I saw on the FAQ that the "Perl 5 for NT in 21 Days" was recommended for
learning Win32. Though not on the FAQ, is Lemay's "Per in 21 Days" book also
worthwhile? I'm coming from a total non-programming background and was
looking at these 2 books (along with the "Learning Perl for Win32" book) at
the Library during lunch. I'm stopping back by on the way home and wonder
what I should get. I work in a Windows environment but I'm branching out
into Unix soon. Any ideas? Thanks!
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Folse [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 3:06 PM
To: Perl Beginners List
Subject: RE: A good book?
I also backed into programming. I am the quintessential
"Just Another
English Major Turned SysAdmin" sort. I also came in from
DOSneyland and
not from UNIX.
Still, I only undertook to learn Perl after some poking
around to see
what language would allow me to best do the sort of
automations I
wanted to do. Later, when I found myself deep into list
processing to
condition bad customer data files, I was glad I chose Perl.
Learning Perl may not teach you OOP, but that was not what a
true
beginner comes to learn. I thought it excellent and
occasionally
entertaining. (I still chuckle when I think of the index
entry for
RINDEX).
In general, for someone of my sort, Learning Perl is clearly
the way to
go. Having gotten through that, one should then rush out and
acquire
Programming Perl, and read the first several chapters
carefully.
Someone approaching Perl with a much stronger programming
background
might prefer to tackle Programming Perl or another book
directly. I am
not sure, however, that an experiened C++ program is the
intended
audience of this list.
Then subscribe to this excellent list, and get down to work.
--- Chris Lott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Chris> Personally, I think _Learning Perl_ is really
showing its age.
>
> I'm going to try to figure out how to say this without
insulting a
> book that
> I *do* like and authors who are both Perl wizards and
whose writing
> has
> given me a lot. Maybe dated isn't the right word, although
the books
> style
> is, for lack of a better word, more "old fashioned." I can
only speak
> to my
> own experience and that of those who I know, and I would
say that
> half still
> feel that the _Learning Perl_ book is the best book out
there, while
> the
> other half found other volumes more effective.
>
> I've recommended LP in the past many times, and there are
certain
> people to
> whom I still make that recommendation. In fact, that might
be part of
> it...
> those who are already programmers in another language seem
to really
> profit
> from LP.
>
> For me (who came into computers ass-backwards carrying
degrees in
> philosophy
> and writing poetry), it just didn't WORK that well. There
seemed to
> be
> little things assumed about the language and terminology
assumed
> about the
> reader that I wasn't grokking. I'll grant that it has been
a few
> years since
> I used the book (I was using a Second Edition though), nor
can I
> recall
> specifics since it has been a few years and I have since
learned to
> grasp at
> least a FEW more concepts.
>
> For what it is--a book that is meant to accompany or
represent a
> particular
> class of a particular length in hours-- LP is great. For
programmers
> in
> other languages, or who even have experience in any other
language,
> it is
> probably great. For me, with very little experience of any
kind, it
> didn't
> work out so well. As a single starting tome for beginners,
I feel
> that the
> expanded coverage of using modules, OO, CGI, and the
generally more
> lengthy
> and in-depth explanations of most concepts in the
_Beginning Perl_
> book are
> more fruitful. That might just be a quality of having more
room to
> explain
> concepts (or to luxuriate in explanations and handholding
and
> diagrams that
> others might not need, some would say). Yes, it would take
more time
> to
> cover that book, but my answer wasn't about what book
would fit in a
> limited
> number of hours best, but in a series of books that we
would
> recommend.
>
> > I pondered this question VERY carefully when redesigning
the llama
> > course over the past few years, which has become the
llama3 book
> soon
> > hitting the streets. There's nothing dated about a book
and course
> > that are updated every two months or so.
>
> I look forward to seeing this revision. The second edition
came out
> in 97,
> right?
>
> c
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