Win 32 Perl Programming: The Standard Extensions

This book has cleared up a lot of mysteries about Win32 specific topics. Made using Win32 extensions easy. Great examples. Just be aware that this cannot be your only PERL book on the shelf. This is about interfacing with the Win32 platform, not really about how to program in PERL. You'll also need a more general PERL programming book such as "PERL by Example", if you're just starting out. I've got both and am constantly bouncing between them.

I bought this book simply because no other book addresses the use of Automation(OLE) from within Perl in as much detail. The O'Reilly "Learning Perl on Win32" has a small chapter but doesn't give as much detail or examples as this book does. Much to my delight after I was finished with this section, the other sections that deal with processes and writing your own extensions were immensely helpful. The custom extension section contains detailed explanation and coverage of many pitfalls that the author has obviously painfully discovered over time. This is definitely worth having on your shelf if you're using Perl on Win32!

I found only a few books dealing with the WIN32 extensions of PERL and after reading only parts of the book I am already impressed since this is not some theoretical book like many others but also deals with an overview about perl and how it's extensions in general work. He explains and lists the most common tasks like network administration, OLE, data access and so on. I didn't know PERL was able to accomplish so many goals when used with Windows NT. Looks better than O'REILLYs "Learning PERL on WIN32 systems" to me ... So: Forget ASP - Go PERL !

While other readers point out some errors in the book, I base my 5 star rating on this simple fact-- If you are programming Perl on Win32, you need this book. You will find information in this book that does not exist anywhere else. After reading this book, you will find yourself using Perl to do things on your NT box you wouldn't have considered possible with a scripting language.Mr. Roth provides many code samples, and sufficient background in the text. The information on ODBC, Pipes, and Sockets is worth the price of admission alone.While not without flaws, an invaluable resource for the serious Win32 Perl programmer.

There are tons of bits and pieces of this information on the web and in .htm help files, but this book brings it together nicely.