Perl 5 Interactive Course: Certified Edition [With Contains Ready-To-Run Scripts, Cpan Utilities...]

This is the book I am using to learn Perl. I'm a CS student now, and I've learned C and C++. We use a lot of Perl at work. I tried to learn Perl from the Camel book (Programming Perl, 2nd ed.), but found it hard to follow, especially reg exp. I think the OReilly books are good if you already know some Perl, but this is the best one to use to start learning Perl. Plus the Camel book assumes you're on a Unix system, while this can be used on Unix or Win32, and it comes with perl on cd-rom.

When I read other people's reviews, I always wonder what kind of background these people have in programming. Well, here is my background: I know HTML, JavaScript, C++, a little bit of Java, DHTML, and databases. When I found out that I had to learn Perl, I was scared because, after 4 years of college, that is the first language that I had to learn completely on my own. However, this book made my learning experience as easy as possible. The book provides very good explanations, a lot of examples, and an EXCELLENT reference section. I think this is one of the best programming books I have read so far.

Supurb. Few computer books are written as intelligently as this. Perl is a complex and subtle language, and this book is therefore necessarily quite long. If you want to learn perl quickly, read chapters 1-5 of this book and do ALL of the example problems, which are an integral part of this author's didactic method. The problems draw out subtleties not explicitly covered in the text. An excellent, excellent book. Thanks, Jon.

This is an excellent book for learning perl. It gets you started on all aspects, such as CGI, but it is not the last word, of course. It is also a good reference. Because of the editorial mistakes in the first edition, this books reputation has suffered. That is unfortunate. It is not the only Perl book to own, but it is a useful one that you can rely on as you learn more and more of what Perl has to offer.

If you need a general purpose tool in the Internet age that is object oriented and quicker to implement than Java, C, or C++, PERL 5 is the solution. Orwant works at the MIT Media Lab and his presentation skills are far superior to most technical authors. In addition, he is the Editor in Chief of the Perl Journal so he knows more about Perl than the average programmer. Highly recommended.