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

Hi all,

I was at a bookshop and saw a Perl 6 book published by xPress (can't remember who the author is). It was wrapped in plastic so I couldn't see what's inside.

Anyway, I'm wondering if it's a little too early to invest in a Perl 6 book. It appears to me certain aspects of the language are still being thrashed out and it will be some time before the finer aspects of the language take root.

What are your thoughts?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl 6 books
by tlm (Prior) on May 01, 2005 at 12:25 UTC

    I'm staying away from Perl 6 books but for a different reason: there's way too much Perl 5 stuff ahead of them on my reading list! From the little I know of Perl 6 it I gather that it will be an extremely cool language, but it will also be a much richer and more sophisticated language than Perl 5, so I don't think it would be entirely premature to start learning about it now, specially the about the more sophisticated new features. That said, there's a fair amount of stuff to read online before hitting the books: the Perl6 FAQ, the Exegeses, the Synopses, the Apocalypses, and TimToady's writeups. There was a thread recently that you may find worth reading.

    the lowliest monk

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Re: Perl 6 books
by Arunbear (Prior) on May 01, 2005 at 13:45 UTC
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      That's the one, I think :)
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Re: Perl 6 books
by ghenry (Vicar) on May 01, 2005 at 11:11 UTC

    IBM has quite a good writeup on Three essential Perl books, which includes a Perl 6 one.

    Walking the road to enlightenment... I found a penguin and a camel on the way.....
    Fancy a yourname@perl.me.uk? Just ask!!!
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Re: Perl 6 books
by PerlBear (Hermit) on May 01, 2005 at 17:28 UTC
    Greetings!
    Although I would tend to agree with our fellow monks in that Perl 6 is still quite a distance off and we can only speculate on it's true final form; I would be inclined to recommend these two O'Reilly Books: I found these two books to be well structured and insightful as to what the possibilities of Perl 6 might be. Enjoy the read!
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Re: Perl 6 books
by HuckinFappy (Pilgrim) on May 02, 2005 at 04:35 UTC
    "Perl 6 Now - The Core Ideas Illustrated of Perl 5" It's sitting on my desk now...it's been competing with Higher Order Perl for my attention, but so far I've found it very interesting. Not having a CS degree, or a lot of experience with anything except Perl 5, some of the concepts I've been following on the Perl 6 Language list have been sort of foreign to me.

    It's a kind, gentle introduction to those concepts, with real world examples of using them in Perl 5, along with the best idea of what the Perl 6 syntax will be. So far, it has my recommendation....

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Re: Perl 6 books
by TedPride (Priest) on May 01, 2005 at 17:01 UTC
    The best time to move to Perl 6 is after everyone else has already done so - at least several years from now. The vast majority of programming jobs don't require anything more advanced than 5.x.

    If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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      The best time to move to Perl 6 is after everyone else has already done so

      By that argument nobody ever moves to Perl 6.

      The vast majority of programming jobs don't require anything more advanced than 5.x

      The vast majority of programming jobs don't require anything more advanced than assembler. The question is will Perl 6 make the majority of programming jobs easier than Perl 5.

      I think it will. I certainly hope it will since I'm already abandoning Perl 5 for other languages like Ruby which make my life easier - but I still have a great fondness for Perl and am looking forward to its new incarnation.

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