Not to plug my own book, but have you taken a look at "Writing CGI
Applications with Perl"? (ok, I plugged my own book, sue me ;o) )
Myself and Kevin Meltzer took a different approach to how this book is laid
out. It is not a bunch of theory and extra reading. Instead, we list
real-world example after example and step through the code line-by-line to
try and ensure that the reader understands why everything is the way it is.
I have found that learning by looking at real, functioning, code is best
for me - maybe you are like that too...
Brent
drieux
<[EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
om> cc:
Subject: The book Learning Problem
04/29/02 03:14 PM
Please respond to
beginners
On Monday, April 29, 2002, at 12:45 , Anthony Beaman wrote:
> Bingo! I agree and I think that's my problem with all of this. I think
> that the documentation pages can be over a newbie's (myself) head.
Part of that is understanding what the 'gliphs' are - if you
have no idea what a scalar or a list are - it is hard to grok
'list context' or 'scalar context'
and hence have to 'learn' that some how.... It is one thing to
read that
$retval = fooMunge(@arglist);
returns the number of ok things in this scalar context,
@retval = fooMunge(@arglist);
in a list context will return you the list of ok things....
and 'getting it'...
So there are 'language specific' details like this - then there
are what are really 'meta-language' issues - the context in which
we use not the language specific - but the stuff about 'computer
languages' - and that is a "language" that is about as clear as MUD.
Part of that comes from forcing one's self to simply do the leg work
through the original texts. Think of it as a form of 'immersion' -
we lost one of our lads in germany - as he would only speak german,
bad german at first, but in six months, people were convinced he
had been born and raised on the waterfront of hamburg.... unfortunately
he spoke rather broken english, a bit stilted and with a rather
nasty accent - and at times you had to 'reorder' the words back
into an english syntax out of the german syntax he had spoken them in.
[..]
word on OS's - unless you plan to write one, worry less about
which one you are running on, and more that you have a language
that interoperates well with them all....
> Personally, I'm on NT and am moving to Unix or Linux later (after I learn
> C and Assembly), so I'm using the Learning Perl on Win32.
May I recommend that if you have no really pressing need to
understand the gory details of how bits are flipped in any
given specific CPU that you avoid the 'assembler' portion.
Assembler, like locker room banter about 'hot babes', maybe
emotionally re-assuring to some, but rarely is portable...
'C' of course is probably the fastest way to make portable
assembler - and only slightly less arcane...
> Then I'm going to use the Camel book. Any advice on getting the most out
> of the 2 Learning Perl books? (or shall I repost this question, i.e., a
> new thread?) Thanks!
If the author has laid out a specific progression with the presumption
that their model matches your learning style - then you should follow
their advice in the preface to the book. NEVER PEEK AT AN ANSWER.
until you have truly ripped out your hair trying to solve it on your own.
Otherwise, do what the rest of us did - when all we had was K&R -
the first edition - find the BNF, and understand the syntactical
elements in their raw form.
{ for those with a first edition of programming perl - the semi
formal description is on pages 378-388 - memorize it - and then
read all the updates and correct them as applicable - although
you could probably do just as well by reading the code that
generated you instance of perl... The principle flaw in the
3rd edition is that it does not have a nice encapsulation of
the formalizations..... }
ciao
drieux
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