Product Description

Customer Reviews (12)

Disappointing
I had high hopes for this book, but it fails on several levels.

- Most of the scripts in the book use an external module for the important work. For me this means I can't customize the script as much as I'd like to.

- A lot of the code messes around with the internals of a module. This is a terrible way to program. The end result is that now those modules have updated code and so these scripts don't work for me. Which leads me straight to:

- Most scripts just don't work.

Steve, if you are reading this, check out "Programming Perl"...it's a great place to start learning Perl.

Buy something else
This book wants to be a recipe book. But in my opinion it doesn't do it's job very well. There are too many simple examples inside (which take a lot of space) and can be found in similar form on-line. Also, the author doesn't do a very well job at explaining things the right way and it seems the examples aren't that well thought through (both the choice of examples and their presentation).

The recipes explained in the book are not nearly as good as those in ie. Perl Cookbook, and don't seem to be that usable either. This book looks more like a collection of school assignments with solutions than practical examples needed by a developer. It may be interesting for someone who wants to learn Perl, but then it may also be too hard for beginners to comprehend the code inside the book (the explanations are not that elaborate).

The list of recipes might look interesting at first glance, but if you go into depth with this book, you soon notice that it simply isn't worth it.

a mixed bag of solid scripting
The problem with book titles which marry terms like 'wicked' and 'cool' with programming, is that scripts which, for example, determine the particular type of EOL marker in a file, may not match your personal definition of cool. More realistically, the book's subtitle promises that the 40ish programs given here are 'useful', and this is more or less true.

There's plenty here with a system administration flavour, e.g. a duplicate file finder, a website dead link checker, a Unix user deletion script. Also, the Tk toolkit is used for some simple GUIs, and the Image::Magick module for manipulating graphics, which is probably enough to get you started on your own ideas.

Even if your needs and interests don't align with the author's, a lot of the scripts remain useful, if not for the exact content, then at least for providing the skeleton that you can use for your own ends. Some of the scripts use an object oriented interface, but don't require the user to create an OO module, so as long as you're comfortable with references, mostof the code here is very good for building a beginner's confidence in tackling non trivial scripts. There's also a reasonable amount of explanation of what the different bits of the code are doing, although the layout of the annotation is not particularly effective (the Head First books still lead the way in this), and the discussion does not go too high level. This is appropriate for the most part, but you're probably not going to be able to get too far with Tk on your own from just the material provided in this book.

On the downside, the Perl itself is not very idiomatic, so you may pick up some bad habits from the style. For example, the size of an array is checked with 'if ($#words != 1)' where 'if (@words != 2)' would be the more usual form. Sometimes scalars are implicitly initialised with undef (e.g. 'my $x', the usual practice), sometimes they're explicitly assigned (e.g. 'my $x = undef'), all in the same script. Return statements are always given in the form 'return ($x)'. This is nothing a good dose of Perl Best Practices can't fix, however.

Additionally, there are some unfortunate typos, e.g. the discussion of script 38 refers to $\ as the input record separator, while the code itself correctly uses $/. I spotted a stray 'TODO: Need something here to go somewhere' comment in script 34 which did not inspire an enormous amount of confidence.

And when it comes down to it, I just didn't find many of the scripts all that interesting. There's a whole chapter on downloading and using United States Geographical Survey mapping data, which didn't do much for me, I have to admit. The 'internet data mining' chapter is very weak, consisting of only two scripts, the first using the Finance::Quote module to print out a stock price, and the second to download some pictures from the web. For a book published in 2006, one might have expected something on web services or RSS. Given the amount of material devoted to GUIs and graphics, it's also a bit disappointing that there's almost nothing music or sound-related to be found in the entire book (one of the scripts does play a sound, but shells out to do so). The final chapter is about displaying a regular expression pattern as a finite state machine. Again, this is a solid, non-trivial example of running Perl, but if like me, youfind regular expressions about as intrinsically fascinating as printf formatting codes, your pulse will not be racing at the prospect of slogging through all 2,000ish lines.

Overall, this is a decent if not spectacular collection. If you've learnt just enough Perl to be dangerous, but are not quite sure how to put it all together into a running program, this book provides inspiration. You might want to look at Perl Cookbook too, though.

A book full of examples of how NOT to write perl
I couldn't resist the title, so I got this book. Unfortunately, I cannot reccommend it to people who want to learn to write better Perl, execpt as a source of examples of the mistakes you should avoid.

For example, in one of the earliest examples, the authors uses "return undef" in a situation where the return value of the routine is assigned to an array, to indicate the routine didn't find any of whatever it was looking for. Unfortunately, this is a mistake, the correct code would be to use "return;" all on its own. The correct solution produces an empty array or interim values; the mistake creates an array containing one element, 'undef'.

There are a number of similar mistakes which indicate the author is in over his head, writing things he doesn't understand; the editors know even less about the matter; and the code was never tested and verified for correctness.

If you want to learn Perl, get "Learning Perl"; If you want to improve your Perl, get "Intermediate Perl.

Tom

Good, yes.Wicked cool, maybe not.
This is a great book for learning by example, particularly as a follow-on to something like Learning Perl to get you started.It provides a number of useful scripts (even though some of them duplicate functionality of common system utilities), with explanations of how and why they work, and even notes on how you might alter the code to suit your own purposes.If you're a relatively new programmer that already has the basics of Perl in mind, but find yourself at loose ends wondering what to do next to help cement what you know and start learning more, this book may be exactly what you need.It's also useful for figuring out some of the basic principles of translating code between Perl and another language, thanks to the source code explanations.

The scripts themselves, however, are not exactly what I would call "wicked cool".The title is an obvious marketing conceit, designed to make the book seem more enticing.Most of the scripts, in fact, are surprisingly mundane -- but that doesn't mean they aren't useful.You may actually find yourself using some of them, with minor alterations, in your day-to-day life.Just don't expect to be wowed by the scripts themselves. ... Read more

Product Description
Revised to cover Perl Version 5.6, this quick reference provides a complete overview of the Perl programming language, all packed intoa convenient, carry-around booklet. This third edition covers:

• A summary of Perl syntax rules
• A complete list of operators, built-in functions, and standardlibrary modules, all with brief descriptions
• The newest Perl features, such as enhanced regular expressions,multithreading, the Perl compiler, and unicode support The Perl 5 Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition, is the perfect companionto the authoritative books on Perl published by O'Reilly & Associates:Programming Perl, Learning Perl, and the Perl Cookbook.

Customer Reviews (19)

Only OK
This book got a little too into the nity gritty details, which made it not as useful for the Perl hacker like myself.

It could have been perfect....
Why such a small book wastes 2 pages on a useless forward by Larry Wall is beyond me.

Larry should stick to writing code.

Perfect Companion
This is just what I needed - a quick reminder to refresh my memory occasionally without referring to the other perl books or docs.It's small and inexpensive -I keep one at home and one at the office. This book is great for jogging your memory to remind you of use and syntax but it should not be relied on as a true "reference". If you have the Camel and the Llama book this is a perfect addition.

Could be much better
The Perl 5 pocket reference is a nice handy little tool if you are willing to search for things. Unfortunately, the book does not come with such things as an index - a must in reference books.

The book is organized by category - not alphabetically, therefore making it harder to find the information in question. If the book included a few examples, an index, and perhaps a different organization scheme, it would be a much better book. Unfortunately it isn't, therefore sending me elsewhere for reference.

Not one of their best Pocket References
Maybe there is too much to Perl to squeeze into one tiny guide?Maybe Perl can't be organized like that?For whatever reason, I find Learning Perl (another great O'Reilly book) to be the perfect "Pocket" reference, even though it's a standard book.This Pocket reference is too small to be of any real use, unlike many of their other Pocket references. ... Read more

Product Description
Provides fully working examples of problems and applications most people write in Perl--all examples used in this book come from the Web and the author's own vast code library. No other book has thousands of lines of annotated code--serves as a memory jogger, a source for new ideas, a solutions gold mine, as well as a stepping stone to learning the semantics and specifics of the language. Cut-and-paste code on CD--contains all the code and applications from the book in a simple chapter-by-chapter directory structure. Descriptions of HOW the programmer tackled problems in line-by-line detail is provided with each solution. Variety of programs provided--Many listed will work on both Windows and Unix machines without any modifications, and some will contain specific lines of code for running on Unix machines that are not necessary for the Windows platform. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Wait...
Wait... Although this is a good book, it doesn't mean that it'll teach you perl. It actually doesn't intend to teach you perl from basics. What I really love about this book is, it gives a reader lots of ideas on how to use perl efficiently.

Those who are hoocked on CGI can also buy this book. After buying the book you can either 1)read through it and have new ideas on how you could write perl programs efficiently or 2) just grab the ready-to-use programs from the CD and run'em. I agree, this is not the only book that provides you with ready-to-use programs. I also wrote a review to CGI/Perl Cookbook, which got my just one star. Difference between these two titles is that, CGI/Perl Cookbook is pretty far from giving you tips and doesn't go through their ready-to-use programs in details. As toPerl:Annotated Archives, it does a good job onexplaining the programs. Also the programs included in the book are intended to handle some very frequent tasks, like checking HTML validity, Managing your news pages, CGI security (for details look at the table of contents in the left menu).

If you are beginner and want to learn perl and to be able to write your own programs and modules, I do not recommend you this title. Don't buy it. Go for either CGI101(highly recommend it) or Elizabeth Castro's Quick Start guide.

In overall, this is a good book, which provides you with lots of usefull ideas and programs as well.

Nice idea; poor execution
Although I've used Perl for a while, I like collections like this. I started reading this book and was immediately thrown off by at least one coding/logic error in the encrypt/decrypt programs (which are among thefirst scripts in the first chapter). The fact that these are annotatedmultiplies the error, because a newbie is more likely to be misled by theclear explanation of something that is false. This left a bad taste in mymouth, so I've been leery of using the book much since (it's the last onethat I consult). Finally, I don't like the author's Perl style. Yes,"there's more than one way to do things," but the style is (IMHO)somewhat non-Perlish and may lead to people missing out on the PerlPhilosophy.

I recommend the Perl Cookbook instead for recipes, and theProgramming Perl book for examples/tutorials.

Martin++ !
There's something wonderful about a book that doesn't sit on a shelf for any period of time. It becomes dog-eared from use and its layout and content becomes familiar. Martin Brown's Perl and Python Annotated Archivesare two such books in my personal collection. I find myself constantlyswitching between computer languages and with books like these, it's a snapto become productive very quickly. Other reviews here have covered thefine examples in the AA books but what struck me the most was that Martindoesn't overly rely on modules from CPAN to illustrate his point. Some havelikened CPAN's contents to being 'software integrated circuits' --something you just plug and and use.This is great for people who don'tcare about the details and have a but if you want to learn how thingsreally work, this book's example code is where it's at. Of course he's nodummy and liberally uses things like Getopt in the right amounts.

If youbuild Web solutions and only have time to absorb one chapter, read andunderstand the CGI security chapter. My personal favorite has to be eitherthe entries on databases or the cross platform systems administrationsection. Too many Perl books concentrate on Unix and don't acknowledgeother OSes. I think 'macfbf.pl' might be the first code example for theMacintosh I've seen in a Perl book!

There's a lot for Perl newbies andold dogs to learn from this book and it's well worth the effort to gleansomething from every chapter.

Martin is one of the most interactiveauthors I've ever dealt with and always responds to emailed suggestions,questions and constructive criticism with a professional yet friendly tone.He's been quick to point out the very rare typographic mistakes and updateshis Web site's errata section quickly. That alone makes his books worthhaving!

An essential book for all Perl users and teachers
There are many ways to learn a programming language but only a few yield positive results.One of the most effective solutions is to learn how to use a particular language to solve real-world problems, and this is precisely the approach that Martin C. Brown chose to help the reader of hisexcellent Perl Annotated Archives book learn the language that powershundreds of thousands of Internet and intranet servers around the world. Instead of a series of dry lessons found in many Perl textbooks, with PerlAA you can start writing and experimenting with the source code right afteryou open this book. This makes it an ideal book for both teachers of thePerl programming language and for their students who want to see how theorythey learn works in practice.

Perl is not an easy language to learn andthe lack of commented code samples is what discourages a lot of people fromlearning it.Martin C. Brown does an excellent job of teaching not onlyhow to write useful applications but also how to keep your code simple,clean and easy to maintain which is no mean feat considering how easy it isto write cryptic code in Perl.So, the first star is for what's betweenthe covers.

I'm sure that many people who tried to learn a programminglanguage from a book will agree that it is not enough to just dump the bestideas and code onto paper--they must be presented in a way that helps thereader to quickly find any little bit of information he/she needs.I foundnothing to complain about in that department and I agree with my studentswho often praise this book for its ease of use and the ease of access tothe information contained inside it.The second star is therefore for thepresentation of the material.

How about the accuracy of the text and thesource code?Well, it is *very* high and does not contain any seriouserrors.This has been confirmed by my students who have been using thisbook for the last six months and found very little errors or omissions. Those that were spotted are not fatal and can be quite easily fixed by thereaders themselves.That's why the third star is for the accuracy of thematerial.

The fourth star is for the CD-ROM disc sold with the book. Although the CD-ROM disc is an almost essential companion to a computerbook, it rarely is utilized in a way that justifies it's additional cost. However, what I found on the disc sold with Perl AA made me very happy.Ilove it when I can copy, paste and customize *full* source code and notonly short examples.You can use it as a source of ready-made solutionsand a great learning/teaching tool.

The last, fifth star is for MartinC. Brown's reader support.His Web site is a treasurechest for those who are looking for free code (Martin makes tons of codeavailable for free), updates or error corrections (not that Martin makes alot of mistakes he needs to correct).Rarely you will find an author whooffers such support and that's something you should consider if you expectmore from an author.

In short, Perl AA is an excellent book for those wholearn, teach and use Perl in real world.This book is a safe investmentwith a very *high* return.

Good "Book no. 2" for those just beginning to learn Perl.
This book approaches Perl from a different angle than any other I've read. Instead of teaching the basics, it shows the reader how to use Perl effectively to solve day-to-day problems. Processing web logs, filehandling, generating reports from text files and databases, sending andreceiving mail, building dynamic web pages, extracting HTML andadministrating network. These are just few of the subject this bookstouches. It also shows the reader how using CPAN archives can save muchtime (and frustration). Old timers will probably not find anything theydidn't already know, but less experienced system administrator will findthis book a good help and a time saver. I would also recommend this toanyone wanting to know "how to use Perl" as opposed "how towrite Perl". ... Read more

Product Description
If you are new to programming with PHP and MySQL and arelooking for a solid introduction, this is the book for you. Developedby computer science instructors, books in the for the absolutebeginner series teach the principles of programming through simplegame creation. You will acquire the skills that you need for morepractical programming applications and will learn how these skills canbe put to use in real world scenarios. Best of all, by the time youfinish this book you will be able to apply the basic principles you’velearned to the next programming language you tackle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Not for beginners. Confusing.
This book is not for beginners, and it is absolutely not for "absolute" beginners. It's badly written and jump for one subject to another. It doesn't make sense whatsoever. It introduce tags and codes without any explanation and then they move on to more code using information that was never explained. Don't buy it. Save your money and time.

Save your money, mine is going back!
As always, another book for beginners that makes no sense. If you are like me trying to learn PHP/MySQL it looks like the NET is the way to go. Find tons of tutorials and read them. I only read the first 100+ pages and was not happy. It appears that they DONT KNOW what a beginner is! I'm still looking for a book to get my feet wet, so far I've read the "in easy steps" books from BN, and they were simple to grasp. But not enough.

This has been one of my biggest complaints with books for beginners... Are they really for some one who knows nothing about the subject? Or is it marketing? You make the call. I have complained forever about this! It appears they start out good then lose it, and you are now stuck.

PS This is my first review and I wanted to write it so you can see it really does not help the newbie. Good Luck in your PHP/MySQL learning.

Wonderful for Beginners !
One of the Best books I have ever read ,not only in Computers but in general.The author has brought out the exciting world of PHP/MySQL to a dumbo like me..!!

To put in a nutshell when I finished reading the book I felt that someone who has guided me over is gone !

Needless to say that I strongly recommend this book for beginners..! :)

Good but not great- it has unusable code
This book has been good for several things- teaching basic code, reusing snippets of scripts- but in Chaper 6- Working with Files, I haven't been able to get the code to work. Loading it from the companion CD, it didn't work off the bat. I went online for support and there is NO errata souce for the book which is really frustrating! I finally figured out the first problem in the code, but now I am stuck again. I like to use the book as a reference to work on a problem at hand, so this book isn't one for that. Also, the code that it suppllies should work without any tweaking needed (or tell you what tweaking needs to be done) and this book isn't one for that either. Therefore, I suggest borrowing the book from a friend or the library before purchasing, or buy it used. It is helpful at points, but en errata source would have made this perfect for me. For an example of a great book/resource on PHP and MySQL, see Larry Ullman's PHP & MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites.

Good, but doesn't help much designing the actual page.
Good, but doesn't help much designing the actual page. I was hoping to learn to make the actual design of a page, but its mostly all about scripts. I like how you do get examples though. ... Read more

Product Description
Aimed at new programmers of WinPerl, a high-powered instruction manual covers the Perl OOP structure, socket programming, HTML conversions, and building an Internet search utility. Original. (Intermediate). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Rushed into hardcopy
QUE must have pushed this book into print. As other reviewers have noted, one has to have dogged determination and stamina to digest this book. It presents a confusing, unrelated and diverse array of "my pet way doit" by several authors. The examples on the CD are pathetic - alllumped into one directory, no readme file(s), incomplete and therefore notrunnable as-is. Example: to extract the files related to Ch 9 requiredsifting through the entire chapter, and then register.htm and its CGIbackend were conspicuously missing. However, after bludgeoning my waythrough most of the book, I have extracted a small number of gems that areactually useful in real-life projects. The CD contains this whole book plustwo others in HTML format. A nice idea, but each one is disorganized by atotally different team of people. There is no unified 'look-n-feel' andnavigation is painful in all three books. Good as a reference, shop for it2nd hand (and pay only what it is worth).

Very good if you want to make websites using Perl/CGI
I've read at least 6 books on perl, but if you want to specifically learn perl for websites, then this book is very good.It talks about databases (DBMs and SQL).Managing sessions and validating users, and it also talksabout creating a shopping cart system.There is a chapter on CGIsercurity.Although the book was written in 1996 its a very good step inthe right direction of making good, reliable CGI applications.In fact,compared to other CGI books printed in 96, this book is years ahead ofthem.

Be patient, and it'll pay off
When I bought this book, I had absolutely no serious programming background. I was pretty accomplished in HTML, but nothing advanced.At first, the book was a bit hard. But the technique that I found helpful isto re-read each section (or each topic). I haven't even looked on the CDyet, and I'm learning loads about Perl. Also, reading this book reallyhelps one understand some more advanced Perl tutorials on the web. Itdoesn't get 5 stars though, because the reader has to really be committed. This isn't a light read: get in the thinking mood when you read it.

Potential to be good but lacking some source code.
This book had the potential to be very good and I did learn some things from it, but many of the example results lacked the source code that generated the results.In addition, much of the source code that was inthe book was not on the included CD.

It is Not GOOD don't buy it
the fisrt chapters are clear, then the book starts to use strange statements and never explained so i didn't read it all I have thrown it in the garbage... ... Read more

Product Description
The clear, step-by-step instructions in Perl 5 Interactive Course, Certified Edition, teach you how to develop sophisticated Net applications and Web sites using the flexible power of Perl. From simple tasks like writing loops and opening files to advanced topics such as networking, generating graphics, and linking Perl and C, these hands-on lessons show you how it's done.Throw your Internet connection into the mix and you'll have free access to the eZone, the innovative Web-based learning center from Waite Group Press. You'll get expert help from the pros, interactive quizzes for immediate feedback, dedicated discussion groups for interaction with other students, certification, and even optional continuing education units (for a nominal fee). This isn't just a book; it's a Web-based learning center.

• Provides the opportunity to earn 3 Continuing Education Units from Marquette University
• Updated edition covers the latest version of Perl
• Web-based components include online mentors to answer specific questions, interactive testing for immediate feedback, discussion groups for student interaction and more
• CD-ROM includes Microsoft Internet Explorer, the latest Perl source code and all the binaries needed to run Perl on any platform

The book is less successful at exposing theintricacies of object-oriented Perl (a difficult topic). However, itis good at explaining some of the pitfalls of Perl programming,including debugging. Other interesting chapters explain topics such aswhere Perl programming fits into the Internet and why Perl will likelycontinue to play an important role on the Web. Chapters throughoutthis book are short and sweet and include simple exercises so thatreaders can try out Perl on their own. Although no single book canmake you into a Perl guru, this tutorial can start you on your way tobecoming a competent Perl developer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

5.5 stars actually..
The problem I've seen with technical books is that either they are in tutorial/textbook format which includes lessons and then review questions at the end of each chapter, or they are purely reference type books ideal for looking up things on occasion and not really good for a beginner to learn the subject matter. This book was the first one I felt that was ideal in both textbook form as well as a reference book for looking things up.

The chapters were basic enough for the beginner to grasp the material, and the lessons were rife with hands-on examples which I thought was the best part. I like to try things out as I go through the lessons and so the material was very useful for me.

The printing of the material was interesting and draws the reader into the subject, important notes and pitfalls are highlighted between the text to avoid the paragraphs from becoming too long and drawn out. The writer's diction is sometimes humorous to avoid the reader from losing interest.

The book is kind of bulky and thick so as a consequence of regular use, the glue based binding gave way somewhere in the middle of the book so when I open it, the first half of the book is attched merely by a shred to the second half, so I have to be careful now when I lookup things in it. I wouldn't trade this book for anything.

I have never taken any instructional classes on Perl scripting and can safely say that everything I know about Perl scripting I've learned from this book. That being said I am able to write fairly sophisticated perl scripts and have the ability to understand fairly obfuscated perl code without difficulty. I use perl as a very strong and useful tool in my day to day tasks for scripting and text processing needs and I often dazzle and amaze my colleagues at work with the tricks I'm able to pull off by using perl scripting and I owe it all to this book.

In short, I give two enthusiastic thumbs up for this book and the 5 star rating that I gave this book was merely due to the amazon limitation on the number of stars you can give in your review.

Best Introductory Perl Book Ever Written - No Holds Barred
I've read and use most of the Perl books out on the market today, but none comes close to getting you going well with Perl as does Jon Orwant's book.I still use it as a reference today, but it is the best any money can buy for learning Perl. I'm back buying another copy because I loaned mine toa friend and I miss it so much that I want to make sure I'll always have acopy handy.My old copy is so well worn that a fresh copy is enticingalso. As for extras in the book: the quizzes are great for testing yourunderstanding, and someone has done a great job at proofreading this book-- I don't know whether that person is at the Waite Group or is Jonhimself, but I know that anytime I have questioned an answer, or a script,or anything in the book I have always found the book to be accurate oncloser inspection.It is very much like the Camel Book in beingauthoritative -- what Jon says is Perl Gospel Truth - if I had to pick twoPerl books, I'd pick this one for learning and the Camel Book for ultimatereference. Jon's book should be rated a 5 and a half star - this is thebest that it ever gets!

Perfect Perl Book
After the Camel book, of course.This book is very well paced with well thought out examples.I needed it as a refresher last year, and now use it as a reference.

The only down side is that the Web Based interactivesegment is no longer available.not a big deal since it's the same quizesas in the book, but there was a gee-whiz, isn't it fun factor to have itavailable online.

This book covers everything from soup to nuts.Itstarts the learner off slowly with the basic perl syntax and then smoothlymoves into subroutines, OOP, DBI modules, Security, etc. all with the sameinteresting and amusing style.

I don't know if it's mentioned in theEditorial review, but the author is the Editor of The Perl Journal(www.tpj.com) which is a magazine devoted to the perl programming language. So Jon Orwant *knows* his topic.

A good tutorial
The book is a good and detailed tutorial for all novices who want to learn Perl. No hit around the bush stuff and the chapters were well thought of. Credit should be given to the author and the publishing group for thesehelpful information.The Source codes on the CD-Rom comes handy when whenyou want to test out the sample codes in the book. The questions at the endof each chapter is a good revision after scanning the chapter. I stronglyrecommend those who want to learn Perl to get a copy of this book as theirfirst book.

A great Perl book
I started learning Perl two years ago. I first browsed libraries, free tutorials, news groups etc... It was nice for the beginning but soon enough I understood that's not the way :)

I started looking around for good Perlbooks and somehow got to this one. I think I can clearly say, that thisbook did the work. Teached me Perl from the ground up. I'm now planning onbuying "MySQL and mSQL" to start working with databases. I alsoconsider buying "Mastering Algorithms With Perl" &"Programming Web Graphics with Perl & GNUSoftware".

Anyway, if you want to start learning Perl, buy thisbook. I also use it as a reference. ... Read more

Product Description
The Perl programming language lets you write quick yetpowerful scripts for automating many administrative tasks.Written for several different platforms (Unix, Windows NT,and MacOS), Perl for System Administration is aimed at alllevels of administrators--from hobbyists to card-carrying SAGE members--sysadmins on multi-platform sites. Assuming only a little familiarity with Perl, this book leadsyou through the pockets of administration where Perl canbe most useful, including filesystem management, useradministration, directory services, database administration, log files, and security and network monitoring. Each chapter concentrates on a single administrative task, discusses the possible pitfalls, and then shows how Perl comes to the rescue. Perl for System Administration is for anyone who needs touse Perl for administrative tasks and needs to hit theground running.Amazon.com Review
The title of David N. Blank-Edelman's new book, Perl for System Administration, is strangely redundant and thankfully misleading. The soul and source of Perl's core competence is Unix system administration, and another O'Reilly tome on Perl tricks for managing backups would not have been welcome. But the subtitle Managing Multiplatform Environments with Perl communicates the essential task: how to administer heterogeneous Unix, Windows NT/2000, and Mac OS systems from the same Perl-based conceptual platform.

Blank-Edelman introduces this diversity of notation to motivate a far-reaching discussion of system internals, and shows how Perl is a natural choice for cross-platform administration. The Unix and Windows "slash" path separators--"/" and "\", respectively--are like crossed swords, where the Mac OS uses the less-generally-known colon (":"). In lesser hands, this treatment still would have been about LAN backups, but Blank-Edelman's familiarity with network imperatives drives the synthesis.

As the topics move beyond file systems, user accounts, and process control, the tripartite division in the discussion breaks down. Treatments of TCP/IP and e-mail feature discussions of NIS, WINS, DNS, and nslookup. The chapters on directory services and SQL database management--while apparently digressive--are inserted tactically to enable elegant approaches to the more mundane administrative tasks of sending and receiving e-mail and managing log files to maximize their utility. Blank-Edelman's keen pragmatism shines in the chapter on security in which noticing intrusion earlier instead of later draws on many of the skills that are developed throughout the book. Notably, each chapter ends with a recapitulation of Perl modules that were referenced in the preceding text.

The eclectic tutorial appendices--an old revision-control system (RCS), the extensible markup language (XML), the database language (SQL), and two undermotivated and esoteric protocols (LDAP and SNMP)--are so brief as to function more as a Perl-free zone for shop talk than as valuable précis for their respective subjects.

Delightfully, this is one of Perl's and O'Reilly's best-written books. Blank-Edelman's wit buoys the argument without descending into the all-too-common parlance of sappy testimonials, hollow confessions, or the burdensome ornamentation of inside jokes and puns. --Peter Leopold ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Advanced Yet Empowering
This book is very uncanny in that it is able to cover advanced administration procedural concepts (such as log rotation) and networking technologies (like SNMP), and the automation that applies to these areas.The coverage is from a platform neutral perspective, but does delve into platform specific solutions where needed, e.g.Windows events vs. UNIX syslogs, Active Directory vs. LDAP, etc.What is nice is that these system or network administration chores, is that the coverage uses generic cross-platform libraries (Mozilla's LDAP modules for example), but where needed delves into platform specific libraries such as ADSI (for Active Directory LDAP OLE-DB provider).

I highly recommend this book as supplementary material for existing scripting books and system administration books.I would note that the material is advanced and would be suited for those already familar with intermediate Perl programming (map, grep, array slicing, split, etc.) and advanced system administration and network administration concepts (or ability and eagerness to learn)

Multiplatform SysAdmin Perl Tools
The biggest asset of this book is the author's expert knowledge of the three platforms (Unix, Windows NT/2000, Mac) and the in-depth coverage he gives to each. With almost every Perl sysadmin tool he covers, he outlines the OS-specific Perl modules necessary to make the tool work on any of the platforms. This book is truly unique in that regard.

The Art of System Administration...revealed!
I was surprised to find a disclaimer at the beginning of the book on the places where it might NOT be a good idea to use Perl.Typically people take an all-or-nothing approach to toolsets like Perl.This might save some work where a small ksh script works ok - it's not always necessary to build a Perl program.

The best part of the book is highlighting the art and craft of system administration, possibly better than most attempts at it that I've previously read.Even disregarding the excellent examples and specific code for same, this is good as another resource of the harried sysadmin.Somewhat less so for the Perl junkies, however.

The biggest downside to this book is the inclusion of NT-specific constructs and concepts.Most system administrators won't touch NT, and most network administrators maintaining NT server farms probably won't touch Perl.This may be a bias of mine, of course.

Perl for System Administration
I was surprised to find a disclaimer at the beginning of the book on the places where it might NOT be a good idea to use Perl.Typically people take an all-or-nothing approach to toolsets like Perl.This might save some work where a small ksh script works ok - it's not always necessary to build a Perl program.

The best part of the book is highlighting the art and craft of system administration, possibly better than most attempts at it that I've previously read.Even disregarding the excellent examples and specific code for same, this is good as another resource of the harried sysadmin.Somewhat less so for the Perl junkies, however.

The biggest downside to this book is the inclusion of NT-specific constructs and concepts.Most system administrators won't touch NT, and most network administrators maintaining NT server farms probably won't touch Perl.....

Buy it for the apendicies!
Heck, i haven't even looked at the main part of this book, but the appendicies are priceless.A fifteen minute crash course on SQL?An 8 minute crash course on XML?Like treatment is given to RCS, LDAP, and SNMP.I've used this book for less than an hour of my life, and it's been a terriffic investment. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (8)

Ótima Picareta.
Gostei muito do livro, fácil entendimento aborda deste coisa simples até mais complexas. Agrada a todos os gostos.

For advanced programmers interested in all the theory
I really didn't enjoy this book.I purchased this book based upon the reviews and my hope was to use it to get up to speed on Ruby in a rapid manner.The author makes all kinds of assumptions that the user already should know certain things.While there are many examples, they are very dense and theoretical in nature.The author spends more time giving every possible theoretical way of using a particular feature of the language and does not offer many real world examples.

I am already an experienced programmer having mastered Java, PHP, C, and Visual Basic.Still, I find the syntax of Ruby hard to understand and this book does not help.I am not going to give up on Ruby.I will keep this book as a reference and seek out some other instructional guide for learning the language.

My advice to those wanting to learn Ruby for the first time - buy a different text.

Others better
The book offers lots of detail and theoretical/algebraic examples.Very dense even on simple facets of ruby, but then gets lost in theory trying to explain moderately difficult aspects.I am a firm believer that when an individual masters a topic they can explain even the most difficult aspects in a clear way....no present contrived examples that are almost formulaic in there presentation.I'v had to read a few sections several times only to undercover the author was just trying to explain a very trivial aspect of the language.

Life changing
I used to work with PHP, C++ and Java, until I found Ruby! This book is a great pass to a bright future for programmers. Since I bought it and started developing Ruby and Rails applications, my developments skills keep getting better and the amount of time I spent coding is getting always smaller. Ruby is great to performe Agile Programming and is really a language to look for!
Highly recommended!

Great Reference for Veterans and Noobs Alike
I've been using Rails for a few years, but I never dug deeply into Ruby.This book is one of the best technical books I have read, it keeps you engaged, which is very touch to do with such a dry subject matter.I read cover to cover (except the reference in the back) and I feel very confident in my Ruby skills.I learned something new in every chapter, and have a more grounded understanding of Ruby.I have already used this book as a reference, and I expect to do the same for quite a while.

If you are using Ruby in any way, this book should be in your library. ... Read more

Product Description

This book teaches the principles of natural language processing and covers linguistics issues. It also details the language-processing functions involved, including part-of-speech tagging using rules and stochastic techniques. A key feature of the book is the author's hands-on approach throughout, with extensive exercises, sample code in Prolog and Perl, and a detailed introduction to Prolog. The book is suitable for researchers and students of natural language processing and computational linguistics.

Customer Reviews (2)

Great algorithm-based book on the subject
This book has the same scope as Speech and Language Processing (2nd Edition) (Prentice Hall Series in Artificial Intelligence), but that book flies too high over the details. This book does a good job of covering the details without getting lost in them. The author takes the approach of explaining a concept first with excellent illustrations, then explains the algorithm that implements the concept, then shows detailed code in either Prolog or PERL.

This is not to say you can pick up this book without the proper background and get much out of it. Language processing is a field requiring a good background in a number of fields including the theory of computation, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and information theory to name a few. You should be familiar with all of these fields before tackling the book, although the author does introduce these topics somewhat before digging into details.

One thing the author does not do much of is explain Prolog or PERL. He assumes you already know these languages, although there is an appendix at the back of the book covering Prolog. Prolog is a difficult language to learn and is not at all intuitive. However, it is an excellent choice for coding up many algorithms concerning artificial intelligence. Thus, although I do not argue with the author's choice of language, I do recommend that you become fluent in Prolog before you read this book.

I used to recommend Jurafsky and Martin for people starting out learning language processing, but now I think I can recommend this book for not only the big picture but the details of this interesting field as well.

This book is going to be a classic !!
This is a wonderful, code rich, book on language processing for computational linguists and language engineers. It is both theory and example rich with considerable detail throughout. The book is clearly written and very well structured!!

Highly recommended! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (14)

Practical, useable, and it doesn't even say "for dummies"
One thing goes without question - Mr. Maher knows his Perl.In this book he takes the most practical pieces of the language and shows you how to use them.Many programming books start so far back to the "beginning" that the first half is dry and boring.Tim's book is neither dry nor boring!The book has an enjoyable cadence as well as being informative and applicable.The quick reference pages are a real value-add as well.

Don't let the "For UNIX and Linux People" part of the title scare you away.While Tim does a great job of showing how Perl compares, contrasts, and can be integrated with Unix, this books is really for everyone.If you're trying to find a good Perl book and maybe are thinking "Hm, that wizard-looking guy or Camel?"Hands-down go for the wizard. (Note: wizard-looking guy is actually an Albanian).Camel has a place in the world, but if its not what you know you need, then this book is almost certainly a better place to start.

If you read this book and want to go deeper... I discovered Tim Maher also teaches via his Seattle based company, Consultix.(From experience, he is an even better teacher than he is writer.)

Title a little misleading
This is an excellent work in how to harness PERL to better use the Linux/ Unix shell and command line.But a warning:this is NOT a good introduction to either the PERL scripting language or shell programming. Rather you need to be familiar with both first before you approach this book, specifically, you need to be familiar with sed, awk, and grep, and you really need to be already familiar with PERL. That said,the book does an excellent job of building on that knowledge and gives some real empowerment.

Command Line Perl
Minimal Perl focuses on translating UNIX/Linux shell commands to Perl (awk, sed, grep, and the like).It doesn't go into whole programs as much as single-use lines, which is fine for simple tasks like checking log files or filtering text files.There are a few conventional programs thrown in the book but all of them are very short.In fact, the comments generally outweigh the code.
Don't take that as bad, though.Tim Maher introduces some great ideas that I haven't seen in the other Perl books I've read.It's a great reference to have on hand for simple tasks.Maher uses clear examples and clever text to get across some complex (and often difficult to read) Perl.
If your looking for traditional programming book, this probably isn't for you.Stick with O'Reilly for how to write complete programs.Minimal Perl is all about quick and disposable code that's more powerful then shell commands but not the overkill of a complete program.

Great Perl Tutorial for Experienced UNIX/Linux Users
This is an excellent Perl tutorial for those who are already familiar with UNIX/Linux shell scripting and other common utilities like find, sed, grep, and awk.Perl combines the strengths of each of these tools and surpasses them in one powerful and portable scripting language.This book is well worth the time and money spent with it for those in its target audience.This book is very well written.The examples are easy to follow and well thought out.The author clearly has a deep knowledge and long experience with the material presented.He takes a very common sense and practical approach to teaching the essentials of Perl scripting without getting the reader bogged down in all the details and capabilities of the language.He seems to have done an excellent job in selecting those parts of Perl that are of the most use for the greatest number of people who need to make use of it.I highly recommend this book.

If you are a Sys Admin
If you are an experienced Sys Admin in the Unix world and need to know enough Perl for scripting, this book is good - but its not a beginners book- the author expects you be familiar with command line Unix and scripting. ... Read more

Product Description

Writing Perl Modules for CPAN offers Perl developers a comprehensive guide to using and contributing to the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Starting with a general overview of CPAN's history, network topology, and navigational mechanisms, the book quickly brings you up to speed regarding how to search out and install available modules. However, in the true open source spirit, author and experienced Perl developer Sam Tregar teaches you how to not only use, but also contribute to CPAN via an in-depth discussion of module creation, submission, and maintenance.

Beginning with a survey of basic design principles, Tregar takes care to discuss all issues relevant to developers wishing to create great Perl modules, including choosing a proper name, properly using Perl's POD (plain old documentation) feature, concepts surrounding functional and object-oriented API development, and much more. Tregar then proceeds with a complete dissertation of how modules should conform to CPAN module specifications, covering required distribution files and coding considerations, in addition to offering advice regarding proper module testing. After demonstrating how to create a module and prepare it for release, Tregar guides you through the CPAN module submission process and discusses module maintenance once the module has been contributed to the CPAN service.

Writing Perl Modules for CPAN is an indispensable guide for anyone wishing to make the most of the CPAN service.

Customer Reviews (4)

One of my favorite Perl books
One thing that makes a great programming book for me is how enjoyable it is to read from start to finish, as a reference, or just fun reading, where I just flip open to any page and read whatever I find there.Sam Tregar's book fits all of the above.Some books make you say to yourself, 'it's important stuff I should know, but I'll take a look at it later' and they usually put you to sleep after a page or two.Not this one!I cannot wait to get back to reading it and re-reading and then downloading modules and their docs for more reading and then I can't wait to put it all to use.I was even driving with it in my hand this morning with my finger in the last chapter (CGI Application Modules for CPAN) hoping for some long red lights so I could read another paragraph or two.I highly recommend this book to all Perl programmers.

Great read for any Perl programmer
I found the style of this book very readable and friendly, covering the main idea behind the book (writing CPAN Modules), as well as being informative about Perl best practices and an insight into some great CPAN Modules.

Solid, but not great, book
I just finished reading Sam Tregar's book, and found a lot of things I liked about it.It's very readable, describes the stuff you need to know to write modules.I really liked his coverage of Inline and of CGI::Application, two facets of module writing that haven't gotten enough coverage.

A great whirlwind tour of Perl modules and CPAN
This charming book provides an extensive overview on pretty much everything you need to know to write a Perl module, prepare it for CPAN and submit it into the wild.

It's amazing how much this book covers: Not only does Sam Tregar show how object-oriented Perl modules are architected, how to write regression test suites, how to extend Perl modules with C code, but he gets also the community aspects right -- how does your module get really popular? You can tell that Sam is a successful Perl module author himself.

Now, on every single one of these topics one could have written another 300-page book, of course. But the charming aspect of the book is that, while it doesn't go into each and every detail, it provides an excellent overview to future module authors. The printing is quite anarchic, though, with low-budget drawings and some typos which could have been caught easily by a thorough proof-reader, but it's tolerable, it's like watching a low-budget film by a very talented young director.

If that's not enough, I found the last chapter of the book invaluable, covering the CGI::Application module, which enables authors to share popular CGI-flows (e.g. bulletin boards) on CPAN.

I can whole-heartedly recommend this book to every prospective CPAN author -- there's hardly any coverage of this topic anywhere in the Perl literature besides the somewhat scattered online documentation. Buy it today! ... Read more

Product Description
CGI Programming 101 takes you from the absolutebasics of writing CGI programs, to advanced topics such as databaseinteraction and using modules. The book includes:

* The Basics: where to write your scripts; how to upload them and set file permissions; how to run them

* How to decode form data and save it to a file or e-mail it to yourself

* How to create, read, write, and search data files

* How to use Server-Side Includes to add dynamic content to your web page, plus a complete list of Apache SSI directives (and examples of their use)

* How to use random numbers for rotating banner ads and random image pickers

* How to format strings, dates, and times, and how to create countdown clocks

* How to redirect visitors to another site

* How to write secure scripts

* How to use cookies

* How to extend your programs by using modules like CGI.pm and GD.pm

* How to create a MySQL database, and write scripts that interact with databases using the DBI module

Several Appendices are also included:

* A list of online resources, for more information about Perl and CGI, and where to look for CGI jobs

* A Unix tutorial, with examples and information on basic shell commands

* A Password tutorial that shows you how to password-protect your web siteAmazon.com Review
CGI Programming 101: Programming Perl for the World Wide Web is a concise presentation of the key elements of Perl CGI, which makes it perfect for programmers who are under the gun. If you need to get up to speed on text strings, for example, you can read that chapter and be a pro within about 10 minutes.

Form processing is addressed early on, followed by searching and sorting techniques, illustrations of how to use server-side includes (SSI), and other critical issues. There's also a chapter on using MySQL--an open-source SQL database. In general, if you want to get the most out of this book, you'll be better off having some programming experience, be it in BASIC or C++.

The only element missing from this introductory course is an appendix containing Perl's reserved characters, operators, and functions; instead, this material is presented throughout the book. But CGI Programming 101 is still one of the most efficient ways to get up to speed with Perl CGI. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: Perl variables, CGI environment variables, form processing, data file I/O, searching/sorting, server-side includes (SSI), random number generation, strings, date and time manipulation, HTTP cookies, e-mail processing, securing scripts, Perl modules, database programming, and custom Perl modules. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (46)

Best Concise Treatment Available
I have spent approx. $500 on Perl/CGI books and I will tell you that this is the best concise treatment available. There is no other book that provides as good an overview without leaving out critical issues, such file locking and security considerations. It remains my most frequently used reference. It is very well written and it does not go into unnecessary details.

My recommendation for anyone considering using Perl/CGI is to start with this book and then to build your library based on your specialized needs (algorithms, pattern matching, exotic data structures, etc). If all you wish to do is some solid Perl programming or to power up a basic web site, this is all you will need.

Do not forget to look at the free preview chapters available at the author's web site. You will also find the code for all the examples there, which I have found myself constantly reusing.

Excellent Starting Point!
If you are looking to learn Perl/CGI programming from the ground up, this is an excellent intro to the world of Internet programming with Perl.
The book, however, is UNIX-oriented; small chapter on Windows vs. UNIX would be a plus.

Loses values after first 40 pages
The first 40 pages are useful to give you the sense of howCGI functionality is implemented in Perl. However by staying away from the most used standard Perl module for CGI programming (i.e. the CGI module) except for a few pages towards the end, the reader is ill served (because they have to buy a book to get the real work done).

easy to read, excellent content
i am a fairly bad perl programmer. this book has helped me write some really smart (yet easy to understand) programs which i use everyday.

if you want to get to grips with perl and cgi, get your hands on this book. especially if you know nothing about perl or cgi...

although i recommend php as a better language!

Could this book be an BETTER!
This is an great book on perl, gets you started right off to the code, and is great for anyone looking to geting into perl, I my self was new to perl but not to programming, and found this book the best, teaching and reference book out there, it also give you links to all the source code, html, and working examples online, a must have for anyone getting into CGI perl. A++ ... Read more

Product Description
Perl is an immensely popular scripting language that combines the best features of C, key UNIX utilities and a powerful use of regular expressions. It has a wide range of uses beyond simple text processing and is commonly used for web programming - creating and parsing CGI forms, validating HTML syntax andhyperlinks - as well as e-mail and Usenet news filtering.Perl is increasingly the system administrator's scripting language of choice and is used for file and directory manipulation, database access and a whole range of daily system operator chores. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good, abeit slightly overcomplicated introduction to Perl
This is a good book which is a unique mix of intro and intermediate material. It is now also available as electronic edition including Kindle Editionfrom Amazon.

It is suitable for one semester course in Perl. Version covered is Perl 5.8 not 5.10. Some issues covered such as dereferencing of arguments in subroutines are rarely covered even in intermediate books. This is definitely much better and cheaper book then Learning Perl (ignore the lemmings effect in Amazon reviews of this pretty weak book).

The strong point of the book is the set of examples (you can download them) which illustrates basic material of each chapter. Running them is a must for studying Perl with this book.

Examples are often overcomplicated (like most Perl books authors Simon Cozen tries to impress reader with his knowledge of intricacies of Perl and often loses the sense of proportion; but he is not as bad as Randal Schwartz who is a pathological "overcomplicator" ;-). Still they are very helpful in understanding the language. A very useful exercise that I successfully tried with my students is the simplification of examples provided.

The book is the best for programmers moving from other languages then to "plain vanilla" beginners. It might be also useful for Unix system administrators who know Unix shell reasonably well.

The range of topics covered is really impressive:

Introduction
Chapter 1: First Steps In Perl
Chapter 2: Working with Simple Values
Chapter 3: Lists and Hashes
Chapter 4: Loops and Decisions
Chapter 5: Regular Expressions
Chapter 6: Files and Data
Chapter 7: References
Chapter 8: Subroutines
Chapter 9: Running and Debugging Perl
Chapter 10: Modules
Chapter 11: Object-Oriented Perl
Chapter 12: Introduction to CGI
Chapter 13: Perl and Databases
Chapter 14: The World of Perl
Appendix A: Regular Expressions
Appendix B: Special Variables
Appendix C: Function Reference
Appendix D: The Perl Standard Modules
Appendix E: Command Line Reference
Appendix F: The ASCII Character Set
Appendix G: Licenses
Appendix H: Solutions to Exercises
Appendix J: Support, Errata and P2P.Wrox.Com

Simon Cozens definitely knows the language well and it shows.

The book coveres a lot of intermediate topics like references, databases, OO concepts, CGI, etc.

Lists and hashes are explained well although the author often abuses lists and uses them where they do not belong.Both lists and hashes are introduced early in the book.

Regular expressions are explained OK. I like the approach the author takes in writing a small program which demonstrates various concepts.

The book covers both DBM databases and SQL databases. MySQL is used to demonstrate how PERL interacts with an SQL database. Most Linux distributions have MySQL installed by default, the book also contains useful information about installation and basic configuration, that helps to make MySQL up and running.

DBM, which are simple key-value pair databases are covered in more detail. The author demonstrates complex data storage using DBM files. Normally DBM can only store a single value for any key.

As for SQL only fairly simple SQL commands are covered, but then it is an introductory books and it's naive to expect full SQL coverage.

In CGI chapter the author introduces CGI environment variables and HTTP commands such as GET and POST first. Then he switches to the CGI.pm module which is standard module in Perl but unfortunatelyintroduces a lot of overcomplexity in the topic. CGI security issues are also mentioned.

Basic networking is covered in chapter 14.The Net::FTP module is covered in chapter 11 ( Object-Oriented Perl ) which makes this chapter simultaneously an extension of networking chapter.

The set of examples from the book greatly enhances the value of the book. It is mostly error free and immediately usable. Also each chapter has exercises with the answers. That makes the book more suitable for the classroom.

All-in-all this is a solid introduction to Perl which is attractive not only due to the price.

Good, abeit slightly overcomplicated introduction to Perl
This is a good book which is a unique mix of intro and intermediate material. It is now also available as electronic edition including Kindle Editionfrom Amazon.

It is suitable for one semester course in Perl. Version covered is Perl 5.8 not 5.10. Some issues covered such as dereferencing of arguments in subroutines are rarely covered even in intermediate books. This is definitely much better and cheaper book then Learning Perl (ignore the lemmings effect in Amazon reviews of this pretty weak book).

The strong point of the book is the set of examples (you can download them) which illustrates basic material of each chapter. Running them is a must for studying Perl with this book.

Examples are often sometimes overcomplicated (like most Perl books authors Simon Cozen tries to impress reader with his knowledge of intricacies of Perl and often loses the sense of proportion; but he is not as bad as Randal Schwartz who is a pathological "overcomplicator" ;-). Still they are very helpful in understanding the language. A very useful exercise that I successfully tried with my students is the simplification of examples provided.

Due to this the book is the best for programmers moving from other languages then to "plain vanilla" beginners. It might be also useful for Unix system administrators who know Unix shell reasonably well.

The range of topics covered is really impressive:

Introduction
Chapter 1: First Steps In Perl
Chapter 2: Working with Simple Values
Chapter 3: Lists and Hashes
Chapter 4: Loops and Decisions
Chapter 5: Regular Expressions
Chapter 6: Files and Data
Chapter 7: References
Chapter 8: Subroutines
Chapter 9: Running and Debugging Perl
Chapter 10: Modules
Chapter 11: Object-Oriented Perl
Chapter 12: Introduction to CGI
Chapter 13: Perl and Databases
Chapter 14: The World of Perl
Appendix A: Regular Expressions
Appendix B: Special Variables
Appendix C: Function Reference
Appendix D: The Perl Standard Modules
Appendix E: Command Line Reference
Appendix F: The ASCII Character Set
Appendix G: Licenses
Appendix H: Solutions to Exercises
Appendix J: Support, Errata and P2P.Wrox.Com

Simon Cozens definitely knows the language well and it shows.

The book covered a lot of intermediate topics like references, databases, OO concepts, CGI, etc.

Lists and hashes are explained well although the author often abuses lists and uses them where they do not belong.Both are introduced early in the book.

Regular expressions are explained OK. I like the approach the author takes in writing a small program which demonstrates various concepts.
The book covers both DBM databases and SQL databases. MySQL is used to demonstrate how PERL interacts with an SQL database. Most Linux distributions have MySQL installed by default, the book also contains useful information about installation and basic configuration, that helps to make MySQL up and running.

DBM, which are simple key-value pair databases are covered in more detail. The author demonstrates complex data storage using DBM files. Normally DBM can only store a single value for any key.

As for SQL only fairly simple SQL commands are covered, but then is an introductory books and it's naive to expect full SQL coverage.
In CGI chapter the author introduces CGI environment variables and HTTP commands such as GET and POST first. Then he switches to the CGI.pm module which is standard module in Perl but unfortunatelyintroduces a lot of overcomplexity in the topic. CGI security issues are also mentioned.

Basic networking is covered in chapter 14.The Net::FTP module is covered in chapter 11, Object-Oriented Perl which makes this chapter simultaneously an extension of networking chapter.

The set of examples from the book greatly enhances the value of the book. It is mostly error free and immediately usable. Also each chapter has exercises with the answers. That makes the book perfectly suitable for the classroom.

All-in-all this is a solid introduction to Perl which is attractive not only due to the price.

Judging a Kindle book by its (lack of a) cover ? 0 stars
I am searching for a good PERL reference for my Kindle which I just received, and the "Programming Perl" is not out, nor are any of the other good books that I would normally consider, and the other ones are enormously expensive ... way past the $9.99 or whatever that Amazon says that most books will sell for.

So ... I thought I would download this item, "Beginning Perl", just to see what it is, since it is only $0.99.

I am rating this as 1 star since I just downloaded it and the first thing I noticed is that it has no table of contents or apparently an index.This does not even look like it is a book.This may be the best book in the universe on Perl when I can click past all the beginning stuff to get to something useful, but without a TOC, index and linking, it is useless.

If this does turn out to be something useful, I will come back and amend this review, but it is very unlikely with no linking, and I am irked that this is even being charged for - Amazon customers ought to be paid for even looking at something so undeveloped and primitive, or pull it off the Kindle shelf until it is a real useful item.

In fact the next thing I am going to do is to complain about this to Amazon.Com since it is not, in fact, a book, and is useless.

One of the Best manuals
I have been a part-time Perl coder over the last ten years and have around 15 Perl and Perl related manuals. I purchased this book back in 2000 and still use it today. When I compare my other manuals with this one, there is really no comparison. The book has a way of explaining and using examples to direct the user to create basic yet effective working perl scripts. Far too many Perl manuals jump from the very basic examples to more advanced topics leaving many stones unturned. When I compare other Perl manuals covering the same topics Cozen's covers, I ask myself,
"how could the other writers not include this essential information?" This an essential Perl reference for the beginner or experienced user. I just wish this had been my first Perl rather than my fifteenth.

Cozens is the man
There is a second edition by the same title coming out, but without Simon Cozen listed as an author.Cannot say whether the 2nd edition is any good, but the out-of-print 1st edition is excellent.The first edition can be found online. I believe Simon is going to take a break from writing for a while. I hope he finds his way back to writing about Perl eventually. ... Read more

Product Description
Most Perl programmers know about the Perl debugger--the nifty little built-in utility that you can use to fully debug any programs that you write. Inside the interactive debugger environment, you're prompted for commands that let you examine your source code, set breakpoints, dump out function call stacks, change values of variables, and much more. It's so convenient that some programmers run it just to test out Perl constructs as they create a program. Although it's on their radar, not many Perl programmers take the time to master the debugger. That's where the Perl Debugger Pocket Reference comes in.This little book provides a quick and convenient path to mastery of the Perl debugger and its commands. Written by a core member of the Perl debugger development team, it's an ideal quick reference to debugger commands, as well as a detailed tutorial on how to get started. The Perl Debugger Pocket Ref provides complete coverage in a conveniently small package. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

ke
The book looked like new and we received this item < 1 week from the order.

Cool Perl Debugger book for experienced programmers
"Perl Debugger Pocket Reference" is a relativly short introduction into the command line Perl Debugger (perl -d option). You will find the following main chapters in this book:

- Introductory chapters (partly meta chapters not about the debugger but about good programming)
- Debugger Commands
- Debugger Variables
- Debugging Options
- Debugger Internals, Quick reference, rest

When I bought this book I had hoped for a "...Pocket Guide"and not a "...Pocket Reference" (deeper coverage). I consider this not an extreme "...Pocket Reference" (like e.g. "Perl Pocket Reference") because this book contains examples for each of the commands and options that it describes. For me examples are the most important part in technical books.

The language, the printing and the index (there is an alphabetic index) are of the usual high O'Reilly standard).

I think that "Perl Debugger Pocket Reference" might be a bit heavy if you never used a command line debugger like gdb or xdb before. This book assumes that you already know what and why you want to do with the debugger, you will be explained WHO to do this with the debugger. PDPR is missing the process model when using a debugger. Personally I would have wished for even more examples and a bit more about when to use a certain feature of the debugger.

For all those poor souls like me that still have to use Perl 5.5, you will not like this book because it explains the cool new features of the Perl 5.8 debugger (differences to Perl 5.6 covered as well) that are missing in Perl 5.5. I hope that I can convince my customer to upgrade to Perl 5.8 to be able to use cool new debugger (especially the w watchpoints will be great).

I will keep this booklet next to my keyboard when I am Perl programming from now on to be able to lookup the Debugger functions that I will need. If you are a Perl programmer like me that does not produce flawless code, I really recommend this book. I will use it again right after finishing this review. Perl debugging will be more fun (for me) from now on. ... Read more

Product Description
A high level introduction to Web CGI program, this Developer's Resource takes a detailed look at the process of customer requirements gathering, analysis, and design. This is the first CGI book to present a thorough methodology from requirements analysis, to design, and on through testing and implementation for developing enterprise-wide CGI apps. The CD-ROM contains a repository of valuable source code, Tcl, Perl, and a library of useful programming tools.Amazon.com Review
CGI programming lets you build a variety of dynamicapplications for Web sites.If you are already familiar with basicprogramming concepts and especially if you are comfortable with Unix,CGI Developer's Resource can get you up to speed with CGIquickly (even if you're not familiar with the specifics of developingfor the Internet). With examples primarily in Perl and Tcl, J. M. Ivlershows how to pull off common Web tricks like sending form contents ase-mail, implementing counters, working with data files, and employingserver-side includes. While none of this material is groundbreaking,it provides a solid set of information that Web server programmerswill want to keep at hand. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

High level introduction followed by scripts and info.
This is an introductory book on CGI, with examples written in both TCL and Perl.It is a great idea for a book; unfortunately, this is a poor implementation of that idea.

Source code listings, tips, and notes are presented in way to make them almost unreadable (black text on a dark gray background).Notes and tips are written in a font designed to mimic handwriting, but makes it even more unreadable.I'm not talking distracting or unique, but unreadable.On page 73, the gray background gets darker the further the text progresses down the page, until you have black on black.A portion of that page is totally unreadable.This continues throughout the book.I am stunned that Prentice Hall didn't catch this.The design of this book is horrible.

Mr. Ivler aims the book for people comfortable with TCL or Perl (and UNIX), yet spends three chapters introducing the HTML protocol, firewalls, and other topics.The author's focus seems confused throughout the book and the author(s) loose sight of who the audience is frequently.

More or less, the second half of the book ends up documenting their scripts.

I also found the copyright notice offensive (page 575)... that informs the readers that Ivler and Husain owned the code (fair enough), but also owned any modifications you make to the code (yeah, right).

On the plus side, it does have code you can cut and paste into your own projects and demonstrates what you can do with CGI on a limited scale, albeit without a lot of depth.

Not useful
I too am sorry I spent the money on this one.I also noticed the bad production techniques on the graphics and found some sections to be very thin on the info. I was looking for (the guts of doing cgi-sendmail, notjust the use of a cookbook module ...)I guess I'll just wait for theBlack Book version coming out -- I've found these to be real good.

don't buy
As others pointed out, the sidebars are unreadable because the background is a graduated greyscale that turns as black as midnight toward the bottom.

The information is poorly organized, incomplete and oftenincorrect.

They borrow buggy code from other sources then admonish thereaders on page 575 not to copy the code for their own use.

Poorly written, poorly edited, poorly designed.
This was required reading for a web applications class. I am sorry I wasted money on it. The writing alternated between tedious and redundant. The editing was so bad I found typos in every page. The graphics looked like something out of an elementary school art project. More important,they interfered with the text and made it difficult to read. Every page wasan eyesore. What little valuable information I could glean from the textwasn't worth the wading. The publisher should be ashamed. Midway throughthe course, I threw the book in a corner in disgust. Save your money.

Great information, lousy design.
I found much useful information in this bookthough it wasn't easy, wading through all thetypos and sidebars which blended the backgroudcolor to the text color. Nearly unreadable.Mr. Ivler's book was not done justice by thispublisher. ... Read more

Product Description
The building block approach taken in this book provides programmers with a solid grounding in Perl as they learn to write scripts for tasks they encounter every day as Webmaster and Web site administrator. The text will be appreciated by those who need to add robust scripts to their site that can handle complex tasks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Lifeline to Admins handling old networks
I have had several clients that rely on NT servers, and this is the only book I've found that deals with Perl specifically in this environment. Very Helpful!!

Solid Perl Instruction
For those of us using legacy systems, this is the most comprehensive book I've found (and I've been searching and serching...) to deal with NT and Perl when it comes to running Intranet and Internet apps. Well writtne for the beginner and the expert who needs a handy refeence to jump between Unix and NT.

Only book for NT and Perl
This is the only book I've read that bridges the gap betwen the UNIX world of Perl and the Microsoft hell of NT. Not as indepth on CGI as I would have liked, but Perl explainations and examples are bang on.

Forget it for learning cgi on NT
There are two kind of books for learning PERL for cgi.

The first kind are those that are written by smug UNIX weenies (Teach Yourself CGI Programming with PERL in a Week)in who think every one in the world is (orshould be) developing on a UNIX server. At best, they admit that NT serversexist, but don't tell you how to program on them.

The second type are theones who promise to teach you cgi for NT servers using PERL, but end upbeing a primer on PERL with a single chapter overiew of cgi.That is whatthis book is.The first 185 pages are so are an overview of PERL.Thenthere are a couple of CGI chapters.On page 30 it states . . ."Thereis much more to the CGI than is covered in this book.For moreinformation, on the CGI, there is the e-mail mailing list . . ."

Unfortunately, all the books on PERL seem to be written by UNIXweenies and I have none to recommend.

Brilliant - but not just for NT
I've never used perl on an NT but this is the book I learned from. Although it gets bad reviews here it is one of the easiest programming books I've ever read. One reviewer warns of mistakes but those mistakes areeasy to see if you've ever programmed in any other language. ... Read more

Product Description
Provides a brief explanation of the procedures and concepts involved with the Perl language and its task-oriented applications, demonstrating short cuts to creating living, interactive web pages. Original. (Advanced). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

All the essentials needed of WWW programming in Perl!
I bought this books at the same time I boughtPerl 5 Interactive Course : Certified Edition. This book really taught me how to write CGI scripts in Perl for the web! At that time, I was only writing scripts for my owncomputer. Programming for the web is a totally different thing. You'll needto parse form inputs etc. This book taught me everything I needed to knowabout programming for the web. It contained lots of examples. The bookitself was nicely divided into 16 chapters, all of which were simple, easyto understand, yet concise and clear. Some people say this book gives moreinformation on Perl. I say it taught me everything about programming forthe web. You truly won't regret it if you buy it! ... Read more

Product Description
Using HTML alone, you can make an attractive Web site. But if you want to create a really useful Web site -- one that processes input from HTML forms, offers site-wide searching, interfaces with databases, serves up custom Web pages on the fly, and does other amazing tricks -- you need CGI scripting. 60 Minute Guide to CGI Programming with Perl 5 gives you the know-how you need to write CGI scripts using the latest version of the popular and powerful scripting language Perl. If you don't have the time to get a degree in computer science, you'll appreciate this practical, authoritative guide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Short but sweet
This 260 page book does what it needs... teaches you Perl from scratch and covers all the basic topics you need to write the scripts explained: write a web based clock, a basic page template parser (something that all programmers need to use more), processing forms (without using some large and slow 3rd party library), create a form based emailer webpage, a search engine, an app to grab other webpages to store them in a database and to search them, and finally a catalog/e-commerce script.This is a good starter book to go from nothing to intermediate programmer without feeling overwelmed with the material read.

Great for Entry Level Perl Programming on UNIX
This book is good for individuals who have experience with HTML, UNIX, and some programming experience.It caters to people who have played a little with Perl programming, and want to learn more.It should be noted, however, that if you have no Perl experience, it will take much longer than 60 minutes to bring you up to speed.

Good for UNIX box scripts
This book was a quick tour of Perl.Well-written but has typos (and I had to figure these out with no prior knowledge of Perl!) and only a few of the examples I tried actually worked.I use it as a general Perl reference now but it is totally geared towards UNIX and we have a Novell webserver.Minimal help there.This book is primarily useful in that it's not overly intimidating like some other Perl primers.Just a so-so text for me but probably very useful if you plan to only work in UNIX. ... Read more

Product Description
ONCE YOU'VE CREATED a few Web pages and mastered the basics of HTML, you're ready for the next step -- using CGI scripts written in the language Perl to add interactivity, database access, forms processing, and the many other examples of high-power functionality you admire in the Web's premier sites. Now, in Web Programming SECRETS with HTML, CGI, and Perl, you'll find everything you ever wanted to know -- and probably a lot more -- about things like DNS administration, fax delivery and routing, mail server administration and use, Web-based HTML online editing, electronic commerce, price quote generation, and searching. Plus, on the book's bonus disk, you'll find complete Perl source code, ready-to-run CGI scripts, and invaluable utilities.

Learn some of the hottest and most useful techniques that, until now, only experienced Webmasters had at their disposal! An expert team of authors shows you how to jack up Web server performance and teaches you the essential hows and whys of Web server development, administration, configuration, and management. Work extensively with a Perl-based form generator that simultaneously creates HTML forms while filling in the back-end CGI code. Bonus disk includes Perl source code, ready-to-run CGI programs, an HTML hotlist of Web resources, and many more Web-ready tools. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not very informative; best for experienced coders
This book is a massive tome, but its informative contentis much lower than its weight suggests.Part of this isbecause the book pays too little attention to teaching the Perl it uses in its examples; it also comes from the use of other Unix tools like lex and sgmls that most beginners will not recognise.As a beginner's book, it's an exercise in frustration, but those who already know its subject matter should find the examples interesting starting points for their own CGI projects.For a good beginning text, try Thomas Boutell's CGI book (also available from amazon.com). ... Read more

Product Description
Experienced HTML authors, Webmaster, and Intranet programmers will find this book one of the fastest ways to learn CGI programming. Topics include catalog, search engine, order forms, database referencing, and user feedback scripts. Real world examples emphasize creating forms and user-driven, interactive Web sites. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Excellent - Highly Recommended
I found this book to be a great introduction to both Perl and CGI programming. This book is genuinely trying to teach you, unlike some bookswhere the author is attempting to show you how clever he/she is. Alsoincludes useful examples, and the syntax reference library in the appendixis essential once you are experienced with Perl & CGI. I am verypleased I purchased this book and highly recommend it to anyone who wantsto be up and running with Perl CGI programming in the shortest possibleperiod.

No fat, full of info.
This book is very good as it not only teaches you how to write good CGI code for web pages but it also teaches you how to integrate your exisiting PERL scripts into it. I have had to contact Customer Support in regards toan error in the book and they advised me that the book was "designedfor Windows 95". So they could not answer the question.

Excellent tutorial for CGI/Perl
The book is excellent, but I noticed that one of the examples didn't work on my system(Win 98, Sambar Server, Perl 5).In chapter 2 and 3 it mentions and examines code that uses subroutines, but on my system itreturned a false value from the subroutine and an error.To correct thisput1; directly below the entire subroutine 'sub name {subroutine code}1;'Thanks to Amazon's Perl forDummies for pointing out that workaround. I would recommend both books as complements of each other.Perl forDummies describes in more detail with less example, and Perl CGIProgramming has detailed examples with little explaination.

Just 2 words to say... Excellent Book!!
If you want to learn perl, this book it's the best.. But if you want to train yourself programming CGI, this book it's the best too. Excellent documentation, with a lot of examples and screen shots. This book followsyou to be an excellent programmer, also it contains instructions to how toinstall a web server on your machine. Great book. I recommend you thisbook.

nothing on using dates and times in scripts
I found this book very uselful, but it doesn't cover using dates or times.I found that very disapointing.It also doesn't have anything about sending Form mail. ... Read more