I’m taking a Perl class online. I’d like to get a book to help me when I finish the class and start doing this stuff on my own - sort of a Perl for Dummies type thing, I guess, that helps you to format scripts properly. I’ll mostly be using it to do web work, like making forms and things. Any suggestions for a good how-to book for a beginner? The class instructor has a couple suggestions, but never having seen them, I don’t know if they really are the best or just the instructor’s personal preference. Thanks!
Something from O’Reilly press.
I use the Camel book (Programming Perl by Wall, Christiansen and Schwartz from O’Reilly.) I learned Perl from it, but I was already an experienced programmer. It’s not Perl for dummies, but it does hide the complex stuff until later.
It does not have a lot of stuff on Perl and the web. I didn’t do a survey before buying it, like 9 years ago, so there might well be better stuff out there now. I’ve never felt the need to buy another book, though.
Oy. I just looked at the O’Reilly site - there’s a ton of Perl books. And not cheap, either … I’m going to have to preflight whatever I can find of those in a local store before I commit myself to buying anything.
For someone just trying a “For Dummies” perspective, I definitely recommend “Learning Perl” also from O’Reilly, over “Programming Perl”. The latter is a good resource for moving into some more sophisticated Perl; the former is an excellent overview and simplified aproach.