Learning Perl: Difference between revisions

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'''''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=https://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), sixth (2011), and seventh (2016) 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 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'']].

== Reactions ==

Brad Morrey, reviewing the book for [[InfoWorld]], 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=[[InfoWorld]]|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=https://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=https://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=https://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=https://archive.org/details/perlmedic00pete|url-access=registration|quote=Learning Perl schwartz.}}</ref>

=== Later works ===