Rating: 
Summary: Not Too Basic
Review: Like many UNIX administrators, when I first worked with Perl, I bought this book but spent very little time with it. I soon moved on to other excellent books from O'Reilly and other publishers.After a 2-3 year hiatus from Perl, I needed to refresh my memory. Fortunately, I found this book quickly and gave it the time it deserves. I quickly realized that had I just taken the time to go through the tutorials in this book, I would have saved myself a great deal of time and effort. My advice to those learning Perl, give your ego a rest and do not go on to other books until you've gone through this one thoroughly.
Rating: 
Summary: Good introduction, but not enough
Review: I would have to admit I came to learning Perl with some negative bias. I had previously learned TCL and Python, and was a bit apprehensive about learning all the cryptic aspects of the language. In the end I was forced into learning the language for my work. In general, this book succeeds in introducing the language in a "... for Dummies" style, and I didn't find the book too difficult to read. The problems started when I started on my first Perl task: to maintain an already-written Perl program. Some important language aspects such as references are not covered. Further, for a non-reference book, the index is incomplete, for example the $# operator to obtain the last index in an array is not included in the index. This is a serious shortcoming, given that the book introduces closely-linked topics, such as using lists/arrays, across several sections throughout the book, In my opinion, this makes the book unusable for the beginner who knows that they have read about an aspect to the language, but then can't find it when needed. So in summary, to get you going, it serves as an good introduction to the language, but to start using Perl as a novice programmer, you will probably need something better.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for experienced programmer.
Review: The book is ok is if you have prior knowledge of programming and or scripting. It gives you a good introduction to the basics of Perl. However, if you are new to programming you might find the information a little short on concepts. I took a class that used this book and I hade to use other sources to do homework or get a better understanding of some concepts. Mind you my copy is well worn as if you know multiple languages you can sometimes mess up syntax so it is recommended if you wish to learn Perl and have a programming or scripting background. However, if you are very new to programming and scripting you might have better luck with "Beginning Perl by Simon Cozens"
Rating:
Summary: perl, it's what's for breakfast
Review: clear, easy to follow, light...
mr schwartz is known as (one of) the top perl trainer(s) and
experts in the world, this book is an example of why. he goes
step-by-step, building on what you just did, and providing clear
explanation the entire time.
i have struggled to learn various languages/shells in the past,
but this book makes sense, and i can say that it has taught me
perl.
Rating:
Summary: Learning Perl...
Review: In short, this is a good book. I'd recommend it to anyone wishing to start learning Perl. However, it's not entirely easy to read, but then again show me a computer book that is. Also like other programming books, this couldn't have been edited! No way!! It's full of awful mistakes in code and grammar!! Believe me, when you're trying to figure some examples on a Monday morning at 5 am, the mistakes don't help!!! On the whole, the author has done well with this book. I must say though, it would have been nice if the book referenced the Windows platform more often. The author keeps going on about how easily portable Perl is, but, didn't tell us the equivalent way of doing some programs on Windows. As you can imagine, some of the examples I simply couldn't do. Like all other computer books I've picked up, this one recommends you to read others... why oh why oh why can't there be one massive super computer bible of a book??? Perhaps, I'll write one that is edited!!!
Rating:
Summary: A classic, great for people starting that want to learn more
Review: A classic, everyonne should make sure they read and get through this book before moving on to Perl coding.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introduction to Perl for Experienced Programmers
Review: I learned Perl 4 from the first edition of this book years ago. I recently read the third edition to get up to speed with Perl 5 and found this book covers nearly every aspect of Perl I've used over the years. Perl is a complex language, and any introductory book on Perl needs to restrict itself to a subset of the language to prevent the reader from becoming overwhelmed. The authors did an excellent job of presenting a subset that is large enough to cover most everyday Perl tasks, yet small enough to remain accessible to the Perl novice. The exercises at the end of each chapter solidify most of the core concepts and syntax of each chapter. There were some shortcomings to the book, however. The book is oriented heavily towards Unix systems, and programmers working on Windows systems will have a hard time getting started and completing some of the exercises. The authors should have provided instructions for downloading ActiveState Perl, a free professional Windows port of Perl, and provided more assistance on the Unix-oriented exercises. Additionally, some basic language features were not covered, such as the peculiarities of do blocks and using chr and ord to convert between characters and their numeric codes. Most importantly, the book does not cover two-dimensional arrays. They are mentioned only in two paragraphs in Appendix B, which refer the reader to four different perldoc sections. This topic is complicated and important enough to warrant its own chapter. In summary, this book is an excellent introduction to Perl for programmers who are experienced in other languages already. It's not so good for beginning programmers because basic programming concepts are not explained. The major shortcoming is that readers, especially those using Windows, will be frustrated at not being able to easily do what they want to do and will too often need to wade through the documentation.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to read and learn
Review: Recommended by so many people that learned Perl by starting with this book. It was great.
Rating:
Summary: great for starters
Review: If you do not know PERL at all. Start here. You bet you're gonna learn how to start programming in PERL. At times this may might assume you know atleast some programming language, but generally it is very basic.
Rating:
Summary: easy access into the PERL world!!
Review: i first get in touch with perl many years ago in college. at that time, my computer science curriculum is mainly in C++ and we are just starting out with Java. however, we have UNIX workstations as our lab machines and i have heard perl can do wonders and craft out nifty utilities. i looked for online materials and the more i "learn" about perl, the more intimidate i become. first of all, i was shocked by how verbose and arcane the syntax is, and the "more than one way to do it" certainly does more harm than good to me at the time. But this book certainly changes my thinking 360. it eases me into the perl world and understanding the important concepts of this powerful programming language. Perl is not just a scripting language, it is a full-blown, full-feature programming language that supports O-O design. this book makes me a believer!
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