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Perl Power!: The Comprehensive Guide
Perl is a flexible, open-source, and widely accessible scripting language used by systems administrators and others to automate their daily tasks. "Perl Power!: The Comprehensive Guide" will cover every aspect of the most up-to-date version of Perl including scalar data, lists, arrays, hashes, subroutines, files, directories, strings, and much more. Technical topics are explained clearly and concisely and end-of-chapter projects encourage the reader to program on their own. A detailed table of contents and a complete, well-organized index make this book a great reference tool. All code used in the book will be available for download on the companion website.
448 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2006
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February 20, 2009
This book was very clearly written and explained the basics of perl well. The most helpful part was the instructions on how to download and install a perl interpreter free on a windows computer (http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/). The interpeter is called ActivePerl, and there is a free perl editor called Komodo Edit on the same website.
There were two reasons I didn't give the book 5 stars. First, it was poorly edited. There were numerous instances when the code didn't produce the expected output. I was working from an e-book (ebrary platform) version, and copied and pasted the code directly into my editor, so I know it wasn't typos on my end. In some instances it was a typo in the code, sometimes it was a logic error, and sometimes the code ran exactly the way the description said, but the output printed in the book was incorrect. Consider it an exercise for the reader. :) If you think the code doesn't match what the description says, or you think the code might be wrong, trust the description and your guts.
Second, the book didn't explain hashes very well. I've done some programming, but hadn't run across hashes before. I didn't understanding them after reading about them in this book. It's only after reading about them in another context described as "associative arrays" then it really "clicked" for me.
However, if you can overlook those flaws, this is a great introduction to perl. The descriptions are clear and the pacing is good. I recommend it.
There were two reasons I didn't give the book 5 stars. First, it was poorly edited. There were numerous instances when the code didn't produce the expected output. I was working from an e-book (ebrary platform) version, and copied and pasted the code directly into my editor, so I know it wasn't typos on my end. In some instances it was a typo in the code, sometimes it was a logic error, and sometimes the code ran exactly the way the description said, but the output printed in the book was incorrect. Consider it an exercise for the reader. :) If you think the code doesn't match what the description says, or you think the code might be wrong, trust the description and your guts.
Second, the book didn't explain hashes very well. I've done some programming, but hadn't run across hashes before. I didn't understanding them after reading about them in this book. It's only after reading about them in another context described as "associative arrays" then it really "clicked" for me.
However, if you can overlook those flaws, this is a great introduction to perl. The descriptions are clear and the pacing is good. I recommend it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review