bookreview
splinky
<em><a href=http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/>
Perl Cookbook</a></em> by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington<br>
ISBN 1-56592-243-3<br>
Copyright 1998, <a href=http://www.oreilly.com>
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.</a>
<p>
<strong>Capsule Review</strong>
<p>
Excellent book. 5 stars out of 5.
<p>
Who should be interested in this book?
<ul>
<li>All Perl programmers</li>
<li>Anyone interested in learning Perl</li>
<li>Particularly, anyone who learns best by example</li>
</ul>
<p>
<strong>Full Review</strong>
<p>
There are very few books I consider essential to a good Perl
library, and the <em>Perl Cookbook</em> is one of them. The
information is excellent, and I think O'Reilly hit a home
run when they combined Tom Christiansen's attention to
detail with Nathan Torkington's wit.
<p>
Like many people, I learn best by looking at examples and
tweaking them to see what happens. If you're like me,
you'll love this book. Nothing but examples start to
finish. 733 glorious, fun-filled pages of them.
<p>
The book is also thoughtfully and carefully organized. The
first few chapters are basic, introductory Perl, and then
the book gradually builds through process management and
interprocess communication, finally ending with CGI
programming and web automation. And within each chapter,
the examples slowly escalate in complexity, so that even as
you're learning how to do what the example is about, you're
also coming across more and more advanced language features
and idioms.
<p>
So, is there anything wrong with the book? Some people may
be put off by its rather disjointed feel. Take <em>Object
Oriented Perl</em>, for example. It is, of course, about
writing object oriented programs with Perl. Every chapter
is directed toward that theme.
<p>
But the <em>Perl Cookbook</em>, by its very nature, has no
single unifying theme. It's about doing just about anything
you can think of in Perl. So, every chapter stands on its
own, and to a large extent every section is autonomous, as
well.
<p>
The question is, is this really a bad thing? I would argue
that it isn't. The book is exactly what it claims to be. A
recipe book. Recipe books don't read like novels.
The recipes are organized in sections -- casseroles,
desserts, meats, and so forth -- but I better not have to go
back and read the Bread Pudding recipe in order to make
Banana Pudding. So, the <em>Perl Cookbook</em> is organized
exactly as it should be. Into neat little free-standing
recipes.
<p>
However, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't point
out the one real problem with the <em>Perl Cookbook</em>.
The title. The book's title is <em>Perl Cookbook</em>. Why
couldn't they have put a "The" at the beginning? I thought
I'd eventually get used to it, but it <strong>still</strong>
irritates me. Oh, well. Nothing is perfect, I suppose.
<p>
So, in summary, an excellent book, especially for those of
us who learn by example. Go get one right now.
<p>
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