Perl from the Ground Up: Amazon.co.uk: Michael McMillan: Books

Product Description

This edition teaches the basics of Perl using lessons and real-world examples. It also provides an advanced treatment of Perl's use in information processing. Covering both UNIX and Windows 95/NT, the book begins with a description of the Perl language and gradually progresses to explain how it is used for Internet and Web programming. Appendices include the resources of the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network and a glossary of Perl terms. The book covers version 5.003. Perl is a freely distributed scription and general-purpose programming language that has become very popular as a systems administration and Internet programming tool. It has been described as the "Swiss-Army chain saw" of UNIX tools, but over time has become the language of choice among system administrators for quickly cobbling together utility programs. The dramatic popularity of the Internet and World Wide Web has pushed Perl into the forefront of professional programming. Much of the back-end processing on Web servers is done with CGI scripts written in Perl. Its rising use in mission-critical applications, ranging from financial transactions to aeronautical design has transformed Perl from a simple programming tool to a means for obtaining dynamic data and printing out easily formatted reports. Perl currently runs on DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, VMS, OS/2, Windows and many flavours of UNIX.

From the Author

This book is for beginners and intermediate programmers.
Perl from the Ground Up is written for beginning and intermediate programmers who want to find out what Perl is all about. Unlike other Perl books, this book doesn't assume you are already a programming expert or a Unix wizard.

The first part of the book starts out discussing basic Perl programming concepts and moves to more advanced material once you've mastered writing basic Perl programs. The second part of the book covers using Perl to get specific day-to-day programming tasks done, such as:

* Web and CGI programming * System administration * Advanced data manipulation * GUI design using Perl/Tk

Many people who know I program in Perl ask me what Perl is good for besides CGI. Perl from the Ground Up will show you that Perl can be used for just about every programming task you face, including CGI.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Perl explained easily and methodically!! 27 Jun 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

If you are a programmer who has experience with C, C++, Pascal etc. and want to try something fairly easy to convert to, then Perl is it. This book is great for any programmer who knows the basics. All the coded examples are well explained and each section falls nicely into the next. I'm reading the 1998 which has some spelling mistakes and some wrongly coded bits (assigning values to constants after they have already been assigned!!).

Its great for anyone with experience and who likes to have things explained in detail, giving several examples!! Good book

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Methodology is bad, examples are poor and buggy. 3 May 1999

The book does not meet its goals. It does not serve for interesting sequential reading and cannot be regarded as a reference either. Plus the examples are logically poor and full of bugs. Special shame to Osborne McGraw-Hill - don't trust their "Free Code online" bonus! The archive is highly incomplete so in order to understand buggy samples you'll have to type and fix them manually.

Excellent starter for people new to Perl 22 Mar 1999

I was looking for a text to learn Perl literally from the ground up and this is the book. The subject matter is broken up logically into chapters which can be read in sequence to progressively build up your understanding of the language and its capabilities but which also function effectively as a reference - from Hello World through CGI, Database and GUI development. It is concise and readable - not jumping too deeply into esoteric subjects like regular expressions before the reader is confident with the basic language constructs. There are bugs in the sample code which is a bit annoying but not hard to recognise and you'll want to obtain other books as more advanced references to specific topics. You find this book useful for some time though before you need more in depth texts. I would recommend this to any computing professional wanting to learn Perl.