| Selection of Perl Books |
Perl stands for "Practical Extraction and Report Language". Perl is the creation of Larry Wall, and while it has grown to be a full-featured general purpose programming language, it is still most widely used for the purpose it was concieved: mangling texts.
As it happens, web pages are created in HTML, which is a completely textual format. So if you want to process user input (text typed in a web form) and generate some output (HTML text), Perl is the natural choice and the result is that most CGI scripts are in fact Perl scripts.
Maybe you did not realize it, but if you click on any book title below, a Perl script will generate the destination page on the fly.
If you would like to explore Perl or if you are a proficient Perl hacker looking for yet another way to do it, check out the nice collection of books below.
If you feel like buying one of the books, simply click on the title to add the book to your shopping cart at Amazon.com (based in the USA) or at Amazon.co.uk (based in the United Kingdom), two huge on-line bookstores. They offer very sharp prices and make sure that the books will be shipped to you as soon as possible. For best services, buy from Amazon.co.uk if you are living in Europe and from Amazon.com if you are living elsewhere.
If you change your mind about buying the book, or wish to order another one as well, just hit the back button of your browser to get back to this page.
Programming Perl (2nd ed.) by Larry Wall et al.
670 Pages - O'Reilly & Associates, October 1996
$ Buy "Programming Perl (2nd ed.)" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Programming Perl (2nd ed.)" from Amazon.co.uk
Written by Larry Wall (with help from other Perl gurus), the creator of Perl, this book is the authoritive reference work on Perl. It is known as the "Camel Book", because a dromedarian is depicted on the cover (it is not a camel since camels have two humps).If you want a reference book on Perl, your only choice is to buy this book.If you are just beginning to learn Perl and would like an easy-going tutorial, you will want to read another book like Learning Perl first. This one jumps right in.
Perl Cookbook by Tom Christiansen, et al.
794 pages - O'Reilly & Associates, August 1998
$ Buy "Perl Cookbook" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Perl Cookbook" from Amazon.co.ukAs the title says, this one is a cookbook filled with recipes for doing real-world tasks. It replaces the "Real Perl Programs" chapter that was present in the first edition of "Programming Perl", which is omitted from the second (because you now have a whole book at your disposal).The cookbook will get you on to full speed at solving real Perl programming tasks after you have learned the basics.Topics include manipulating numbers, dates, times, working with arrays, hashes, files and how to implement database and Internet access, GCI scripts, web automation and much more.Absolutely a must-have book for any Perl programmer. If you already know the basics of Perl and you only want to spend money on one book, buy this one. It is much more practical than "Programming Perl".
Perl 5 Complete by Ed Peschko et al.
800 pages with CD-ROM - McGraw-Hill, February 1998
$ Buy "Perl 5 Complete" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Perl 5 Complete" from Amazon.co.ukIf you are new to Perl and only want to spend money on one book, check out Perl 5 Complete. It is both an excellent tutorial and reference book.Though the Llama and Camel books are still the standard tutorial and referce books, Perl 5 Complete explains things more clearly and contains less "humor" and footnotes. As a reference book, it is quite complete.Highly recommended to both beginning and advanced Perl programmers.
Learning Perl (2nd ed.) by Randal L. Schwartz, Larry Wall, et al.
328 pages - O'Reilly & Associates, July 1997
$ Buy "Learning Perl (2nd ed.)" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Learning Perl (2nd ed.)" from Amazon.co.ukIf you are new to Perl or even to programming in general, Learning Perl offers you a carefully paced tutorial. One of Perl's motto's is: "there's more than one way to do it". This makes the language very powerful, but also quite confusing to beginners. However, if you start working through this tutorial book from chapter 2 (skip the first one) and work your way through until the end, things will become clear. With that knowledge and a good reference book, you will fully master Perl.Highly recommended, unless you have a bad sense of humor.
Learning Perl on Win32 Systems by Randal L. Schwartz, et al.
350 pages - O'Reilly & Associates, August 1997
$ Buy "Learning Perl on Win32 Systems" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Learning Perl on Win32 Systems" from Amazon.co.ukThough presently available for almost any computing platform, the home system of Perl is still UNIX. Many of the books about Perl thus assume you are also using UNIX, or that you are at least familiar with it.This is not the case with this book. If you are new to Perl and do not know the first thing about UNIX, you may prefer a book that teaches you Perl on the system that you are familiar with.However, if you are not scared of UNIX, leave this book alone.
Perl 5 Pocket Reference (2nd ed.) by Johan Vromans
67 pages - O'Reilly & Associates, September 1998
$ Buy "Perl 5 Pocket Reference (2nd ed.)" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Perl 5 Pocket Reference (2nd ed.)" from Amazon.co.ukThe standard quick-reference guide for Perl. If you do Perl development on the road and already have enough stuff to carry, this handy booklet will save you from having to carry around a big Perl reference book. It is very complete. Note that the descriptions are short, so only advanced Perl programmers will really appreciate it.
Effective Perl Programming by Joseph N. Hall
288 pages - Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., January 1998
$ Buy "Effective Perl Programming" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Effective Perl Programming" from Amazon.co.ukThis book is not organised in chapters and sections, but in items. Each of the 60 items discusses one advanced Perl feature or pitfall, explaining what, how and why. You cannot do without this one if you wish to become a really proficient Perl programmer.Perl is designed to be much like a natural language. As Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, once said: "English is a mess. Likewise, Perl is designed to be a mess." But just like you can be very expressive in English, you can be very expressive in Perl. Effective Perl Programming will help you become truly expressive in Perl. If you cannot decide between Advanced and Effective Perl Programming, I recommend the latter.
Advanced Perl Programming by Sriram Srinivasan
400 pages - O'Reilly & Associates, August 1997
$ Buy "Advanced Perl Programming" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Advanced Perl Programming" from Amazon.co.ukIf you are an intermediate to advanced Perl programmer, but still hesitate to use the more advanced language features, Advanced Perl Programming will help you to fully master the language.Perl is designed to be as close to a natural language as a programming language can be. However, like with any natural language, it takes study if you really want to express yourself in a fluent way.Though most of the information can also be found in the Camel Book, you will find this book much more instructive.
Mastering Regular Expressions: Powerful Techniques for Perl and Other Tools by Jeffrey E. Friedl
342 Pages - O'Reilly & Associates, January 1997
$ Buy "Mastering Regular Expressions: Powerful Techniques for Perl and Other Tools" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Mastering Regular Expressions: Powerful Techniques for Perl and Other Tools" from Amazon.co.ukOne of the most powerful features of Perl is its built-in regular expression (regex) handling. In fact, its regex engine is one of the most powerful I know of. Perl was originally intented for mangling texts (hence the name Practical Extraction and Report Language) and is still widely used for that purpose, like in CGI scripts.This book, known as the "Owl Book", will teach you how to use the full power offered by regular expressions using Perl and other languages and explain the small and obscure differences in the regex engines in different tools.
Win32 Perl Programming: The Standard Extensions by Dave Roth
614 Pages - MacMillan Technical Publishing, January 1999
$ Buy "Win32 Perl Programming: The Standard Extensions" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Win32 Perl Programming: The Standard Extensions" from Amazon.co.ukTo get the most out of Perl on a Win32 system (Windows 95/98, NT4), you cannot do without the Win32 Perl extensions. These extensions range from modules for playing .wav files, over ODBC connectivity, until the Win32::API module which lets you call functions stored in any Windows DLL. Talk about power.Dave Roth, author of many Win32 Perl modules, provides us with a fairly detailed description of the most common of Win32 Perl modules. You will no longer have to hunt for this valuable information on the web or dig through help files.If it needs to be said: this is not a beginner book.
The CGI/Perl Cookbook by Craig Patchett, Matt Wright, et al.
624 pages - with CD-ROM - John Wiley & Sons, October 1997
$ Buy "The CGI/Perl Cookbook" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "The CGI/Perl Cookbook" from Amazon.co.ukMatt Wright is well-know for writing quality Perl CGI scrips and offering them for free to the world on his web site. Many of them and others are listed and explained in this book.Note that the "Perl Cookbook" listed above is a cookbook for many different Perl tasks, while this one focuses solely on CGI scripting.Perl knowledge is not absolutely required, but I do recommend that you would learn the basics of Perl first.
Perl for Dummies (2nd ed.) by Paul E. Hoffman
400 pages with CD-ROM - IDG Books Worldwide, November 1998
$ Buy "Perl for Dummies (2nd ed.)" from Amazon.com
£ Buy "Perl for Dummies (2nd ed.)" from Amazon.co.ukAnother "dummies" book. If you want to learn Perl and like the "dummies" series, this one is for you.
If you feel a particular book of great quality, is missing in my selection, feel free to drop me a message.
| Page URL: http://www.jgsoft.com/bookperl.html Last Modified: 12 November 2000 | Copyright © 1999-2001 Jan Goyvaerts. All rights reserved. |