Perl Annotated Archives [With *]

by Martin C. Brown

"Perl Annotated Archives" provides fully working examples that derive from the Web and the author's own vast code library, contains descriptions of how the programmer tackled problems in line-by-line... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0078825571
• ISBN13: 9780078825576
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Osborne Publishing
• Length: 798 Pages
• Weight: 3.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 7.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Wait...

Wait... Although this is a good book, it doesn't mean that it'll teach you perl. It actually doesn't intend to teach you perl from basics. What I really love about this book is, it gives a reader lots of ideas on how to use perl efficiently. Those who are hoocked on CGI can also buy this book. After buying the book you can either 1)read through it and have new ideas on how you could write perl programs efficiently or 2) just grab the ready-to-use programs from the CD and run'em. I agree, this is not the only book that provides you with ready-to-use programs. I also wrote a review to CGI/Perl Cookbook, which got my just one star. Difference between these two titles is that, CGI/Perl Cookbook is pretty far from giving you tips and doesn't go through their ready-to-use programs in details. As to Perl:Annotated Archives, it does a good job on explaining the programs. Also the programs included in the book are intended to handle some very frequent tasks, like checking HTML validity, Managing your news pages, CGI security (for details look at the table of contents in the left menu).If you are beginner and want to learn perl and to be able to write your own programs and modules, I do not recommend you this title. Don't buy it. Go for either CGI101(highly recommend it) or Elizabeth Castro's Quick Start guide.In overall, this is a good book, which provides you with lots of usefull ideas and programs as well.

Martin++ !

There's something wonderful about a book that doesn't sit on a shelf for any period of time. It becomes dog-eared from use and its layout and content becomes familiar. Martin Brown's Perl and Python Annotated Archives are two such books in my personal collection. I find myself constantly switching between computer languages and with books like these, it's a snap to become productive very quickly. Other reviews here have covered the fine examples in the AA books but what struck me the most was that Martin doesn't overly rely on modules from CPAN to illustrate his point. Some have likened CPAN's contents to being 'software integrated circuits' -- something you just plug and and use. This is great for people who don't care about the details and have a but if you want to learn how things really work, this book's example code is where it's at. Of course he's no dummy and liberally uses things like Getopt in the right amounts.If you build Web solutions and only have time to absorb one chapter, read and understand the CGI security chapter. My personal favorite has to be either the entries on databases or the cross platform systems administration section. Too many Perl books concentrate on Unix and don't acknowledge other OSes. I think 'macfbf.pl' might be the first code example for the Macintosh I've seen in a Perl book!There's a lot for Perl newbies and old dogs to learn from this book and it's well worth the effort to glean something from every chapter. Martin is one of the most interactive authors I've ever dealt with and always responds to emailed suggestions, questions and constructive criticism with a professional yet friendly tone. He's been quick to point out the very rare typographic mistakes and updates his Web site's errata section quickly. That alone makes his books worth having!

An essential book for all Perl users and teachers

There are many ways to learn a programming language but only a few yield positive results. One of the most effective solutions is to learn how to use a particular language to solve real-world problems, and this is precisely the approach that Martin C. Brown chose to help the reader of his excellent Perl Annotated Archives book learn the language that powers hundreds of thousands of Internet and intranet servers around the world. Instead of a series of dry lessons found in many Perl textbooks, with Perl AA you can start writing and experimenting with the source code right after you open this book. This makes it an ideal book for both teachers of the Perl programming language and for their students who want to see how theory they learn works in practice. Perl is not an easy language to learn and the lack of commented code samples is what discourages a lot of people from learning it. Martin C. Brown does an excellent job of teaching not only how to write useful applications but also how to keep your code simple, clean and easy to maintain which is no mean feat considering how easy it is to write cryptic code in Perl. So, the first star is for what's between the covers.I'm sure that many people who tried to learn a programming language from a book will agree that it is not enough to just dump the best ideas and code onto paper--they must be presented in a way that helps the reader to quickly find any little bit of information he/she needs. I found nothing to complain about in that department and I agree with my students who often praise this book for its ease of use and the ease of access to the information contained inside it. The second star is therefore for the presentation of the material.How about the accuracy of the text and the source code? Well, it is *very* high and does not contain any serious errors. This has been confirmed by my students who have been using this book for the last six months and found very little errors or omissions. Those that were spotted are not fatal and can be quite easily fixed by the readers themselves. That's why the third star is for the accuracy of the material. The fourth star is for the CD-ROM disc sold with the book. Although the CD-ROM disc is an almost essential companion to a computer book, it rarely is utilized in a way that justifies it's additional cost. However, what I found on the disc sold with Perl AA made me very happy. I love it when I can copy, paste and customize *full* source code and not only short examples. You can use it as a source of ready-made solutions and a great learning/teaching tool. The last, fifth star is for Martin C. Brown's reader support. His Web site is a treasure chest for those who are looking for free code (Martin makes tons of code available for free), updates or error corrections (not that Martin makes a lot of mistakes he needs to correct). Rarely you will find an author who offers such support and that's something you

Good "Book no. 2" for those just beginning to learn Perl.

This book approaches Perl from a different angle than any other I've read. Instead of teaching the basics, it shows the reader how to use Perl effectively to solve day-to-day problems. Processing web logs, file handling, generating reports from text files and databases, sending and receiving mail, building dynamic web pages, extracting HTML and administrating network. These are just few of the subject this books touches. It also shows the reader how using CPAN archives can save much time (and frustration). Old timers will probably not find anything they didn't already know, but less experienced system administrator will find this book a good help and a time saver. I would also recommend this to anyone wanting to know "how to use Perl" as opposed "how to write Perl".