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latest perl book.

by Anonymous Monk
on Aug 31, 2020 at 19:44 UTC ( [id://11121230]=perlquestion: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello Monks,

I have to learn Perl for some scripting and automation stuff. I checked the Modern Perl book, but it seems to be written for an experienced folks. Is there a perl book that's recent enough so that I can use and good enough for a beginner? The somewhat latest one I see is "Learning Perl: Making Easy Things Easy and Hard Thing Possible". This is a 2016 edition. Is this good or are there more latest books available? Note - I will be starting with Perl 5.30 or 5.32.

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Re: latest perl book.
by davido (Cardinal) on Sep 01, 2020 at 05:05 UTC

    I usually recommend Learning Perl, and Intermediate Perl. Those two, combined with some of the POD, will get you most of what you need to be able to take some existing programming skills and apply them toward making yourself useful with Perl.

    POD (Plain Old Documentation) that ships with Perl, that I recommend as starting points include:


    Dave

Re: latest perl book.
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Aug 31, 2020 at 20:10 UTC

    Assuming you're the same anonymonk who asked this recent question (Beginning Perl (Ovid) Vs Learning Perl?) I think both Beginning Perl (2012) and Learning Perl (2016) are suitable and the answers given in that node still apply. Perl is a mature language, books are great for learning concepts, and the concepts haven't changed much in the last few years. Whichever book you get, you'll still need to check the latest Perl documentation.

      ...as a follow up to my other post -

      >concepts haven't changed much in the last few years

      The mark of a superb book on computing (and technology) is that is ages like a fine wine. There are a tremendous number of "old" Perl books that are still in effect worth their weight in dead trees. Best part is that you can scoop these books up very cheaply on your online book purveyor of choice.

      Examples include:

      • Computer Science & Perl Programming: Best of TPJ (Orwant)
      • Network Programming with Perl (Stein)
      • Extending and Embedding Perl (Jennes, Cozen)
      • Perl for System Administration (Blank-Edelman)
      • Perl Cookbook (Christiansen, et al.)
      • Advanced Perl Programming (Cozens)
      • Data Munging with Perl (Cross)

      The trick is learning to ignore some of the old idioms or discouraged idioms that are present in the books. Things to avoid: Using old skool CGI for web applications and crusty versions of Perl and XML (Ray, McIntosh) - not sure of the freshness of later editions of the latter, but earlier editions recommend some modules that are not longer encouraged. But it also doesn't really demonstrate some foundational uses of Perl either like the others I've recommended.

Re: latest perl book.
by stevieb (Canon) on Aug 31, 2020 at 21:06 UTC
    "I can use and good enough for a beginner?"

    Can you please explain 'beginner'? Are you a Perl beginner, or beginner in programming in general?

      Hi, Thanks for asking. I've done a bit of python scripting in the past but that was long time ago.
        Do you have an application in mind? This is important. If you have the nagging feeling that you just need to learn Perl, find an application, tool, or game you can dig into and get started. Generally asking how to do X in Perl around here is going to be a lot more fruitful than simply learning Perl. A lot of people fall into Perl due to drawing the short straw at work. Others are compelled to it from something less definitive. If you're in the latter category, I agree it can be a little harder to break into it unless you have something that generates the external motivation. You don't have to answer it here (though I am curious), if you could create a tool to do something, what would it be? It really comes down to having some work to do and getting done with Perl.

        Some general examples of "tools":

        • system administration (e.g., monitoring, cronjob, etc)
        • something to drive a GUI (e.g., Tk)
        • munging data (log files, input data for something scientific)
        • a tool to help manage the contents of a local database file
        • a web application, done the right way
        • a social media feed monitor that emails you when your ex checks in somewhere
        etc...
        A reply falls below the community's threshold of quality. You may see it by logging in.
Re: latest perl book.
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Sep 02, 2020 at 21:48 UTC
Re: latest perl book.
by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Sep 02, 2020 at 14:00 UTC

    A lot of good advice has already been given. For further inspiration and to see «How the rabbit runs» (or not) you might take a look at Rosseta. I personally learned also a lot by reading other people’s code. Best regards and have fun. Karl

    «The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe»

    perl -MCrypt::CBC -E 'say Crypt::CBC->new(-key=>'kgb',-cipher=>"Blowfish")->decrypt_hex($ENV{KARL});'Help

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