A great starter book I used was Beginning Perl by Simon Cozens, published by Wrox. ISBN - 1861003145. I use it as a quick reference as well.
I recommend it highly to anyone learning perl. -----Original Message----- From: Ben Siders [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 11:50 AM To: Dan Muey Cc: Dylan Boudreau; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Perl book I generally like the O'Reilly Perl books, and I've had good luck with them. I can't use them as my only Perl reference, though. I don't pick up the condescending tone in them that you seem to have, but I definately agree that they're overrated. The Perl books, in general, are excellent, but I've seen just as many O'Reilly books on other subjects that are horrible. Like any book, it comes down to the author's command of the topic, and the skills of the editor. About 20 minutes ago, I bumped into the 'eval' function in a context I'd never seen it used. I flipped open Advanced Perl Programming and understood it all in a few minutes. On the other hand, I also saw a use of 'unpack' this morning that I didn't understand, and I can't find an answer to it in any of my books. It's probably in one of those books somewhere, but it's easier for me to ask a coworker or search on-line than to pore through the books. As with any resource, you have to learn when it will and will not be helpful for your situation. I've never heard of the Black Book series. Did anybody post the publisher? Dan Muey wrote: >It may be 'Perl Black Book' actually, I don't have it with me right now but I'll get the info and post it later today. > >There's a whole series of 'Balck Books' for different programming languages and stuff. > >An excellent reference but also better learning tools because of example situations for the more obscure and actual code examples instead of the > >funtion_name obscure_arg1,obscure_arg2 >format that O'rielly seems to like. > >That translates into : >"What! You don't know what this means? >Are you stupid, you must be if you don't know this! >Because everybody just loves Orielly, everybody else >is smart and you are dumb." > >Ok done preaching, I'll post more detailed info when I can. > >Thanks for putting up with my rantings everyone. >I don't mean to insult any Orielly fans. They are great >refernces for stuff you know but bad teachers of new things. > > > >>Thanks Dan, >>Your assessment of the Oreilly books is pretty much in line >>with my own. I think they are a great reference if you >>already know the material and just need to looks something up >>but they are not the most descriptive when used as a learning tool. >> >>Is the book you are referring too call "The Black Book of >>Perl" or "Perl Black Book"? I ask because I can't find any >>instance of "The Black Book of Perl" when searching >>chapters.ca or amazon.com. >> >>Is this book a good learning tool or more of a reference? >> >>Thanks again, >> >>Dylan >> >>-----Original Message----- >>From: Dan Muey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >>Sent: January 15, 2003 12:12 PM >>To: Dylan Boudreau; [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Subject: RE: Perl book >> >> >> >>I'd say go to the library then and check out some books >>( have them get them other libraries if they don't have them >>) and when you find one you jive with go buy it. >> >>I love 'The Black Book of Perl' and have learned most all >>I do from it and I to do a lot of Unix Administration. >> >>One reason I didn't jive real great with the O'reilly books >>is that the ones I >>Had available to me where sort of vague while being >>desciptive at the same time Especially with modules. >> >>Example : >> >>Page 114 of 'Perl in a Nutshell' >> >>It is describing the pack function and does so quite well and >>informative like. But if I'd never used pack before I'd have >>no idea what it is for. How am I supposed to understand what >>'taking a list of values and packing it in a binary >>structure' is supposed to mean if I've never come across it before. >> >>There are no examples of situations you might use this or >>samples of usage beside at the top >> >>It has >>Pack template, list >> >>Then explains what pack does and what template and list are >>but how do you know if you are supposed to do >> >>pack($template, @list); >>Or exactly like they have it >>pack $template, $list; >>Or both or can I do >>Pack abBA, list >> >>Or only one character where template is? >> >>And I can see that for template I might use any number of >>things a,A,b,B, etc and I can even see what they mean a - An >>ASCCI string, will be null padded. >> >>That's a great reminder if you've used this before and >>understand what 'An ASCCI string, will be null padded' means. >>What is list, an array or a string? What can it be, a file, >>input, what good would you get from using pack? >> >>Why not thrown in : >>You may want to use pack if you are ..... >> >>And have at least one example >>$value = "Example Of actual data you might want to use in >>pack"; pack(a, $value); >> >>This would return ... So that you could ... >> >>So, to me, these books are much like Microsoft Tech Support : >>There was a helicopter flying in Seattle and it became too >>foggy to see. Desperatley tring to find out where they were >>the pilot yelled out of the window to some people in a >>building nearby ," We're lost! Where are we?" and the people >>said, "You're in a helicopter!". The helicopter landed safely >>and the crew asked how the pilot knew where to go based on >>what those people said and he replied, "Well, I knew we were >>by the Microsfot building because their answer was >>technically correct but completely useless. ". >> >>So basically are the Orielly books I;ve seen good books. You >>bet, they are informative and acurate but they are very >>difficult to learn new stuff from! >>So instead of learning something new it kind of makes you >>avoid learning new stuff because then you have to >>ask a list what this or that means and risk a pummeling at >>the ignorance you've shown! >> >>I'd take one for free but I wouldn't pay for it. >> >>But that's just me. >> >>Dan >> >> >> >>>I am a network administrator maintaining strictly Unix >>> >>> >>boxes of some >> >> >>>type or another. I want to become as proficient at Perl as >>> >>> >>I possibly >> >> >>>can because I see scripting as the week point on my resume. I have >>>the Oreilly book "Perl for System Administrators" but I >>> >>> >>want to read >> >> >>>another book before I get in to that one so I have a good base. >>> >>>I think the main thing I want to get out of the next book is more >>>familiarity with modules because Learning Perl doesn't really cover >>>them well at all. >>> >>>Dylan >>> >>>-----Original Message----- >>>From: Dan Muey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >>>Sent: January 15, 2003 11:32 AM >>>To: Dylan Boudreau; [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>Subject: RE: Perl book >>> >>> >>>The black books are very nice. I like them better than the Orielly >>>ones. >>> >>>Not to start a flame war, I just like em better. >>> >>>Also there's the 'using perl' for specifci jobs, system admin, web >>>programming, database, algorythms, etc >>> >>>Can't remember the publisher off hand, sorry. >>> >>>Depends on what you want to use perl for now that you've >>> >>> >>done Learning >> >> >>>Perl. >>> >>>You could do one of my favorite things and go into Barnes and Noble >>>and read all of them, or check them out form the library >>> >>> >>and start it >> >> >>>and if you don't like it take it back and get another!! >>> >>>Basically you can't go wrong with anything perl!!! >>> >>>Dan >>> >>> >>> >>>>-----Original Message----- >>>>From: Dylan Boudreau [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >>>>Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 9:06 AM >>>>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>>Subject: Perl book >>>> >>>> >>>>I have already read Learning Perl and am looking to get >>>> >>>> >>>another book >>> >>> >>>>to learn more what would people recommend? >>>> >>>>Thanks, >>>> >>>>Dylan >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>>-- >>>To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> >>> >>> >>> >>-- >>To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> >> >> >> >> > > > > -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
