I have not read _Perl in 21 Days_ by Lemay, but her books tend to be
very well written.
On 04 Jun 2001 15:14:02 -0400, Anthony Beaman wrote:
> I saw on the FAQ that the "Perl 5 for NT in 21 Days" was recommended for
> learning Win32. Though not on the FAQ, is Lemay's "Per in 21 Days" book also
> worthwhile? I'm coming from a total non-programming background and was
> looking at these 2 books (along with the "Learning Perl for Win32" book) at
> the Library during lunch. I'm stopping back by on the way home and wonder
> what I should get. I work in a Windows environment but I'm branching out
> into Unix soon. Any ideas? Thanks!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Folse [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 3:06 PM
> To: Perl Beginners List
> Subject: RE: A good book?
>
> I also backed into programming. I am the quintessential
> "Just Another
> English Major Turned SysAdmin" sort. I also came in from
> DOSneyland and
> not from UNIX.
>
> Still, I only undertook to learn Perl after some poking
> around to see
> what language would allow me to best do the sort of
> automations I
> wanted to do. Later, when I found myself deep into list
> processing to
> condition bad customer data files, I was glad I chose Perl.
>
> Learning Perl may not teach you OOP, but that was not what a
> true
> beginner comes to learn. I thought it excellent and
> occasionally
> entertaining. (I still chuckle when I think of the index
> entry for
> RINDEX).
>
> In general, for someone of my sort, Learning Perl is clearly
> the way to
> go. Having gotten through that, one should then rush out and
> acquire
> Programming Perl, and read the first several chapters
> carefully.
>
> Someone approaching Perl with a much stronger programming
> background
> might prefer to tackle Programming Perl or another book
> directly. I am
> not sure, however, that an experiened C++ program is the
> intended
> audience of this list.
>
> Then subscribe to this excellent list, and get down to work.
> --- Chris Lott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Chris> Personally, I think _Learning Perl_ is really
> showing its age.
> >
> > I'm going to try to figure out how to say this without
> insulting a
> > book that
> > I *do* like and authors who are both Perl wizards and
> whose writing
> > has
> > given me a lot. Maybe dated isn't the right word, although
> the books
> > style
> > is, for lack of a better word, more "old fashioned." I can
> only speak
> > to my
> > own experience and that of those who I know, and I would
> say that
> > half still
> > feel that the _Learning Perl_ book is the best book out
> there, while
> > the
> > other half found other volumes more effective.
> >
> > I've recommended LP in the past many times, and there are
> certain
> > people to
> > whom I still make that recommendation. In fact, that might
> be part of
> > it...
> > those who are already programmers in another language seem
> to really
> > profit
> > from LP.
> >
> > For me (who came into computers ass-backwards carrying
> degrees in
> > philosophy
> > and writing poetry), it just didn't WORK that well. There
> seemed to
> > be
> > little things assumed about the language and terminology
> assumed
> > about the
> > reader that I wasn't grokking. I'll grant that it has been
> a few
> > years since
> > I used the book (I was using a Second Edition though), nor
> can I
> > recall
> > specifics since it has been a few years and I have since
> learned to
> > grasp at
> > least a FEW more concepts.
> >
> > For what it is--a book that is meant to accompany or
> represent a
> > particular
> > class of a particular length in hours-- LP is great. For
> programmers
> > in
> > other languages, or who even have experience in any other
> language,
> > it is
> > probably great. For me, with very little experience of any
> kind, it
> > didn't
> > work out so well. As a single starting tome for beginners,
> I feel
> > that the
> > expanded coverage of using modules, OO, CGI, and the
> generally more
> > lengthy
> > and in-depth explanations of most concepts in the
> _Beginning Perl_
> > book are
> > more fruitful. That might just be a quality of having more
> room to
> > explain
> > concepts (or to luxuriate in explanations and handholding
> and
> > diagrams that
> > others might not need, some would say). Yes, it would take
> more time
> > to
> > cover that book, but my answer wasn't about what book
> would fit in a
> > limited
> > number of hours best, but in a series of books that we
> would
> > recommend.
> >
> > > I pondered this question VERY carefully when redesigning
> the llama
> > > course over the past few years, which has become the
> llama3 book
> > soon
> > > hitting the streets. There's nothing dated about a book
> and course
> > > that are updated every two months or so.
> >
> > I look forward to seeing this revision. The second edition
> came out
> > in 97,
> > right?
> >
> > c
>
>
> =====
>
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Today is Setting Orange, the 9th day of Confusion in the YOLD 3167
You are what you see.
