Rating: 
Summary: Reference but NOT the bok to discover PERL
Review: One of my friend give me this book because I need to make small scripts in PERL. I was absolutely not familiar with PERL and I have sometimes lots of difficulties to understand the examples given. They are not well commented. I often wonder "What is the meaning of this ... hum" You can buy this book if you want a reference, you shouldn't if you are searching something to begin. I am here to order something another book... and will upadte this comment later
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Summary: Good Reference, but hard to read.
Review: First of all, most of this material is available for free on perl.com, which makes it seem a little overpriced. Second this is more of a reference than a book you can actually read. Learning Perl is excellent-- get that first.
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Summary: big book, lots of material, but a tough read
Review: I'm not all that enamored with this book. I have many years of programming experience in various languages, and even with that background this book is difficult to follow. The author keeps making idiotic comparisons between "natural, spoken language" and PERL syntax. To me that just takes up space and isn't useful at all. Then when he discusses important concepts which differ from other languages (e.g. the way PERL handles variables), I find his explanations difficult to follow.Surely there must be better books than this!
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Summary: This is the Meat and Potatoes of Perl
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I have a limited knowledge of Perl, yet Larry Wall has a way of describing the language that is informative and instructional without trying to be cute or overly simplistic. I found that everything in this book was useful and very informative. This book explains how to use and program such things as loop statements, passing references in subroutines, as well as a section on common practices showing common goofs of novices as well as other beneficial information to make your scripts better. If you are looking for a book that will give you more of the meat and potatoes of Perl, instead of leading you by the hand, this book is what you want.
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Summary: Programming the Perl Way . . .
Review: I was recently asked by a peer (a senior software engineer more at home with Java than Perl) my opinion of this book. After writing it I thought it suitable enough for framing: "Hmm. Learning Perl and Programming Perl 3e both have roughtly the same information. However, the presentation in Learning Perl is a little more clear on some topics--and is more suitable for less experienced programmers. My recommendation is that you shy away from Learning Perl unless you find that Programming Perl 3e does not fulfill all your basic Perl needs." This is to say that if you are reasonably technical and able to pick up on programming, Programming Perl is more suitable than Learning Perl. I have found both invaluable in my career, but looking back I realized that Programming Perl has been most helpful. The authors of this book are the names in Perl. They are intimately familiar with the material and have had years of experience in finding the best way to present the material. I also suggest the Perl Cookbook, but it has enough recommendations on its own.
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Summary: Don't buy this book
Review: This is a book that quickly starts out with a convoluted discussion of the "splice" function, comparing its workings with those of pop, shift, unshift, etc. The author then tells us after all the agony of trying to follow him to forget it -- you'll never use it. The examples fail badly because he's never bothered to explain pop, shift, or any of the other material he slings at us. And so it goes, in this book about a frightfully haphazard language written by the same mind that created the language. Don't buy this book. You'd be better off trying to re-read your college physics text while drunk. There are some excellent WWW tutorials; I ended up relying on them.
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Summary: A book no Perl programmer should be without
Review: I purchased this book to be used as a good solid reference guide, and I haven't been disappointed in the least. This book is well written and organized, and is a definite MUST HAVE by anyone who uses the Perl programming language. In the first week of use, I found myself constantly drawn to this book to find answers, which it gave me without much looking.
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Summary: THE perl book
Review: There is no other perl book, there is only.. "The Camel Book". When us programmers need to code in perl, the first and usually last book we need to grab is the camel book. It has excellent examples, great descriptions, and a very easy to navigate index. I've used this same book for 4 years now and still it's the best reference material in my collection. I'd recommend it to anyone who uses perl or plans to in the future.
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Summary: How are you gentlemen !!
Review: All your base are belong to us
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Summary: Programming Perl is exhaustive in detail
Review: Programing Perl is good book. Of course, it assumes that you already have a good knowledge of perl and it is an excellent reference. Each time I read a chapter, I learn a bit more about the "why" & "how" perl works. I would not recommend this book for a perl newbie UNLESS it was to be used a reference only AND as a compliment to the famous "Learning Perl" book. The first time I read the first edition of this book (programming perl), I nearly cried because I was bombarded with so much detail that it confused and baffled me and I nearly never picked up perl. However, after reading the "learning Perl" first, and then coming back to this book, I appreciated it soooo much more and loved the detail that had initially confused & frustrated me. I still have the first edition of the book and in comparing it the third edition (I have never bought or read the 2nd edition), I would say that the third edition is generally an improvement. I miss Randal Schwartz humorous style that made reading the first editon fun. Tom & Jon's style is different and they immediately drill down to the facts in a no-nonsense method that gives you a much better understanding of perl. If you have a background in programming "c", you will appreciated the details that they spill accross the page. I think I have improved my "c" programming skills just from reading their analysis. I would recommend this book to any harden perl coder who wants to take the time to study it throughly (it is not light reading unless you are already a perl genuis). However, to someone learning perl for the first time, the Llama book is a better place to start.
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