My new Learning Perl Objects, References and Modules, the long-awaited sequel to Learning Perl, has just hit O'Reilly's catalog.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: 'Alpaca' book hits O'Reilly website
by halley (Prior) on May 01, 2003 at 17:44 UTC
    Okay, a long-standing question in my mind... who chooses the critter for the cover? Who decided that an Alpaca would be the best cross between a Camel and a Llama?

    And congrats.

    --
    [ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]

      I've actually had it in my mind to do the Alpaca book since just before the Llama book came out. I chose the name "Alpaca" because it was the only other animal I knew about in the Camel/Llama family, and I had expected to remain only an internal code name throughout the project, with the real animal chosen (as always) by Edie.

      However, on November 1st, 1993, the release date of the first edition of the Llama, I got distracted by a legal case, and had to shelve any immediate plans for book writing, as I urgently needed cash to feed the lawyers.

      That's part of the reason I'm happy that I've finally been able to come full circle, and finish what was already started in 1993.

      During the authoring of this book, I used the Alpaca name for our internal correspondance, expecting full well that a different animal would be selected. However, the O'Reilly editor Linda Mui asked for and got a really nice bushy Alpaca for the cover. And there it is!

      -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
      Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

Re: 'Alpaca' book hits O'Reilly website
by RMGir (Prior) on May 01, 2003 at 17:52 UTC
    <quote>
    If the arrow winds up between "subscripty kinds of things," like square brackets, you can also drop the arrow.
    </quote>

    Nicely put! perlref says it too, but this is more memorable.

    I think that's going to be a good read.
    --
    Mike

Re: 'Alpaca' book hits O'Reilly website
by Trimbach (Curate) on May 01, 2003 at 21:10 UTC
    It looks like the online sample chapter is from a draft (non-final) version of the book. Figure 1-1 on page 24 says "Randall/Tom: This needs a caption."

    Just FYI. :-)

    Gary Blackburn
    Trained Killer