Programming Perl (3rd Edition) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If you're like me, and you're shopping for a book, you immediately start reading the negative reviews and work upwards. So I started reading the reviews and read through them all, bought the book despite the many negative, and frankly, snippish comments made by many reviewers and decided that I need to respond.
Many say that the examples are convoluted, or that he focuses on obscure language references. One says the book starts quickly with a discussion of the splice function. The first mention of splice is on page 355, which I certainly don't define as 'quickly'....
Others say that there are no examples, or they are not explained clearly, but there's a short sample program right on page 18, and then 4 pages are devoted to analyzing the program and how it works. Further review through the book shows many small examples, especially in the sections that outline the core functions of Perl, and the core modules of Perl.
Others come here and criticize Perl the language, and use this as a platform for their own advocacy of other languages. This is just silly. If you're interested in Perl, or you've been using Perl and you want to know more, buy this book. In the universe of computer programming, every language choice you make is controversial, and subject to debate, and just because some reviewers do not like Perl the language, it does not mitigate the quality of this book.
That all being said, and debunking the frankly lousy reviews, I'll caution that this is NOT for beginning programmers, or people with limited technical knowledge. O'Reilly knows this, and anyone who has read this book should know this too. There is a book called 'Beginning Perl', also from O'Reilly, and written by one of the other top minds in Perl. It is easy to follow, provides many concrete examples and is where a beginning programer should begin. If you have a technical background, you will probably be able to start with this book, though Learning Perl is still worth reading.
What this book provides is not only an exhaustive guide to the language of Perl, and it's abilities, but also insight into it's design, the decisions of the creator of the language (Larry Wall, the main author of the book created Perl), and the major philosophy behind Perl.
This is a valuable reference and worth having.
This is the book that I turn to when I have Perl questions.
And this book is worth every penny I spent to get it.

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Perl is a powerful programming language thathas grown in popularity since it first appeared in 1988. The first edition of this book, Programming Perl, hit the shelves in 1990, and was quickly adopted as theundisputed bible of the language. Since then, Perlhas grown with the times, and so has this book.

Programming Perl is not just a book about Perl. It isalso a unique introduction to the language and its culture,as one might expect only from its authors. Larry Wall is the inventor of Perl, and provides a unique perspective onthe evolution of Perl and its future direction. Tom Christiansen was one of the first champions of the language,and lives and breathes the complexities of Perl internalsas few other mortals do. Jon Orwant is the editor of The Perl Journal, which has brought together the Perlcommunity as a common forum for new developments in Perl.

Any Perl book can show the syntax of Perl's functions, but only this one is a comprehensive guide to all the nooks and crannies of the language. Any Perl book can explain typeglobs, pseudohashes, and closures, but only this one showshow they really work. Any Perl book can say that my is faster than local, but only this one explains why. Any Perl bookcan have a title, but only this book is affectionately known by all Perl programmers as "The Camel."

This third edition of Programming Perl has been expanded to cover version 5.6 of this maturing language. New topics include threading, the compiler, Unicode, and othernew features that have been added since the previous edition.

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