in reply to Beginner Recommendations

which leads me to believe the books are either old or Perl itself hasn't been updated in a long time.

There has been much effort to ensure backwards compatibility, such that older scripts run more or less unchanged on newer Perls. This means, that, while the books are "old", they (at least the good ones) are not outdated.

I second the Modern Perl book, which is available both on paper and online.

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Re^2: Beginner Recommendations
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Jan 24, 2023 at 09:27 UTC

    I second the Modern Perl book, which is available both on paper and online

    I third the Modern Perl book! :) I really love this little book, authored by an expert Perl programmer and a superb writer (chromatic) ... hmmm, this is probably a rare combination. :) This book gets to the point clearly and succinctly, not wasting time with beginner stuff because it assumes you're already a decent programmer, but new to Perl.

    So if the OP is already an accomplished programmer, it's ideal. OTOH, if the OP is new to programming in general, a gentler book, such as Learning Perl, may be a better fit.

    BTW in addition to my list of Perl book references (kindly mentioned by haukex) I keep a list of Learning Perl Links.

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Re^2: Beginner Recommendations
by Anonymous Monk on Jan 24, 2023 at 17:53 UTC
    This is really far from a beginner recommendation, but Higher Order Perl by Mark Jason Dominus is a brilliant book and available for free too... It assumes an intermediate level of Perl already, and hopefully a brain that's capable of digesting everything it has to offer.
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