in reply to "Perl is read-only!"

Interestingly I believe that anything clever enough is going to be unreadable initially.. why? Because at some point the brain is going to have to be turned on to understand it.

But as far as coding goes the Camel book (Programming Perl ISBN 0596000278) has a whole chapter devoted to different programming techniques in perl to promote:
- maintennance efficiency
- programmer efficiency
- execution efficiency
- and others..

You really are punishing yourself if you don't buy this book. Not only does it cover this very topic well but it covers the whole language.

And even better, I enjoy reading this book beside my bed at night. Why? Because the language used is thoroughly enjoyable. The author of this book proves, once and for all, that programmers are not nerds lacking in real-world skills! I have a good chuckle because the book is intelligent and witty.. and there is the odd embedded joke that only someone who has indulged in PCs most of their lives would understand.

Enough said. Buy the book, seriously. It's the best US$40 you'll ever spend on Perl.

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Re^2: "Perl is read-only!"
by Pic (Scribe) on Jun 06, 2005 at 13:39 UTC
    Oh, don't you worry, I wuv my camel book. In fact, the camel book is the only book I used to learn perl, and it's the best learning experience I've had yet.
    As a matter of fact I've tried to learn some python a few times by using the online tutorial at python.org, but all that tutorial does to me is annoy me so much I just close my browser and do some perl instead.
    And you're right about clever stuff being incomprehensible at first. But the brain can be helped a bit on its way by not doing in 1 200 character line what you can do in 5 60 character lines.=)
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Re^2: "Perl is read-only!"
by kaif (Friar) on Jun 06, 2005 at 13:43 UTC

    Agreed on how great that book is. In fact, when I say "For Perl 5, I would read the manpages similarly [over and over again]" in Perl 6 through diffusion, I mostly mean the Camel Book. And a little of the actual manpages.

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