Mastering Perl (the book) mailing list

Since we (Randal, Tom, and I) finished Intermediate Perl, I've been working on a proposal for the next book, tentatively called Mastering Perl, which will be the next in progression from Perl newbie and full practitioner.

I'm running the process much like Mark Jason Dominus did for Higher Order Perl. Instead of locking myself in a coffee-shop for six months then showing you the result, everyone can take part at all stages. I don't have more than the page and a mailing list at the moment, but I am working on the book and will add things as I get them going.

Since a topic such as Mastering Perl is so general, the list of topics doesn't naturally present itself (or at least as much as they do for Learning Perl. I've already been secretly trolling for ideas in What's missing in Perl books?, Which non-Perl books made you a better (?:Perl )?Programmer?, and a few other places, but now I can be a lot more public and transparent about the project.

If you've never had a name in a book, now's your chance.

--
brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com>
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Re: Mastering Perl (the book) mailing list by zentara (Cardinal) on Jan 04, 2006 at 11:47 UTC
How about doing a statistical analysis of the nodes here on Perlmonks(and comp.lang.perl.misc), and presenting the most commonly asked questions (master level and not already a faq entry) with the best solutions offered? Maybe a picture emerges. I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. flash japh	[reply]
Re^2: Mastering Perl (the book) mailing list by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Jan 04, 2006 at 19:31 UTC
Yes, send me the results when you finish that! -- brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com> Subscribe to The Perl Review	[reply]
Re^3: Mastering Perl (the book) mailing list by zentara (Cardinal) on Jan 05, 2006 at 11:38 UTC
Estimated completion date: Jun1, 2011. Would you mind paying in advance? :-) I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. flash japh	[reply]
Re: Mastering Perl (the book) mailing list by systems (Pilgrim) on Jan 05, 2006 at 10:41 UTC
I am not sure I agree on the categorization the author made! In the book proposal, the author suggest it fills the gap between programming perl, and advanced perl programming. After thinking about this statement for a while, I don't think I agree that there is such a gap. Advanced Perl, seem to cover domain specific topics, while programming perl teaches perl, with as much detail as possible Point is, I think we need to do a better segmentation for the programming book markets, from the quality of many books, I have my doubts anyone have done so seriously When I started to learn programming, I had 3 types of questions? Beginners questions: What is Object Oriented? Which IDE should I use? Vi Or Emacs? Which language should I pick: python or perl? whats a socket? What a port? How do I hack an IP? what is ODBC Post beginners questions: How does a program really work? What do I need to know to be very very good? Whats a services? Whats a daemon? Should I learn assembly? Whats really a network? How do I compile? How does the compilation process work? what is linking? whats ADO and OLE? Post post beginner questions: How do I do xxxx? How can I manage my code? To be more specific my categorization is, level 1, I dont know nothing, i want broad guide lines. level 2, I want to know the theory and indepth knowledge of how things work level 3,now that I know many things I want to be productive In my experience, most books that try to attack level 1 and 2 fails badly, and instead of doing so, what i see is Beginner book, attack level 3, but simple stuff, how to create an object, manipulate a string, do simple math, looping and branching (basic alogirthms) Intermediate book, attack level 3, but more complex stuff, database programming, gui programming, web programming. Advanced book, at level 3, but they attack more topic that concern code administration and maintenace of code Well, finally, i would like to say, i wonna see more books on level 1 and 2, those will really help create programmers with the fundamental knowledge, programmers who know why we do what we do, and not just how? on a side note, i couldn't find the table of content, of the intermediate perl programming book, and i have to admit, intermediate have to be where most programmers see themselves, very smart and attractive title	[reply]
Re: Mastering Perl (the book) mailing list by sub_chick (Hermit) on Jan 08, 2006 at 11:35 UTC
Coming from a beginner, I have to say that what I am seeing in some books are a lack of a thorough subroutine chapter. The camel book (3rd ed.) seems to go straight into tricks of the trade without laying out the basics. And I was a bit suprised at that since I found the pattern-matching chapter so well written and informative. So, I checked out the SR chapter in the llama book (3rd ed.) and again I felt as though I didn't get a full understanding. Maybe its just me being a newbie, but the pattern-matching chapter managed 77 pages while the subroutine chapter pulled out a measly 16 (in the camel book). I would like to see a mastering chapter for subroutines, one to put the others to shame. Es gibt mehr im Leben als Bücher, weißt du. Aber nicht viel mehr. - (Die Smiths)"	[reply]
Re^2: Mastering Perl (the book) mailing list by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Jan 09, 2006 at 18:49 UTC
What did you find missing in the subroutine chapter of the Llama? Did you not understand something, or are you thinking it is more complicated than it really is? There really isn't that much to subroutines, while there is quite a bit to regular expressions. -- brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com> Subscribe to The Perl Review	[reply]
Re: Mastering Perl (the book) mailing list by jcc (Sexton) on Jan 05, 2006 at 19:45 UTC
Hmmm... does this finally mean we get a Bactrian camel O'Reilly book?	[reply]
Re^2: Mastering Perl (the book) mailing list by Old_Gray_Bear (Bishop) on Jan 09, 2006 at 19:14 UTC
Not necessarily, the Camelids are composed of genus Camelus (Bactrian and Dromedary camals),the genus Lama (the Llama, Alpaca, and Guanaco), and genus Vicugna (Vincuna). In addition, there are a pack of extinct genera, which may or may not be a good thing to put on the covers (Using Legacy Perl i.e. "The Titanotylopus" ....) ---- I Go Back to Sleep, Now. OGB	[reply]