Games, Diversions, and Perl Culture: Best of the Perl Journal

by Jon Orwant

The Perl Journal (TPJ) did something most print journals aspire to, but few succeed. Within a remarkable short time, TPJ acquired a cult-following and became the voice of the Perl community. Every serious Perl programmer subscribed to it, and every notable Perl guru jumped at the opportunity to write for it. Back issues were swapped like trading cards. No longer in print format, TPJ remains the quintessential spirit of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596003129
• ISBN13: 9780596003128
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 585 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Some jewels and a lot of fluff

This is a tome at 600 pages. But at 48 chapters each one is really small. This is because the book is actually a set of articles. Some of the articles are fantastic and very helpful. Specifically between 18 and 23, which cover text handling for stuff like smart searching and internationalization. Other chapters, like 37, which is about Perl Haikus, are really for the hardcore Perl lover.For the average Perl user, check it out to make sure that you are getting the content you need. For the hardcore, you were going to by this book anyway, so why are you reading reviews. ;-)

Casual & fun

This book is a grab bag of fun Perl uses. The obfuscated Perl contests are completely mind-bending - it's amazing what people can do with this language. The games material is a little light, but overall a good read.