Perl Cookbook, Second Edition
August 25, 2010 · Posted in Bestselling Cooking Books
Product Description
The second edition of Perl Cookbook has been fully updated for Perl 5.8, with extensive changes for Unicode support, I/O layers, mod_perl, and new technologies that have emerged since the previous edition of the book. Recipes have been updated to include the latest modules. New recipes have been added to every chapter of the book, and some chapters have almost doubled in size. Covered topic areas include:Manipulating strings, numbers, dates, arrays, and hashesPatt… More >>
Comments
5 Responses to “Perl Cookbook, Second Edition”
Leave a Reply
Sometimes I think either Tim O’Reilly or Tom Christiansen knows what I am thinking.
In the past week alone, I can count half a dozen times I have wondered about ways to do things in Perl, and never once have I failed to get either a full solution or a running start from the information in this book. If you have read Learning Perl by Christiansen and Schwartz (and if you haven’t, you probably should before tackling this one), then this is your next step on the road to Perl.
This book contains hundreds of examples of solutions to “How do I…” type problems using Perl. Ranging from core language topics like hashes, sorting, and string and array processing, to files, database access, IPC, and brief but useful sections on Web and CGI usage, there is something here for everyone who does things with Perl.
Each chapter contains at least a dozen ‘recipes’ for solving a particular problem in a particular context. Each recipe is neatly laid out with a brief description of the problem, a proposed solution, and a follow-up discussion section. I especially appreciated the discussions, as they maintain the plurality of Perl–the proposed solutions work, but the discussion area almost invariably also includes alternate approaches or techniques. That’s the beauty of Perl (and its motto)–There’s More Than One Way To Do It. This book offers the intermediate programmer years of experience in solving real world problems using Perl in a few hundred, easy to read pages.
If you have learned enough about Perl to get started, the next thing you should do is get this book. So get cooking!
Rating: 4 / 5
After dog-earring (sic) the pages of the first edition of Programming Perl (the Camel book), I quickly glommed on to the second edition, thinking that they’ll have even more informed narrative and great examples. The enhanced narrative WAS worth purchase of the second edition, but, as mentioned in the Amazon.com review, the “Command Tasks with Perl” and “Real Perl Programs” chapters had been dropped… it’s been the closest I’ve ever come to letter-bombing a book publisher. Little did we know that there was a cunning plan by the Perl wizards and O’Reilly to produce The Perl Cookbook.
While in this world of instant communication some say that two years was a long time to wait for the Cookbook, the wait was definitely worth it. The Cookbook is a treasure trove of examples, and should be considered a mandatory companion to Programming Perl AND Advanced Perl Programming on the bookshelf of intermediate and advanced perl programmers.
The Cookbook is also a great place for the novice to feed after cutting their teeth on Learning Perl. Each section is a mini-tutorial with nice examples to enter and ponder. Combined with the Camel book as general background and reference, you’ll go a long way in finding quick solutions to common problems.
I’m not sure what was the problem of one reviewer regarding typographical errors. I’ve been using the first edition of the Cookbook, and have not encountered any serious difficulties. It seems that any typographical errors (and I haven’t seen any, but then I haven’t been looking) would have at worst lost one star in rating the Cookbook. Benefits of the Cookbook seem to far outweigh the nits on which this reviewer has focused. I do agree with the reviewer’s final note: buy copies from the second and third printings, as I’m sure the first edition has already sold out! (… and some perl book geek will view this as an opportunity to collect a “first edition.”)
It’s not often I’m moved to write an online review. The Perl Cookbook is a superb reference for any serious perl programmer and especially for the novice and intermediate wanting to improve their skills. Buy this book! Bon appetit!
Rating: 5 / 5
I have owned this book for over a year and still use it regularly. While I was learning Perl syntax I found that it served very well when language guides such as “Programming Perl” fell short. When I started using the language I didn’t have the syntax totally mastered and came across various little questions and problems. The “Perl Cookbook” addressed both of these by providing succinct solutions to my problems while helping me learn more about Perl syntax.
Furthermore, this book exposes you to the various Perl modules available in a more natural way than searching for them in a general language reference like “Perl in a Nutshell”. Most recipies in the book present a simple code solution and then refer to a module that provides the same (and often extended) functionality.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have had experience in the language for a few months now. The only reason I even started learning Perl was because I was intrigued with programming CGI. I bought “Programming Perl” and enjoyed it as a beginners reference but was left hanging as where to turn next. I picked up 2-3 other books, specifically for web programming with Perl, but they all did not get into topics besides basic form parsing, etc and the information was repeatative from book to book. I finally found this book and it has answered all my questions and cleared all my confusions with my CGI scripts. It has a lot of good examples/scripts with helpful subroutines. I use them in almost every CGI script I program now because of their ease of use and accuracy. There were a few minor mistakes in their code (perhaps a test to see if you can debug their scripts using your new knowledge) that kept it from getting a perfect 10 but 9.5 is good enough anyways. Don’t hesitate to buy it as it is probably the most used and most valuable Perl book on the market!
(Not recommended unless you have basic knowledge of Perl)
Rating: 4 / 5
I had a roommate in college who could learn programming languages by reading the language specifications. He took Advanced Algebra as an elective and blew the curve for the math majors. Corey went after the theory in everything. Once he understood the theory, he could extrapolate the applications.
I’m just the opposite. The theory doesn’t mean squat to me until I can see a few examples. Give me enough examples, and I can extrapolate the theory.
If you’re like me, this book is for you. 733 pages containing 334 examples of how to use Perl to solve virtually any programming problem you can think of. And as you examine the solutions to the various problems, you’re introduced to successively more and more advanced Perl programming constructs.
In short, outstanding book.
Rating: 5 / 5