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

im somewhat brand new to perl, no programming expierence whatsoever... can anyone recommend any good books to start, or the path of the righteous.... thankx bklynjames

Edit kudra, 2001-08-06 Added to title

  • Comment on newbie requests book recommendations: What Perl book to start with?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: newbie...
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Aug 03, 2001 at 23:45 UTC
    If you're on a Unix machine, read Learning Perl. If you're on Windows, read Learning Perl on Win32. Both are from O'Reilly Associates and are 5-star books. I purchased the first to teach my girlfriend how to program and she's never programmed before.

    After that, get yourself a copy of Programming Perl, also by ORA. If you make this into a career, you will want that as your reference.

    Oh - welcome aboard! :)

    ------
    /me wants to be the brightest bulb in the chandelier!

      I disagree. The second edition of "Learning Perl" (which was the one that also came with a Win32 edition) was not aimed at complete non-programmers. I hear that the 3rd edition addresses this, but I haven't read it yet. The 3rd edition also does away with the need for a separate Win32 version as it covers cross-platform information in more detail.

      In my opinion, the best book for non-programmers to learn Perl is Andrew Johnson's "Elements of Programming with Perl".

      --
      <http://www.dave.org.uk>

      Perl Training in the UK <http://www.iterative-software.com>

Re: newbie...
by tachyon (Chancellor) on Aug 03, 2001 at 23:46 UTC

    Have a look at Your first Perl Book for a full rundown - even has the results of a little survey. Personally I would not recommend Programming Perl (top in the survey) as a first book although I use it as a reference every day and you will need it if you plan to do a lot of Perl.

    cheers

    tachyon

    s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n.+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print

Re: newbie requests book recommendations
by Maclir (Curate) on Aug 06, 2001 at 07:03 UTC
    The Perl Cookbook is another good one to have in your library.