lig  developerWorks - FREE Tools!
|
Join this webcast, to learn how the Rational Process Library can help with compliance issues, drive process improvement, and assist in service-oriented architecture (SOA) or Agile development. We will take a peek into the Rational Process Library with content around software and systems engineering (including RUP), operations and systems management, program and portfolio management, and asset and SOA governance.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Join this Rational Talks to You teleconference, featuring Paul Boustany and Mark Krasovich, to speak to the experts about becoming a Rational ClearCase power user. Get a chance to ask your questions and learn tips and tricks for using Rational ClearCase in Agile development
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Poor Requirements Management capabilities in an Enterprise have been linked to excessive project failures, escalating IT costs, and failure to deliver competitive advantage into the marketplace. Join Brianna M Smith from IBM Rational and learn about how successful organizations align IT and Business stakeholders through collaborative processes and tools for effective requirements management, and how an integrated approach across the IT lifecycle can provide unparalleled visibility and traceability to ensure that project teams are delivering on the business vision by "doing the right things" and "doing things right."
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Visit IBM developerWorks to download IBM DB2 Express-C 9.5, a no-charge version of DB2 Express 9 database server. DB2 Express-C offers the same core data server base features as other DB2 Express editions and provides a solid base to build and deploy applications developed using C/C++, Java, .NET, PHP, and other programming languages.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Ken Krugler, co-founder of code search company Krugle, and Laura Merling, vice president of Marketing and Business Development for Krugle, join to talk about the ins and outs of code search and what it means as a new feature for developerWorks users.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Portfolio Management is about effectively managing portfolio value by aligning portfolio investments with business goals. This complimentary e-kit provides a collection of materials that can help you understand how IBM Rational enables and automates best practices for improved governance and clear visibility into portfolio and project performance across the entire IT project lifecycle.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Rational Build Forge Express Edition is an automation framework that packages the latest enterprise-grade technologies into a reliable, flexible and robust configuration designed and priced specifically for small to midsize businesses. The new Rational Build Forge Express eKit provides you with valuable resources – including a case study, podcast, demo, and articles – to help you increase staff productivity, compress development cycles and deliver better software, fast.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Attend this launch webcast with Scott Hebner, Vice President of IBM Rational Marketing and Strategy, where he will overview Rational’s new offerings and programs to help customers accelerate software innovation on System z. He will discuss how these solutions help organizations extend their core business processes toward modern architectures such as SOA and web technologies to deliver business improvements that stand the test of time.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
In this webcast, IBM Rational will discuss the importance of Web application security and will share techniques and best practices to introduce application security testing into current QA processes including: understanding common security vulnerabilities and techniques to integrate security testing with defect tracking and remediation systems in an effort to safeguard sensitive online information.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
The Eclipse community is constantly working to extend Eclipse's functionality. In this webcast, learn about some of the most important and feature-rich projects under development. From multi-language support to plug-in development, tune in to see what Eclipse is capable of now.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!
| |
