Review: Data Munging with Perl

[David L. Nicol]

Dave Cross's new book, published by Manning, which means it has
a figure from an old guide to native dress of the peoples of the
world on the cover instead of some kind of animal, tells everything
you need to know about using Perl for what it is most suited for:
manipulating data.

Starting with the source/filter/sink theory of data manipulation
and demonstrating every tip and technique with clear and efficient
examples, without severe digressions into mythological whimsy,
this book would make an excellent second text on the Perl language,
or a suitable first for someone who is good with programming languages.

Many of the techniques contained in it are of "trade secret" quality;
they are the sort of write-the-number-of-gallons-of-paint-it-took-to-paint-
the-room-on-the-back-of-the-light-switch-cover practices that until now
had to be learned or happened upon by every programmer, alone, or by example,
rather than in the context of a coherent theory.

The theoretical side, in which "munging" is defined and most software
activity is described in terms of it, is clear enough that the book might be
an interesting read for management, to answer the question "Just what is it
about Perl that makes those who use it regularly so confoundedly fanatical?"

If you've ever been mystified by a Perl wizard who found it easier to export
the records from the fancy GUI database into a comma delimited text file
and then sort and display the data with mysterious little programs rather than
use the GUI's native report generator, and want to find out why, or if you
would like to become such a person yourself, or if you already are such a 
person but would like to get better at it, this book is for you.


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1930110006/tipjartransactioA/



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                      David Nicol 816.235.1187 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"All of a sudden it hit me: tk was short for Thorndike-Kibre Index"