Learning Perl: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:24, 6 November 2013

Latest revision as of 13:03, 17 January 2025

(42 intermediate revisions by 32 users not shown)

Line 1:

{{Infobox book

| name = Learning Perl, 6th Edition

| image = Learning Perl.jpg

| image = [[File:Learning_Perl_6th_Ed_cover.png|200px|alt=Cover]] <!-- include the file, px and alt: [[File:Example.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]] -->

| image_captioncaption = First edition

| author = [[Randal L. Schwartz, brian d foy, Tom Phoenix]]

| title_orig = <!-- if not in English -->

| publisher = O'Reilly Media

| pub_date = June 20111993

| media_type = Print, Ebook

| pages = 390394

| isbn = 978-1-44934919-0358-7 (print), 978-1-4493-04585432-4 (ebook)

| isbn_note = (print),<br> {{ISBN|978-1-4919-5426-3}} (ebook)

}}

'''''Learning Perl''''', also known as the '''llama book''',<ref>{{cite book|last=Castro|first=Elizabeth|year=2001|publisher=[[Peachpit Press]]|title=Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web|page=314|isbn=978-0-201-73568-0|accessdate=June 23, 2011|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=PodQAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Learning+Perl%22+schwartz&dq=%22Learning+Perl%22+schwartz}}</ref> is a tutorial book for the [[Perl]] programming language, and is published by [[O'Reilly Media]]. The first edition (1993) was authored solely by [[Randal L. Schwartz]], and covered Perl 4. All subsequent editions have covered Perl 5. The second (1997) edition was coauthored with [[Tom Christiansen]] and the third (2001) edition was coauthored with Tom Phoenix. The fourth (2005), fifth (2008) and, sixth (2011), seventh (2016), and eighth (2021) editions were written by Schwartz, Phoenix, and [[brian d foy]]. According to the 5th edition of the book, previous editions have sold more than 500,000 copies.<ref>Learning Perl, 5th ed., p. 1</ref>

Unlike ''[[Programming Perl]]'', this book is aimed at computer programmers new to Perl. The publisher offers a free sample of the 4th Edition's Chapter Eleven<ref>[http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/chapter/ch11.pdf]</ref> as well as complete set of code examples presented in the 3rd Edition book.<ref>[{{Cite web|url=http://examples.oreilly.com/learnperl4/]|title = Examples / Learning Perl 4th Edition}}</ref>

Schwartz selected the world of ''[[The Flintstones]]'' for the examples in this book, giving rise to the somewhat frequent use of ''Fred'' and ''Barney'' as [[metasyntactic variable]]s, rather than the classic [[Foobar|''[[foo]]'' and ''[[Bar (computer science)|bar'']]''.

== Reactions ==

Brad Morrey, reviewing the book for [[InfoworldInfoWorld]], praises the book for its "casual, first person style" and concludes that it "is a terrific introduction to the language that will serve as a good reference book once you have read it through."<ref>{{cite news|work=[[InfoworldInfoWorld]]|title=Putting Perl to Work: Fine-tune your web development skills with this updated book|last=Morrey|first=Brad|date=August 3, 1998|accessdate=June 23, 2011|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=jlIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA75&dqq=%22Learning+Perl%22+schwartz#v=onepage&qpg=%22Learning%20Perl%22%20schwartz&f=falsePA75|page=75}}</ref> In his [[Linux Journal]] review of ''Perl in a Nutshell'', Jan Rooijackers recommends that "If you are totally new to programming and you want to learn Perl, the book Learning Perl ... might be a better place to start."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3372|title=Perl in a Nutshell|last=Rooijackers|first=Jan|date=October 1, 1999|accessdate=June 23, 2011|work=[[Linux Journal]]}}</ref>

Discussing Schwartz' conviction, the [[New York Times]] noted that "Much of the Internet's World Wide Web has been built by programmers who got their start by reading his "Programming Perl" and "Learning Perl" books."<ref>{{cite news|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=httphttps://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/27/business/technology-net-intel-computer-security-expert-runs-afoul-law-so-much-for-hacker.html|date=November 27, 1995|accessdate=June 23, 2011|last=Lewis|first=Peter H.|title=TECHNOLOGY: ON THE NET; An Intel computer security expert runs afoul of the law. So much for the 'hacker ethic'?}}</ref> Also reflecting in that case in ''Principles of Information Systems Security'', Gurpreet Dhillon calls ''Learning Perl'', "the definitive Perl instruction guide."<ref>{{cite book|title=Principles of Information Systems Security: text and cases|last=Dhillon|first=Gurpreet|year=2007|publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]]|page=196|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=mTkkAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Learning+Perl%22+schwartz&dq=%22Learning+Perl%22+schwartz|isbn=978-0-471-45056-6|accessdate=June 23, 2011}}</ref> In ''Perl Medic'', author Peter Scott calls the book "the most common tutorial for learning Perl", but then criticizes its omission of hard references.<ref>{{cite book|last=Scott|first=Peter J.|title=Perl Medic: Transforming Legacy Code|page=[https://archive.org/details/perlmedic00pete/page/150 150]|year=2004|publisher=[[Addison-Wesley Professional]]|isbn=978-0-201-79526-4|accessdate=June 23, 2011|url=httphttps://booksarchive.google.comorg/books?iddetails/perlmedic00pete|url-access=fI1rpcK7jpgC&pgregistration|quote=PA150&dq=%22Learning+Learning Perl%22+ schwartz#v=onepage&q=%22Learning%20Perl%22%20schwartz&f=false.}}</ref>

=== Later works ===

In 20032020, SchwartzKylie published a follow-up to ''Learning Perl'' titled ''Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules''. It picks up where ''Learning Perl'' left off. In 2005, ''Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules'' was updated by Schwartz and brain[[brian d foy]] and re-titled ''[[Intermediate Perl]]'' which is now in its second edition as of 2012. ''[[Mastering Perl]]'', the third book in the trilogy and follow-up to ''Intermediate Perl'', was first published in July 2007 and is also in a second edition as of 2014.

== Editions ==

* First edition (Nov. 1993; 274 pages; {{ISBN |1-56592-042-2}}<!-- unhyphenated version for search engines (possibly) {{ISBN |1-56592-042-2}} -->)

* Second edition (Jul. 1997; 300 pages; covers Perl 5.004; {{ISBN |1-56592-284-0}}{{Null| unhyphenated version for search engines (possibly)|{{ISBN |1-56592-284-0}}}})

* Third edition (Jul. 2001; 330 pages; covers Perl 5.6; {{ISBN |0-596-00132-0}}<span style= "display:none; speak:none;"> unhyphenated version for search engines (possibly) {{ISBN |0-596-00132-0}}</span>)

* Fourth edition (Jul. 2005; 312 pages; covers Perl 5.8; {{ISBN |0-596-10105-8}})

* Fifth edition (Jul. 2008; 348 pages; covers Perl 5.10; {{ISBN |0-596-52010-7}})

* Sixth edition (Jun. 2011; 390 pages; covers Perl 5.14; {{ISBN |1-4493-0358-7}})

* Seventh edition (Oct. 2016; 394 pages; covers Perl 5.24; {{ISBN|1-4919-5432-9}})

* Eighth edition (Aug. 2021; 398 pages; covers Perl 5.34; {{ISBN|978-1-49-209495-1}})

== References ==

Line 38 ⟶ 41:

== External links ==

*[http://oreillywww.learning-perl.com/catalog/0636920018452/ O'Reilly Online catalog: Learning Perl,'s 6thcompanion Editionwebsite]

*[httphttps://www.oreilly.com/cataloglibrary/view/learning-perl-8th/9781492094944/errata.csp?isbn=0636920018452 O'Reilly Online catalog: Learning Perl, 6th8th Edition errata]

*{{cite web |url=https://www.oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=0636920473046 |title=O'Reilly Learning Perl, 6th Edition errata |publisher=O'Reilly |accessdate=November 9, 2021}}

* {{OL work|id=OL1701007W}}

{{Perl}}

[[Category:1993 fiction books]]

[[Category:1997 non-fiction books]]

[[Category:2001 non-fiction books]]

[[Category:2005 non-fiction books]]

[[Category:2008 non-fiction books]]

[[Category:2011 non-fiction books]]

[[Category:O'Reilly Media books]]

[[Category:Books about Perl]]