Rating: 
Summary: Easy to read, easy to understand.
Review: I found that this book was good, particularly for the Win32 platform, and recommend it to anyone who uses Windows, regardless of their initial interest in programming. The only problems I had with the book are that the CGI (and OOP, which is introduced only in the context of CGI...but it could be so much more) chapter is left in limbo as far as being able to use any of the examples. If it were used on a Unix webserver (which are almost always setup to handle Perl CGI scripts), the examples would work fine. However, this is Perl for Win32, so IIS or PWS (if possible...I don't think it is, however) should be the web platforms targetted, and a "quick and dirty" setup instruction would be good to be able to test those examples.
Rating:
Summary: Perl for Win32 People
Review: I know this book has been bashed by some of the Amazon reviewers. However, I think the book has a particular audience (no surprise by the title): new Perl developers who are not from a UNIX background. It succeeds for that audience.I love the O'Reilly books on Perl, and this book is written by the most influential people in Perl (apart from Larry). I come from a UNIX background, I still found this book helpful. In fact, I even bought the book for my brother-in-law, who wanted to learn Perl on Win32. The Activestate Win32 Perl distribution was a baby at the time of the release - it would be nice if it could be updated, especially regarding Perl Package Manager. This is nitpicking, though. To quote James Taylor, this book is "enough to be on your way". It gets the novice initiated into Perl and hungry for more. After that, there are some great O'Reilly titles (The Camel Book, the DBI book, the Sys Admin book) and Lincoln Stein titles (The CGI.pm book for web development, the socket book), as well as the Internet to move to. I really love the O'Reilly Perl for Sys Admins book. It seems like I go back to that book and find something new each time.
Rating:
Summary: Perl for Win32 People
Review: I know this book has been bashed by some of the Amazon reviewers. However, I think the book has a particular audience (no surprise by the title): new Perl developers who are not from a UNIX background. It succeeds for that audience. I love the O'Reilly books on Perl, and this book is written by the most influential people in Perl (apart from Larry). I come from a UNIX background, I still found this book helpful. In fact, I even bought the book for my brother-in-law, who wanted to learn Perl on Win32. The Activestate Win32 Perl distribution was a baby at the time of the release - it would be nice if it could be updated, especially regarding Perl Package Manager. This is nitpicking, though. To quote James Taylor, this book is "enough to be on your way". It gets the novice initiated into Perl and hungry for more. After that, there are some great O'Reilly titles (The Camel Book, the DBI book, the Sys Admin book) and Lincoln Stein titles (The CGI.pm book for web development, the socket book), as well as the Internet to move to. I really love the O'Reilly Perl for Sys Admins book. It seems like I go back to that book and find something new each time.
Rating:
Summary: A great guide for Perl novices on Windows.
Review: I've had this book for 2 years, and have definitely gained from the purchase. While its module appendix is somewhat lacking, this book is a great guide for Windows people wanting to work with a Unix-native language like Perl. A must buy for Windows 95/98/NT users!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to Perl on Windows systems
Review: If you do not use a Unix system, and are interested in Perl, this is the book you should go for. It provides an entertaining and thorough stroll through the language. There are a lot of little differences between this book and the other 'Learning Perl'. If you want to make special use of the Windows GUI, you should check this book out. Combined with the reference work 'Programming Perl', you will have everything you need to become proficient at the language. Highly recommended for both amateur and professional programmers.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for picking up Perl
Review: It is a very useful book that covers many useful aspects. It does so quickly, without that filler that many books like to have to make themselves thicker. If you've never done programming or scripting, you might get lost in the first chapter (for example, there are nested conditional loops on page 14). Luckily, the later chapters go on to explain all of this. You get some real juice, too: file/directory manipulation, handling processes, registry editing, database connectivity. It definitely gets your feet wet with what you can do with Perl.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for picking up Perl
Review: It is a very useful book that covers many useful aspects. It does so quickly, without that filler that many books like to have to make themselves thicker. If you've never done programming or scripting, you might get lost in the first chapter (for example, there are nested conditional loops on page 14). Luckily, the later chapters go on to explain all of this. You get some real juice, too: file/directory manipulation, handling processes, registry editing, database connectivity. It definitely gets your feet wet with what you can do with Perl.
Rating: 
Summary: If you use Windows -- Get it!
Review: Learned Perl from 21 days and camel books. Have completed several complex NT based projects. To me chapter 14 (process management), 16 (system information), and 17 (OLE Automation) were worth much more than the price of the book. Only, wish this tutorial was around when I was learning. Would have saved a bit of NT versus UNIX debugging.
Rating: 
Summary: No CGI. Not enough depth.
Review: Like most O'Reilly books. This is meant for hard-core programmers and not beginners. That said, the content is still rather shallow. As for CGI, Schwartz et al refer you to the other O'Reilly PERL books, which (of course) are written for UNIX weenies and are of no use to the NT/Win32 folks. So what good is that? Sigh.
Rating:
Summary: Very good intro to Perl for Windows NT batch programming
Review: One of the best reasons to use Perl in a Windows NT environment is to write large, complicated batch programs. The Microsoft DOS/Windows batch command language has some serious limitations that make Perl a really attractive alternative. I picked up Learning Perl on Win32 Systems and worked through the first 6 or 8 chapters after lunch. I wasn't sure this was a good strategy when I began, but I'm glad I did it. I would recommend that you pickup Programming Perl, 2nd Edition, as well. I didn't use the book for the first week of my Perl immersion program, but I needed it fairly soon.
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