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Summary: One of the best programming books I have read
Review: I have owned this book for over a year and still use it regularly. While I was learning Perl syntax I found that it served very well when language guides such as "Programming Perl" fell short. When I started using the language I didn't have the syntax totally mastered and came across various little questions and problems. The "Perl Cookbook" addressed both of these by providing succinct solutions to my problems while helping me learn more about Perl syntax.Furthermore, this book exposes you to the various Perl modules available in a more natural way than searching for them in a general language reference like "Perl in a Nutshell". Most recipies in the book present a simple code solution and then refer to a module that provides the same (and often extended) functionality.
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Summary: My favorite Perl book ever!
Review: This book is not a good way to learn Perl, but if you're already up and running it will answer any weird question you can possibly com up with e.g. "How do you build an array of links from a page on the web" Answer: use LWP and HTML::LinkExtor. The Q&A format is fabulous and Christiansen provides all kinds of expert insight.
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Summary: A Great Resource!
Review: This book is a great perl resource. Whenever I need to figure out how to do something new in Perl, this is usally where I turn.
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Summary: Useful both to explain Perl concepts and to solve problems
Review: The "Perl Cookbook" condenses into code algorithms that are both beautiful and helpful. Paired with the "Programming Perl" book, which despite problems of organization is undoubtedly the best Perl reference, the cookbook is simply indispensible for both the serious Perl programmer and anyone who wishes to learn how to write Perl naturally. Every language has a natural idiom; even COBOL. Perl, having convenience so strongly in its genesis, is not very similar to its predecessors in many ways, and along with solutions to individual problems what one learns from the cookbook is how a Perl programmer would write such a program. You learn twice reading these answers: not only how to solve your problem (how do you read a file line by line in reverse? how do you trap signals in your program?) but also what the natural idioms are which both simplify your code and make clearer to you how Perl works. I reviewed "Programming Perl" and had reservations about it: I have none about this book. It is not a reference to solve all your questions about the language--buy "Programming Perl" for that. It is not a tutorial--for that, get "Learning Perl". What it is is a distillation of some smart people's work in Perl; well-explained, clearly laid out, and highly informative in every area a programmer is likely to work in. Buy it if you love Perl.
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Summary: The spark you may be looking for.
Review: I own the entire suite of O'Reilly Perl books, each of which had their ups and downs. If you're a Perl newbie or even a novice, this book can really help spark ideas. It helped me get started on two of my first major projects. Which really gave me some practical experience and got my retention and comfort level way up. Personally, I especially enjoyed the area covering sockets. This book combined with Learning Perl can easily prepare you for developing simple client/server applications. I like this book.
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Summary: This book is invaluable to the perl programmer.
Review: A recent web programming class I took focused primarily on Perl. The vast majority of the homework problems were addressed by this book in one form or another. I learned how to handle CGI scripts easily (without having to write cranky, half-correct parsing code myself), set up dbms for easy data storage, and even subclass existing Perl classes. My life would have been considerably less pleasant had I not had the Perl Cookbook.
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Summary: Perl Programmers are Great Thinkers!
Review: My name is Nicholas Maietta, and I am one of the PERL and CGI programmers at Scapps.com, an online community of programmers for Santa Cruz, California's Online community. I just recently started using the PERL language early this year, but found that surfing around for "free scripts" wasn't going to help me much. I also needed to setup a web-based email retrieval system, and for many months, I couldn't find the right answers, untill I ran accross this book. I was willing to pay $900 for server software to do the same thing that I needed to do, but found all the answers in the book. Much appreciation goes to the people who wrote it!
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Summary: For Twice the Price Go Buy The CD With All 6 Books
Review: Okay, why do you want a Perl Cookbook? To get some canned code to either use or to analyze and learn from- right? So why wouldn't you want it in a electronic format along with five other Perl References, a search tool, and a generous price? Think about it. Go search for it on Amazon- "The Perl CD Bookshelf".
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Summary: A must-have for anyone with Perl programming to do.
Review: It's like I have found Perl enlightenment and the answer key to an exam I'm unprepared to take all in the same source. This book scales to almost any user level, and is quite instructive. It is also a great reference guide to answer those "How do I...?" questions. Buy it now, you'll be glad you did. :)
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Summary: Once youre beyond "Hello World"...
Review: ...you want this book! It has the solutions to just about every problem you'll encounter (almost anyway ;) The approch with first a problem, followed by a solution and a discussion (often with references to real world modules and stuff) is ... GREAT! If you thought that yuo needed Programming Perl (and if you are reading this, you do) you want this one as weel, my best buy!
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