Product Description
Written by core members of the technology's development team, Perl Template Toolkit guides you through the entire process of installing, configuring, using, and extending the Template Toolkit. It begins with a fast-paced but thorough tutorial on building web content with the Template Toolkit, and then walks you through generating and using data files, particularly with XML. It also provides detailed information on the Template Toolkit's modules, libraries, and tools in addition to a complete reference manual.Topics in the book include:

• Getting started with the template toolkit
• The Template language
• Template directives
• Filters
• Plugins
• Extending the Template Toolkit
• Accessing databases
• XML
• Advanced static web page techniques
• Dynamic web content and web applications

Customer Reviews (3)

A very powerful and verstile tool
I used this book on a couple of projects and was very impressed with how helpful it was.A suggest that I would like to see in this already large book is more examples of a full project.Each chapter addresses a part of the tool and the final chapter brings it all together, I would like to see another chapter for an example.

Well written, but not terribly useful for what I wanted.
I was looking for a book which would describe the template toolkit in great detail for use in web development(CGI's).

Specifically I wanted something which would match the perl TT with Class::DBI and CGI::FormBuilder.

The Perl Template Toolkit was clearly written with good examples, but is fairly light in the CGI realm. Only chapter 12 has CGI examples, with no javascript thrown in.

A mating to CGI::FormBuilder is a natural marriage to the perl template toolkit, but CGI::FormBuilder is not even mentioned.

It's too bad the book doesn't cover in more detail some of the commonly used CGI modules in conjunction with the perl template toolkit, as the writing and examples are top notch.

It's a great look at the template toolkit, but doen't throw in enough info to hook it into the rest of the perl/web development realm to be as useful as it could have been.

With a few more chapters I think this could be a really great book.

I would not have purchased this book if I had thumbed through it at a bookstore.

good book for several audiences
I picked up this book because I want to use a templateing system to produce web pages and I grok Perl pretty well.This book seems designed for at least two audiences, people who want to create something like a website using the TT and people who want to hack/extend the template toolkit.

The book is a very gentle and seemingly thorough introduction and explanation.The authors write with clarity and humor.I must admit that the authors write with such thoroughness and gentleness that I sometimes grew impatient.One addition I would have liked is more examples.Chapter 2 carefully explains a complete, but very simple example and Chapters 11 and 12 contain much richer examples.However, I find that I never learn unless I *do* and for such a long book, I was surprised that there wasn't more directly about the application of the TT.

You can use this book and the toolkit without knowing any Perl.The authors explain things well and clearly.However, you will get maximum value from the TT (and grok the syntax most quickly) if you know some Perl.The material on filters and plugins (there is a chapter on each, parts of another chapter about writing your own, plus entire chapters dealing with DBI and XML plugins... it's a good chunk of the book) is wonderfully detailed and probably justifies the book.

I skimmed most of the material on hacking and extending the toolkit.It seemed pretty thorough, even explaining how to alter or replace the TT syntax (right down to a quick tutorial on Yapp/yacc).I learned a lot from the little bit I read.I suspect this would be very helpful to Perl hackers and others as an example.

A note about the toolkit itself.It's very powerful.In many ways, it's like Perl itself (e.g., it has a Perl-like syntax).It has exceptions but scoping seems weak and there appears not to be anything like 'use strict'.

In summary, this is a good book for a variety of audiences.It is very well written and you should leave it's pages with enough know-how to use it for something like web page generation.I learned a lot about Perl and available CPAN modules (in addition to learning a lot about the TT).But I wish there was more direct practical application as examples, exercises, recipes, etc. ... Read more

Product Description
I thoroughly enjoyed this...I write and maintain a fair amount of Perl, and matching and parsing patterns is often the largest part of the work.

— A.P. Lawrence, Information and Resources for Unix and Linux Systems

Perl, one of the world's most diffuse programming languages, was born out of the need to resolve the creator's dissatisfaction with what were at the time standard data-parsing solutions. Indeed, since the 1.0 release in 1987, Perl has been heralded for its powerful parsing capabilities&emdash;features that are further enhanced through the thousands of Perl extensions made available through CPAN (the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network).

Pro Perl Parsing begins with several chapters devoted to key parsing principles, discussing topics pertinent to regular expressions, parsing grammars, and parsing techniques. This material sets the stage for later chapters, which introduce numerous and powerful CPAN parsing modules, and provide an ample supply of example applications.

Customer Reviews (9)

Very good introduction to Parsing in General
Really enjoyed reading this book and am impressed by the simple way in which author could explain broad subject of parsing and language grammars. The examples are very simple to follow through and the best resource till date I have seen in explaining this complex topic in the simplest way possible. I write little bit of code in perl but largely am very impressed with built in bias and strength of the language towards parsing and data processing tasks.

Worth reading for anyone.

Experts guide to extracting the data you want!
Christopher M. Frenzhas put together a real how to manual for those who use Perl for parsing.
Grabbing the data you want from a file can be tricky but Frenz has taken parsing from the top shelf
and placed it where any Perl programmer can use it.

The opening chapter is great for anyone who has had trouble understanding how to use the regular expressions
as built into Perl. He explains Pattern Matching, Quantifiers, and how not to be Greedy with your pattern matching.
However, the book goes far beyond the basics of regular expressions in Perl to various libraries which can be used
for parsing HTML, XML, RSS, and any text based file.

Chapter 2 of the book seems very heady as he discusses the use of Generative Grammars which is foundational
for anyone wanting to truly understand parsing. From Chomsky's grammar to Type 1, 2, and 3 grammars,
he details these structures and how to use them.

Perl modules GraphViz::Regex, Regexp::Common, Parse::Yapp, Parse::RecDescent, HTML::TreeBuilder,
XML::LibXML, XML::SAX, and XML::RSS are all discussed in this book and clear examples are given on how
you can use them to parse files to get the data you want.

In the end of the book is a section on Data Mining well worth the read dealing with Descriptive Modeling and
Predictive Modeling.For anyone doing data mining work from Web based data or from Relational Databases
this section can be very helpful.

Excellent introduction
This is one of the easiest to take in and most informative books I've come across for a while.I freely admit to not being a Perl guru.I generally don't know ten different ways to perform a specific action in Perl - let alone have ideas on which way is best.But I use Perl daily to make my life easier.A big part of that is parsing information - in HTML, XML, from the command line output of tools and applications and from files and logs.Pro Perl Parsing pulled together and made much clearer many of my own hastily learnt techniques and processes, taught me some new ones and explained some of the odd results I've gotten in the past.The only criticism of the book is that it wasn't long enough - I'd love to see a 2nd Edition with a greater focus on parsing command line, configuration files and other 'administrative' style activities - it's not just programmers who parse. :)

A bit disappointing
Well, not was I was looking for. I would like to find something more than a description of what modules do, and that's mostly what it does. The last chapter is a smorgasbord of light descriptions of modules such as Text::Balanced, which have little or nothing to do with parsing, or with pro, and the chapter on XML processing looks like just a filler with little to add to the rest of the book or to the literature on XML+Perl.

Would have expected more
The first 108 pages of "Pro Perl Parsing" deal with basic parsing concepts and give examples on how to use a CPAN module to define parsers. It's not quite accurate at times, though: The author uses the terms 'precedence' and 'associativity' interchangably, although these are orthogonal concepts. And the parser on page 82 has a design flaw (hint: try parsing "(5*(3+4))+1)", which yields 40, ouch!).

Then come 30 pages with a manual-page style explanation of Damian Conway's Parse::RecDescent module, along with some interesting tidbits here and there.

However, I would have expected to read a better explanation of the underlying parsing theory, like a distilled and simplified version of the "Dragon" book (Aho, "Compilers"). I would have liked to read how to write a custom parser from scratch in Perl, like in Mark Jason Dominus' "Higher Order Perl". Also, I would have expected more practical examples on how to tackle common parsing problems.

However, the second half of the book starts with an explanation of the HTML language. We get to know how titles and lists and links are done in HTML. Then we learn how to fetch web pages with Perl. Also, we learn about web services via SOAP and XML-RPC, about formatting output in Perl and are getting a chapter on "data mining". These topics aren't related to "parsing" at all, though.

There's an example on page 202 on how to parse command line arguments by lumping them all together to form a single string and then firing up an expensive recursive descent parser to tear them apart.Experienced Perl programmers would solve this common problem elegantly in a single line of Perl, using the Getopt::Std module.

So, I'm somewhat ambivalent on this book. Since there's not many books on Perl parsing, I was excited about it, but I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of depth, accuracy, and the filler-style second half of the book. I would have liked to read more about parsing in Perl and less about how to use CPAN modules dealing with parsing-related topics. Had the book maintained a strong focus on plain "parsing", it could have been a slam-dunk five-star. So, it's only three -- worth reading, but not a potential classic. ... Read more

Product Description
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Creates a portrait of life in the ancient Mayan civilization. Each chapter focuses on a different part of society, such as peasants, scholars/scribes, priests, soldiers, rulers, and more. ... Read more

Product Description
Don’t spend your time wading through manuals to learnPerl. Spend it doing what you do best—creating Web pages! Perl isquickly developed and results-oriented. With this book, you’ll moveseamlessly from the basics of this language to building dynamic Websites. Combining easy-to-understand instructions with visual examples,Perl Fast & Easy® Web Development offers a unique, hands-on approachto this popular programming language that you won’t find anywhereelse. Less time, less effort, more results! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Very Satisfied
I received the book prompt, in very good condition and in time for school. I was very satisfied with the product and service.

outdated and poor concept flow
I teach perl and web design at the university level and was very disappointed with this book.The author first covers the basics of perl but does so in a manner for suited for a mechanical user's guide than a tutorial.Each variable type is covered first, scalars through hashes, before moving on to topics like conditionals and loop constructs.In practice this approach means that the student can't run any meaningful test programs until they are, in this case, 100 pages into the book.The author gets around this by using loops in his examples 30 pages or so before they are even introduced.

How to actually get a webserver running is glossed over, with instructions only for Microsoft Personal Web Server for windows 98 or NT (!!!).The HTML introduction uses coding styles and conventions from the early days of the web, before content and style separation with CSS became standard for developers.Here he encourages the use of antiquated things (by web standards) like the font tag and frames, both indicators of outdated web development technique.

As for actually using perl for web development, he doesn't even mention templating techniques and tools such as HTML::Template, Mason or the template toolkit.Without these the user might as well just be using PHP.

I usually am pretty forgiving with technical books so I have to mention something good.I do like the simple way each short topic is presented with screenshots to guide the user along.the text is also fairly lucid and well-written.However, I definitely can't recommend this book mostly because everything it introduces are as if it was written in 1997, which is ages ago in terms of the web.If you want something more modern I suggest something like Suehring's "Beginning Perl Web Development: From Novice to Professional" or just using the myriad of free tutorials online.Both would be far better than this book.

Just like the title says.
This is not a know it all book on Perl, but it will get you started coding and executing right away.
I liked the way Les takes you through coding a program step by step and then explaining what each step accomplishes. The book has about 20 coding and execution examples, some just pure perl, some using HTML and some with a little javascript.Even if you don't know these areas you get the feel for how Perl interfaces with them.
The book will also take you into ways to do some data base interfacing. Les uses Microsofts Access for the data base example, but will also work if you know mySQL.Les will even give you steps for setting up the PWS (Personal Web Server) on non Windows XP operating systems like W98.
The last chapter takes you through a complete case study using a contact data base using some web design principles.
With the exception of a a few minor coding errors, this book in my opinion is top notch and the very best for getting a good head start on learning Perl.
... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (7)

An Almost Perfect Book (If you're five)
Our five year-old couldn't stop laughing. He's decided he will learn to read, just so he can perform this book for anyone who will listen.

Kids will choose the book for its title and enjoy its special brand of humor
A child's enthusiasm and a father's exhaustion blend in a fun read-aloud guide to zany rhymes. Henry Cole provides the winning drawings in this simple story of a child whose whimsical riddles drive his father to distraction - and beyond. Kids will choose the book for its title and enjoy its special brand of humor.

Kid pleaser
Well, I wasn't even allowed to say the word "butt" when I was growing up, and here it is in a book.Teachers, you know how hard it is to get your students to reread.Well, one of my first graders has read this at least 50 times.He reads it fluently with enormous expression and still laughs when he reads it.It is just plain fun.

Cute Book, Good Library Find (Chicken Butt!)
Yikes!It absolutely amazes me how themes develop in kidlit.Right now it's butts, rearends, tushies.The first book I read in this group was Ian Blacks "Chicken Cheeks".The artwork by Kevin Hawkes was very nice.

Then there was "Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo" and "The Tushy Book".My gang has not read neither of these two, although we've seen them, and I imagine we'll pick them up at the library at some point.

Which is what I suggest you do with "Chicken Butt!"The reason I don't suggest you run out and buy this book -- despite the fact that my 7 year old son thought it was funny -- is that it's a one trick pony.Yes... the artwork is colorful and cute.And Yes... it made my son laugh, and my daughter (9) smile, BUT it's not the sort of book they are going to read and reread over months.A week yes.But it's got no long term staying power.

The dialog between a boy and his dad starts out like this:

You know what?
What?
Chicken Butt!

You know why?
Why?
Chicken thigh.

They then go on to cover 'how' and 'when', etc. And it ends in a fashion reminiscent to the old knock-knock joke that involves a banana and orange.

Talking Points:::
This is a cute book that has kid-friendly art and a laugh or three.It ought to appeal to preschoolers through 8 year olds.

Though the book is nicely put together I can't recommend it as a purchase.

It's a good read-aloud.Either solo or as group.

Accelerated Reading level = generic "3"

Pam T~
mom and reviewer at BooksForKids-reviews

This book is really funny and silly!
We saw this book in the store and HAD to get it.I was crying I was laughing so hard in the store as we read this book!It's a silly, yet fun book!Kids will love it!And well Adults too! ... Read more

Product Description

MySQL and Perl for the Web provides a much-needed handbook for database and Web developers seeking an extensive and detailed guide for using the combination of MySQL and Perl to build dynamic and interactive database-backed Web sites. It shows how to use Perl's DBI database access module, pairing it with with the CGI.pm module that allows Web pages and forms to be generated and processed easily. These tools provide developers with a solid foundation for creating applications that incorporate database content to create dynamic, up-to-date Web sites.

The book employs a practical learn-by-doing approach that demonstrates development techniques by building complete applications, not just fragmentary pieces. It shows what to do at each step of the way during the process of building live, working examples. Applications are fully explained so you can understand how they work and apply the techniques they illustrate to your own projects.

The sample code for the applications in this text is presented in small pieces in context with the discussion; most of the space is devoted to explanations of the issues and implementation. All of the code is available, however, from the book's companion Web site. This tutorial is an excellent way for Perl developers to move to the next level of development and make the most of some powerful, free tools. --Stephen W. Plain ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

A great book to get you up to speed
Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book on the condition that I would write a review of it.That said, what follows is my opinion.

This book provides a good "from the ground up" guide for using Perl to do just about anything you'd want to do on your web site, including run an eCommerce site.You need to know a bit of Perl before you start, but even if you don't the examples start out simple enough that you should be able to pick it up as you go, provided you have some programming background.Should you get stuck, there are plenty of pointers to online resources, as well as an appendix to show you how to set up the software used in this book.

The book starts out with the basics: setting up MySQL and Apache to get at your data via the web, including Perl DBI basics.You then get started by writing a simple to-do list application, and in the process create modules that you will use (and build on) later in the book.

Mod_perl is covered, and then progressively more complex form based applications are presented.Many useful techniques are discussed. Once you're just about tired of all the tedium of form based applications, automated form-handling techniques are introduced that use meta-data about the table structures to automatically generate (and validate) input data.Techniques for session management get a chapter as well, presenting very good information on the pros and cons of different session management techniques (IP, cookie, URL key, etc).

Security and privacy get a very good chapter.Not only are issues presented regarding keeping user's information confidential, but cautions are also presented regarding keeping the server secure.SQL injection attacks are discussed, as are defenses against them.Hint: use MySQL's quote() function.

The book closes with a chapter on writing an eCommerce application.All the techniques used in the book are brought together in one application, and it is shown (very well) how they all relate to each other.While the resulting eCommerce application is extremely simple in regards to what it can do, it effectively shows the reader the power of MySQL and Perl together, and provides an excellent reference when writing applications of one's own.

I am a system administrator, and have done a good chunk of web site design (mostly the technical side) and programming.I've been using Perl since 1996, and MySQL with that since 2000 (used mSQL before that).So, yes, I had quite a bit of Perl and DB experience before I read the book.I say that to say this: I still learned things.There were tips and techniques in there that I hadn't thought of, and will make my job just a bit easier the next time I use Perl to write a MySQL based application.Even if you have some Perl and MySQL experience under your belt, the book will still be useful.

An excellent book on both MySQL and Perl.
There are plenty of books about MySQL and PHP in bookstores. Yet, I still prefer Perl as my web page languages, thanks to its powerful regex and the similarity to C grammar (Some functions have exactly the same name and take the same arguments as in C).

For web applications, a backend database is necessary (MySQL). But how to access and operate on these dabatases? Perl comes into scene at this point.

I don't understand why people write so many books on PHP and MySQL, and so few on Perl and MySQL. Up to now, Paul's book is the only one I ever saw to cover both MySQL and Perl's application in web pages.

Paul's method is step by step, and the examples are not trivial ones. And he clearly explained the critical parts of his code. He even wrote some packages which can be used as library.

Before reading his book, I feel curious how the dynamic web pages work. Now, after finishing his book, I can understand how a commercial site such as Amazon works.

Finally, I recommend this book be bought with the other title by Paul - "MySQL". This is the book dedicated to MySQL language. It is a good companion to "MySQL and Perl for the Web".

This is the most important book in my library (of over 300)
Like many others, I wish I'd seen this book long ago.

The attention to detail and accuracy of the examples is just incredible!

This is by far the most used reference book in my library.After repeatedly having to tape the book together, I finally gave it away and bought a new one.

Following his examples eliminates many potentialpitfalls that would otherwise result in hours of troubleshooting.

I can't imagine how I would have ever learned this information without the expert advice of the author, Paul DuBois.His coverage of CGI.pm is essential as well as his list of other books to read.

I think I have all his other books as well.

He even returned email almost immediately!

My only complaint is that it isn't bound in leather!

Clear explanations and excellent examples
This is an excellent book. I knew my way around Perl and had done a few relatively simple CGIs before being handed a project to build an application that would allow 50 or 60 employees to enter several thousand customer complaints and email them to the right recipients based on the complaint content. I had a three-week deadline.

I bought the book and started patching elements of the example applications together until I had everything almost working. One problem delayed me a couple of days so I emailed DuBois with a question and received a solution within the hour.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who has a moderate grasp of Perl and Apache. It's one of the most lucid computer books I've ever read.

MySQL and Perl but no templates?
This isn't a complete review but readers should be aware that this book does NOT cover templates (it doesn't appear in the contents or the index).There's no mention of Template Toolkit or HTML::Template, for example. (Text::Template and HTML::Mason get mentioned as an aside, but that's it)Similarly, there are three chapters on forms, but no mention of CGI::FormBuilder.

Seems like a big omission to me. YMMV. ... Read more

Product Description
Programming Web Services with Perlbrings Perl users all the information they need to create web services using their favorite language. It steers clear of the hype surrounding web services and concentrates on what is useful and practical. It was written for Perl programmers who have no prior knowledge of web services. You can pick it up without any understanding of XML-RPC or SOAP and be able to apply these technologies easily, through the use of publicly available Perl modules detailed in the book. The book introduces the major web services standards, such as XML-RPC, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI, and shows how to implement Perl servers and clients using these standards. You'll find detailed references on both the XML and SOAP toolkits, and will learn when to use one technology in favor of the other.It is rich with programming examples that you'll find useful well past the learning stage. And, moving beyond the basics, the book offers solutions to problems of security, authentication, and scalability. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Needs update
This book desperately needs an update with real-world SOAP examples passing complex data into SOAP::Lite running in PERL.

Fantastic
This book was fantastic and allowed me to get up and running on a web services project for work very quickly.

While I still needed a few internet resources to complete the project, I would not have been able to get far along without this book!

relevant, practical and well-balanced
Programming Web Services with Perl is principally a book on implementing solutions using XML-RPC and SOAP in Perl. It also covers complementary and alternative standards such as WSDL, UDDI, and REST in some detail. And on the periphery, it finishes with a whirlwind tour of developing message routing, alternative data encoding within XML, security, transactions, workflow, internationalization, service discovery, extension, and management techniques and specifications.

The book assumes the reader will have the knowledge of an intermediate level Perl programmer. I.e., the reader is assumed to have a working knowledge of references, data structures, and object-oriented Perl. On the other hand no previous knowledge of XML, XML-RPC, SOAP or XML related technologies is required.

It should also be mentioned that both of the authors Randy J. Ray and Pavel Kulchenko are also the principle developers of the most popular XML-RPC and SOAP Perl modules: XML::RPC and SOAP::Lite respectively. That said, the book is not a soap box for the authors to tout the merits of their tools.

Rather, it is a practical book which starts with grounding fundamentals. Readers should walk away with a core understanding of XML-RPC and SOAP and not just a particular tool set for working with them. The authors examine the alternative XML-RPC and SOAP tools, illustrate how they are used, and give practical and even handed reasons why their modules should be preferred. Which comes down to issues of features, active development, support, and the amount of work required to code to a particular interface. They then settle down to a comfortable and thorough guide to XML::RPC and SOAP::Lite.

The topics and issues are illustrated throughout using real world web services. For example creating an XML-RPC client for O'Reilly's Meerkat news wire, or a SOAP client to covert use.perl.org's journal stream to RSS. Code is presented to the reader filtered down to highlight each particular issue as it is discussed. This is nice in that it avoids listing slight variations of the same code multiple times, but on the down side it can also leave the reader flipping back and forth to reassemble an example in their head. Full code for each example is provided in the appendices. And all of the example code may be downloaded from O'Reilly at [their web site].

All-in-all, the book is a thorough practical introduction to working with XML-RPC, SOAP and related technologies. When I started reading the book, I was a bit disappointed to see that it only covered XML-RPC and SOAP related services. When I finished, I was impressed with how very much information they'd managed to pack into so few pages.

And yet, I was left wishing there'd been a more through coverage of interoperability issues between other SOAP implementations and things like custom de-serializers. To be honest interoperability and de-serialization are mentioned, and the authors do an excellent job of referring the reader on to sources for continued reading on most other topics.

The book does an admirable job balancing content, length, and information density. Not to mention an excellent job delivering the information that will still be relevant years and not just weeks from the date published. Most of the topics I'd wished to see covered in more depth are those that are still developing and consequently most likely to become quickly dated. In short a well balanced practical guide to applying XML-RPC and SOAP to solve problems.

A "complete reference" is oh so hard to find...
And yet this book covers every aspect of web service development utilizing perl.As a long time user of the original Frontier::RPC2 module, things have come a long way, and with that greater complexity, the concepts have grown in scope considerably.This IS the book that you want to read if you REALLY want to understand SOAP and XML-RPC.From the XML DTD's to implementation code (either standalone applications or utilizing mod_perl) this book covers everything in between.In all it is a welcome addition to the O'Reilly family of Perl books.

Great intro to XML-RPC
As with all O'Reilly books there's a great intro to the technologies. They take you through how it works, not just how to deploy some code. When you get to the XML-RPC modules, they don't force a solution on you, but give a great tour of what's available and let you pick. For me, the highlight was the intro to Randy J. Ray's RPC::XML modules (he's also one of the authors). I've been fighting with getting the 'system.*' handlers hacked in with other aproaches and it was great to see someone had already figured out such a clean approach. (Which is something since Perl can get reeeaaal ugly!) This book has saved me many days of wasted development. ... Read more

Product Description
A fascinating, panoramic exploration of art and culture in mid-twentieth-century New York City from one of our most important and influential art critics.

New Art City takes us from the solitude of the artist’s studio to the uproarious bars where artists gathered, from the ramshackle bohemian neighborhoods of downtown Manhattan to the Midtown streets where steel-and-glass skyscrapers were rising and art galleries were proliferating. We encounter a kaleidoscopic range of artists. There are legendary figures–Jackson Pollock, David Smith, Willem de Kooning, Joseph Cornell, Andy Warhol, and Donald Judd–as well as still undervalued ones, such as the galvanic teacher Hans Hofmann, the lyric expressionist Joan Mitchell, the adventuresome realist Fairfield Porter, and the eccentric thinker John Graham. We encounter, too, the writers, critics, patrons, and hangers-on who rounded out the artists’ world. Jed Perl helps us see what the artists were creating and understand how they confronted an exploding art audience. And he makes clear how the economic boom of the late 1950s and the increasingly enthusiastic response to Abstract Expressionism ushered in the rapacious art world of the 1960s and the theatricality of Pop Art.

Artists drew strength from the dizzying onslaught of Manhattan, and produced a tidal wave of new forms. These included Hofmann’s brazen flourishes of color; Pollock’s quicksilver skeins of paint unfurling panoramic arabesques; and the crushed, jagged, turning-back-on-itself calligraphy of de Kooning’s gnomic alphabets. And there was much more: Burgoyne Diller’s levitating rectangles; Nell Blaine’s explosive renderings of quotidian scenes; Ellsworth Kelly’s extraordinary simplifications, suggesting sails or semaphores.

A brilliant tapestry of social history, biographical portraiture, and criticism, New Art City illuminates a revolutionary, unprecedented time and place in American culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A cut above them all
Plenty of art books have been written about New York; but NEW ART CITY: MANHATTAN AT MID-CENTURY is a cut above them all, offering a fine panoramic view of 20th century New York art and culture by an influential art critic of our times. From the artist's studio to coffeehouses, bohemian neighborhoods around the city, and changing attitudes on traditional versus modern art, the pulse and soul of the Manhattan art community is captured in an exciting expose of the undercurrents of its influences.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Not Bad, but not Great
This book was an OK read, not a bad book, but nothing spectacular either. The writing seemed to drone on without any real punch and it never did foster any real excitement for the evolving story of New York as the center of the art world. The book misses a great opportunity to do something significant with an interesting subject. It mostly felt like a narrative of events punctuated by passages of overwrought artspeak. The word "dialectic" was used much too many times.

When I finished the book I'm not sure what I read. The only new insights that I developed from the book came from the discussion about Fairfield Porter.

The book suffers from being published at about the same time as the much more captivating Stevens & Swans' "De Kooning: An American Master" which covers much of the same ground but is a more interesting read.

Rare gem
Hard to believe that a book as profoundly well conceived and written as this would get published today. There is none of the usual condescension into lurid gossip or salacious anecdotes to lure sales that you might expect of a book of this type, just the clear articulate expression of one intelligent man's conception of mid-century New York art, expressed for the pleasure of those readers capable of appreciating it. Bravo to both author and publisher.

Sum it up
I am trying to get thru this book. Yes, he did his research, it shows, but he can sum things up in half the pages. I love the parts in the book when he takes the time out to write a little bio on the artist of the time, Pollack, Smith. etc.

However, I do think many people that pick up the book to read will find the writing style of Jed Perl redundant and annoying, he loves to use the phrases and concepts of "contextualized romanticism" and "improvisational conceptualist" to the point that enough is enough

If you are an expert or very well read in mid century you might enjoy this book, I am struggling to finish it.

A Tour of New York, from A to Zip (That's Newman)
Jed Perl is a is a cultivated guide; no surprise given his critical credentials. Like any good critic Perl is concerned to evaluate his various subjects, and while we may disagree with his opinions, he does not avoid any of the well known, or many of the lesser known figures, in the mid-twentieth century New York art world. Indeed Fairfield Porter, for me at least, a lesser figure, receives as much attention as Warhol, and that much more sympathetic.Perl never loses contact with his context, the city of New York, or with the insitutions and individuals that add to the total of the art scene. So we have the galleries and the museums, and the menand women that ran them, crtical writing by individuals ranging from the poet Frank O'Hara, to the artists themselves, to, of course, Greenberg and Rosenberg, finally shaping the discourse of the times. And grounding much of the discussion are the philosophical positions adopted by critics and artists. All of this is presented in well written, simple language. Perl is to be congratulated on producing a first-class survey of one of the most exciting periods in twentieth century culture.
... Read more

Product Description

I decided to write this book for a couple of reasons. One was that I've now written a couple of books that have to do with incident response and forensic analysis on Windows systems, and I used a lot of Perl in both books. Okay.I'll come clean.I used nothing but Perl in both books! What I've seen as a result of this is that many readers want to use the tools, but don't know how.they simply aren't familiar with Perl, with interpreted (or scripting) languages in general, and may not be entirely comfortable with running tools at the command line.

This book is intended for anyone who has an interest in useful Perl scripting, in particular on the Windows platform, for the purpose of incident response, and forensic analysis, and application monitoring. While a thorough grounding in scripting languages (or in Perl specifically) is not required, it helpful in fully and more completely understanding the material and code presented in this book. This book contains information that is useful to consultants who perform incident response and computer forensics, specifically as those activities pertain to MS Windows systems (Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and some Vista). My hope is that not only will consultants (such as myself) find this material valuable, but so will system administrators, law enforcement officers, and students in undergraduate and graduate programs focusing on computer forensics.

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent teaching manual on using Perl in live incident response and forensics


This a highly specialized book that will not find a wide audience. The author states the narrow purpose of his work: "[t]he purpose of this book is to show what can be (and has been) done, using Perl, to perform incident response, computer forensic analysis, and application monitoring on Windows system".

At least an elementary understanding of Perl (or a related scripting language, such as Python) is required to make full use of the book.

Carvey covers some live response subjects and some registry and log analysis situations.

As Carvey points out, this book will not teach you how to perform live incident response or computer forensics.

Its value is as a tool to teach you how to use Perl as a tool in your work.

The book, as you might expect, is loaded with examples that will teach you much about Windows and using Perl to extract information.For instance, one script entitled "Lslink.pl" has much to teach about the structure of Windows shortcut or link files (which are encoded in binary) and how to extract that structure using a Perl script. The script runs about se ven printed pages. It is not overly complex, but following its logic is very informative.

By the way, one of the first things the author does is to brief the reader on the capabilities of several commonly available Perl modules, which can be extremely handy.

Harlan Carvey is very well known in the community for his writings on the Windows Registry and his Perl script RegRipper. Carvey not only demonstrates his masterly understanding of the Registry, but provides several scripts for the student reader to review and implement.

The book is actually rather broadly based and covers a number of areas, some of which the reader may have no immediate interest in or need for, such as live incident response in my case. But as Carvey points out, his goal here is to inspire, not to provide tools and answers for specific needs.

As an inspirational and teaching tool, Carvey achieves his objectives. For the person who is already familiar with Perl, the book serves as a goad for rolling your own code to meet specific needs that are not met in the omnibus commercial programs on the market.

Jerry

Perl Scripting for Windows Security Review
Syngress was kind enough to give me a copy of Harlan Carvey's book, "Perl Scripting for Windows Security" while I was visiting the Syngress booth at Techno-Security this week.After reading the book, I have to say that I was really pleased with the content.

This is not a Perl tutorial.However, if you happen to be using any of Harlan's tools that he has written in Perl to perform live response, post-mortem forensics or network security administration, the book gives good insight into exactly what the scripts are doing and why.
While I am not a Perl programmer, I have over 25 years of experience programming in various computer languages.Based on what I saw in the book, anyone with fairly basic programming knowledge can understand what Harlan is doing with the scripts and if they want to learn Perl, could use them as an excellent method for advancing their knowledge into writing specific scripts later on.

For someone who is an experienced programmer who wants to dive into Perl scripting, once you have gained an understanding of the Perl syntax and coding rules, Harlan's scripts and advice in the book for additional resources arean excellent way to get deeper into coding Perl for specific security tasks.

The foundation of programming is basically the same, no matter what language you choose to use.What differs between the different languages is primarily features and syntax.In other words, how you have to structure your coding for the interpreter or compiler to understand what you are trying to do.
The book is organized into three parts, with Part 1 covering how to use Perl for incident response and troubleshooting live systems.Part 2 covers post-mortem forensics and Part 3 covers monitoring application processes, Web services and log files.

While it is not a huge tome like many programming books, it is important to bear in mind that this is not a programming book.This is a book that demonstrates specific scripts for specific tasks.If you are a long time coder like me, you will appreciate a book that deals with a specific subject matter without trying to teach you everything and nothing about a programming language.

If you are interested in coding your own security or forensic tools, I would highly recommend this book.
... Read more

Product Description
Most Perl programmers know about the Perl debugger--the nifty little built-in utility that you can use to fully debug any programs that you write. Inside the interactive debugger environment, you're prompted for commands that let you examine your source code, set breakpoints, dump out function call stacks, change values of variables, and much more. It's so convenient that some programmers run it just to test out Perl constructs as they create a program. Although it's on their radar, not many Perl programmers take the time to master the debugger. That's where the Perl Debugger Pocket Reference comes in.This little book provides a quick and convenient path to mastery of the Perl debugger and its commands. Written by a core member of the Perl debugger development team, it's an ideal quick reference to debugger commands, as well as a detailed tutorial on how to get started. The Perl Debugger Pocket Ref provides complete coverage in a conveniently small package. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

ke
The book looked like new and we received this item < 1 week from the order.

Cool Perl Debugger book for experienced programmers
"Perl Debugger Pocket Reference" is a relativly short introduction into the command line Perl Debugger (perl -d option). You will find the following main chapters in this book:

- Introductory chapters (partly meta chapters not about the debugger but about good programming)
- Debugger Commands
- Debugger Variables
- Debugging Options
- Debugger Internals, Quick reference, rest

When I bought this book I had hoped for a "...Pocket Guide"and not a "...Pocket Reference" (deeper coverage). I consider this not an extreme "...Pocket Reference" (like e.g. "Perl Pocket Reference") because this book contains examples for each of the commands and options that it describes. For me examples are the most important part in technical books.

The language, the printing and the index (there is an alphabetic index) are of the usual high O'Reilly standard).

I think that "Perl Debugger Pocket Reference" might be a bit heavy if you never used a command line debugger like gdb or xdb before. This book assumes that you already know what and why you want to do with the debugger, you will be explained WHO to do this with the debugger. PDPR is missing the process model when using a debugger. Personally I would have wished for even more examples and a bit more about when to use a certain feature of the debugger.

For all those poor souls like me that still have to use Perl 5.5, you will not like this book because it explains the cool new features of the Perl 5.8 debugger (differences to Perl 5.6 covered as well) that are missing in Perl 5.5. I hope that I can convince my customer to upgrade to Perl 5.8 to be able to use cool new debugger (especially the w watchpoints will be great).

I will keep this booklet next to my keyboard when I am Perl programming from now on to be able to lookup the Debugger functions that I will need. If you are a Perl programmer like me that does not produce flawless code, I really recommend this book. I will use it again right after finishing this review. Perl debugging will be more fun (for me) from now on. ... Read more

Product Description
Perl Core Language Little Black Book, Second Edition, provides insightful tips and techniques to programming with Perl. Immediate solutions are provided with field tested examples to help programmers and Web Developers quickly solve problems and exploit the power and flexibility of Perl. The updated edition covers the current version of Perl (5.8) as well as highlighting critical features of the upcoming 6.0 version. Some of the highlights of the new edition include how to create programs and scripts that integrate both Perl and XML, how to use Perl¡¦s newest object-oriented features, how to use Perl¡¦s newer built-in functions, working with Perl¡¦s latest data types, using security features, and mastering the new database modules. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

Non-Fiction
A good reference to the PERL language.

As opposed to the O'Reilly publications, this book does not assume as much reading between the lines as what is written at times in those.

So, this may be useful for people to clarify what is being talked about in entries there, or just as a more clear starting point to begin with for the areas of PERL programming that it covers.

Great Reference
This book is a great reference if you just want to quickly look up a syntax.The index is very good and makes it easy to find answers to problems quickly, and it almost always beats trolling through google search results!While it would not be useful as the only text for beginners, I think it would make a good supplemental text.It also might be a good choice for people who already have experience in other languages, and are switching to perl, or intermediate perl programmers who cannot remember where every comma and semicolon should go!

Book in good shape
I am extremely impressed by this merchant. The shipping was on time and the book was in great condition

My Defacto Perl Reference
As a new programmer and new Perl programmer this is an invaluable reference. For the ambitious newbie this book can serve as a great starter guide to the Perl language. As a reference and supplement to another beginner book, this book really soars.

I was able to quickly expand my understanding of Perl and started writing real perl programs (albeit very simple ones as a beginning perl programmer) by using this book. You'll become well versed in Perl using this as your constant guide.

When a programming reference can be distilled is such a highly useful and pragmatic way, you've got to add it to your library. Brilliant job on this one.

I highly recommend this work and I'm confident you won't leave home without it. Or perhaps you'll buy one for home and work. I also highly recommend 'Perl Power' by John Flynt and 'Beginning Perl, Second Edition' by James Lee (Apress) as companion beginner books to this one.

Great Perl Book
This is a great reference book for perl. It doesn't try to teach the reader perl, which after you already know it is really nice. This is more like a collection of all the perlmod/man pages put together in an organized manner. I reference this book all the time for different syntax structures and many other reasons. ... Read more

Product Description
Perl programmers increasingly rely on the Web, online help, and other online information sources to solve technical problems. Version 3.0 of O'Reilly's Perl CD Bookshelf gives you convenient online access to your favorite books from your CD-ROM drive. We've updated this best selling product with the electronic versions of 7 popular Perl books.Included are the second edition of Perl in a Nutshell (paperback version included), the third editions of Learning Perl and Programming Perl, the Perl Cookbook, and 3 new titles: Perl & XML, Perl & LWP, and Mastering Perl/Tk. Formatted in HTML, The Perl CD Bookshelf, Version 3.0, can be accessed with any web browser. In addition to individual indexes for each book, there is a master index for the entire library. With the CD Bookshelf, you get a complete Perl library that you can easily carry with you anywhere you need it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A must-have
This is essential.Perl docs are amazing and great, but sometimes you just need a little more info.This isn't just a compilation of books.This is a compilation of SEARCHABLE books.The great thing about version 3 is that the files are still in html and still fully externally searchable, unlike later pdf versions.

PERL by the TON
The O'Reilly Llama is perhaps the most famous PERL book ever written; this package starts with the Llama, and then just keeps going, and going, and going...

The only drawback with this package is the sheer volume of information that gets laid on you all at once. It's a lot, to say the least. But if you are serious about reaching Guru status, this will get you there.

ANYONE who writes any Perl should buy this
I am a professional UNIX admin, and often do contract work.
I carry the UNIX, Network, and Perl CD bookshelves in my laptop case so I still have access to 15+ incredible books on the road.
Well worth the money!

It's a bargain
Well you get 7 great books on a CD, what can I say more?
Even though I already had some of these books in a dead tree version I did not regret any cent spended on this CD Bookshelf. It is almost all time in my drive and the search function is so helpfull you never want to miss it again.

(Almost) everything a Perl Programmer needs
A review of this CD is rather problematic. Most of the books on this CD (as far as I read them before) are worth 4-5 stars. So this CD with online searching is worth ...5 stars... I will only comment on the CD version of the books and not on each single book (look at the reviews for the single books if you are interested in that).

Personally a CD with books is just an add-on to the printed versions, that I can read everywhere (bed, beach ...) and that I can mark in different colours and write on. Online books for me are for online searching and online reading of a few chapters.

This CD contains all the books in HTML format with a Java based full text search engine (works for me with IE 5.5 and mostly works with Netscape ... and an HTML based Master Index. There is a problem in the Master Index for the letter "L" (bad links, see Errata). Go to the O'Reilly website and download the updated file for this index.

Additionally to the online searching capabilities I really like the capability to use the WWW links to external resources directly from the CD (e.g. to CPAN). I think that the quality of the HTML translation of the books is quite high. It seems however that you need a rather new browser because we had some problems with Netscape 4.7 with the documentation. I like that all the links within the documentation are relative so that you can copy the CD wherever you like and still use it (even put it on your internal WWW server which is of course illegal). The size is rather small (60MB for all the books) so that you can put it on your laptop for mobil work.

You can find the following books on the CD:
- Perl in a Nutshell (2. Edition)
- Programming Perl (3. Edition)
- Perl & XML
- Mastering Perl/Tk
- Learning Perl (3. Edition)
- Perl Cookbook
- Perl & LWP

The book "Perl in a Nutshell (2nd Edition) as a printed version is part of the package as a "bonus book". I like it as a reference book.

Unfortunately O'Reilly did not put all its Perl books on this CD. For total happiness I am missing the following books (name your own):
- Programming the Perl DBI
- Perl for ORACLE DBAs
- CGI Programming with Perl (2nd Edition)

The price for the CD is not really low but compared with the printed versions of all the books it is reasonable from my point of view.

If you are a mobile Perl user I can really recommend this CD. ... Read more

Product Description
Perl is a wonderfully powerful and efficient tool for database administrators. It can be used to manage, monitor and tune your Oracle database.But the challenge for most Oracle DBAs is that, in spite of the benefits of using Perl, they have neither the time nor the resources to become Perl experts.Fortunately, you don't need to be a Perl expert to use Perl scripts.Perl for Oracle DBAs includes everything you'll need to get started using this popular open source language to manage your database, from an introduction to Perl to a wealth of ready-to-use DBA scripts.If you've wanted to see what Perl can do for your development and database administration, this book will guide you step-by-step through the process. Perl for Oracle DBAs comes with a toolkit of more than 100 useful scripts that you can use to create databases and users, clone database DDL, maintain user data, compare schemas, monitor database performance, backup data, and perform many other tasks.Written by Oracle DBAs for Oracle DBAs, this book walks you through everything you need to know to put Perl to work for you right away. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Outstanding Coverage
These authors have taken two somewhat diverse topics and combined them into an easy-to-read and cohesive book.

The examples are especially helpful and the authors take great care to explain the issues in Plain English.

Overall, a highly recommended book.

Great book about Oracle DBA utilities written in Perl
This is NOT a book for learning Perl if you're a DBA. The whole book is devoted to describe a lot of free DBA utilities written in this language, and it doesn't give you any roboust help to build your own Oracle-Perl scripts. There's a very little (about 40 pages) APPENDIX devoted to look at the language grammar and programming issues. The only chapter that deserve the only star I give for this book is CHP7 - OCI Calls with Oracle::OCI. But, is this a book written for DBA's or developers?
If someone publish a book saying "UNIX Korn shell scripts for Oracle DBA's", what do I expect? Simply! learn about UNIX Korn shell and how to write DBA scripts for my Oracle system. But if the book talks about utilities written for Oracle in Korn shell scripts, then, clearly it fails its purpose.
Maybe those tools described can be useful for DBA tasks, specially because they're free... the bottom line is that this book doesn't teach you how to programm in Perl. Get something else, devoted just to Perl programming, like "Perl 6 Essentials" from Allison Randal.

AS FINE AS A PEARL COULD BE
"Perl for Oracle DBAs" is indeed a real pearl. This 600-plus paged volume was designed to be a reliable friend of any administrator, whose responsibilities include the oiling of Oracle database machinery.
The book, which comes with a toolkit package that contains more than a hundred ready-to-use programs, bared all the mysteries that surround Oracle/Perl software: including Oracle Call Interface (OCI), Perl DataBase Interface (DBI), as well as all the other modules that commune with both software.
This book runs as smoothly as any pearl could run.

Great book for DBAs wanting to take advantage of perl
I've always loved perl and wrote a lot of utilities to monitor and manage databases when I worked as a full time DBA (using oraperl & perl4).However, over the years as my focus shifted to wider software architecture I found it difficult to keep up with new releases, modules and so forth.From time to time I would visit CPAN but the sheer volume of modules and the limited time I had was preventing me from taking full advantage of modern perl.

Jared and Andy's book neatly solved this problem.Within an hour of opening their book I had fully upgraded my perl and added heaps of fantastic utilities that I never even knew existed.Sometimes perl can be hard to install and configure but this book makes it a breeze.

This book is indispensable if you are trying to get started with perl - and every DBA should!If you are already a perl user I'm sure you'll learn about new features or find utilities that will repay the cost of the book many times over.

Must have for all oracle DBAs
The book is clear, concise and to the point. Style is excellent as I would expect from Andy and Jared. The book covers rare and hard to find topics like installing mod_perl and installing OWA toolkit. The PDBA collection of scripts is very comprehensive and enormously useful. This is certainly a must-have for any Oracle DBA. Great book! ... Read more

Product Description
The seminal text setting forth the theoretical foundations of Gestalt therapy. Originally published in 1951, The Gestalt Journal Press edition restores the work to its original editorial structure and includes a new introduction by Isadore From and Michael Vincent Miller. This is the only authorized edition of this classic text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The classic text
Perhaps it is not a coincidence that there is so little writing about gestalt therapy, since the therapy emphasizes experience over explanation.In any case, the writing here is very important for those who wish to understand the intellectual basis of this approach.Gestalt therapy was written by three people.The significant part of the book, part II in the original published version, was written by Paul Goodman from the notes of Fritz Perls.Reputedly, Perls paid Goodman $500 for the job, but Goodman had trouble collecting.The publishers decided to make Hefferline's section Part I.This section contains a bunch of exercises that bear little relationship to what a Gestalt therapist would actual do with a patient.

Isadore From, the famous Gestalt trainer, said that Part II was deliberately written so as not to be easily introjected (swallowed uncritically).The essence of Gestalt therapy is that change/learning takes place through experience, and that introjection, or simply swallowing what a therapist says to you is of no use.Thus, the text of Part II must be read line by line, as it was taught in year- long seminars by Isadore.When read this way, Perls, Hefferline and Goodman emerges as a rich source of insight and theoretical perspective about what was almost called "existential phenomenological therapy" by its creators.

a vital and pathbreaking work
This initial formulation of Gestalt Therapy is the single most important development of the psychotherapeutic ideas of Freud and Reich. Personally, it has helped me begin to gain real insight into myself, my friends and family, and my society.

Synthesizing psychoanalysis, western philosophy, and eastern meditation techniques, the book presents a new and vital perspective on mental health and illness, as well as a series of exercises and practices designed to bring us into closer contact with our daily experience and gain insight into the neurotic mechanisms by which we ward off excitement and growth.

The book is divided into two parts (their intended order reversed by the publisher). In the second part, the foundational theory of Gestalt Therapy is layed out. The presentation is vague and unsystematic, but its insights and approaches are crucial. Breaking with Freud, and developing Wilhelm Reich's methods of Character Analysis, the authors shift the focus of therapy from our memories, dreams, and unconscious functions, onto our present, aware functions.

Gestalt Therapy defines the self as our individual, historically, culturally, and biologically determined system of contacting our environment. Health, in GT terms, is the ability to recognize and act on elements in our environment to satisfy our impulses.

The 'gestalt' comes from gestalt _psychology_, a non-therapeutic German experimental discipline which studied the way we discern 'figures' from the 'ground' of experience. (Think of the famous picture that looks like a candlestick or two silhouetted faces-- each of these images is a 'figure' or 'gestalt' formed from the 'ground' of light and dark on the page.) The crucial ability of the healthy individual, according to Gestalt _Therapy_ is the power to easily form 'gestalts' from the experiential 'ground' of daily life, recognizing opportunities for fulfillment in the environment and acting on them with vigor and grace.

Unhealth, or neurosis, on the other hand, is conceived of in GT as 'interrupted excitement', a habitual breaking of contact with our environment and our impulses, an inability to form gestalts. Our neuroses work by avoiding novelty, tensing our muscles against impulses, and projecting our desires and resentments onto others. These neurotic strategies, Goodman and Perls observe, are pandemic in our culture, and manifest themselves in widespread anxiety, boredom, resentment, and violence.

Part One contains a series of 18 exercises in awareness and contact through which we can begin to recognize our neurotic mechanisms and the impulses they ward off. They form the practical core of the Therapy, and deal variously with focusing attention on breathing, body sensations, emotional reactions, eating, and speech, etc. Some are more clearly conceived and presented than others.

Ultimately, this great book is not a theoretical template to be applied. Rather, it provides an orientation, and an _invitation_ to assume the responsibility for our own well-being, discovering "What excitements do I refuse to accept as my own? Where do I begin to avoid or suppress them? How do I do hinder myself?" Gestalt Therapy is a call to awareness, a challenge to start to contact our experiences, change our behaviors, and grow. It is a book the must be lived with, tried, challenged, discussed, returned to. I recommend going through the exercises in the first part, then reading and digesting the 2nd, then returning to the exercises.

"Relaxing deliberateness, interpreting oneself, feeling one's body and emotions, these don't themselves solve any problems. They make solution possible, but the solution must be lived out."

A book worth to read again from time to time.
This book has meant much to me personally. I always suggest that people buy the book for themselves. I am so dissappointed because I did not get my book back from someone who borrowed it. However, for me it is worth it tobuy another one. ... Read more

Product Description
The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is one of the most powerful methods of providing dynamic content on the Web. CGI is a generic interface for calling external programs to crunch numbers, query databases, generate customized graphics, or perform any other server-side task. CGI programs can be written in any programming language, but Perl is by far the most popular language for CGI. CGI programmers appreciatePerl's text manipulation features and its CGI.pm module, which givesan well-integrated object-oriented interface to practically allCGI-related tasks. Based on the best-selling CGI Programmingon the World Wide Web, this edition has been completely rewrittento demonstrate current techniques available with the CGI.pm moduleand the latest versions of Perl. Topics include incorporating JavaScript for form validation,controlling browser caching, making CGI scripts secure in Perl,working with databases, creating simple search engines,maintaining state between multiple sessions, generatinggraphics dynamically, and improving performance of CGI scripts.Amazon.com Review
The appearance of the second edition of CGI Programming with Perl heralds the beginning of the neoclassical era of Web service. CGI--or common gateway interface--is the original back end for client-driven, dynamic Web-page service and deserves consideration as the Romulus of the Internet Empire. But, where first-edition author Gundavaram described the lonely Romulus laying the brick foundation of dynamic Web-page service in 1996, second-edition collaborators Guelich and Birznieks have pitched in to resurrect Romulus amid the crowded streets of modern Rome. Why bother? Surely four years have brought technological revolutions (Java, PHP, ASP, ColdFusion) that render CGI's original brick-by-brick approach as obsolete as, say, Roman mythology--or bricks and mortar.

And yet not. It is an ambiguous blessing that the original CGI persists, adhering to the underside of Web service by the duct tape that is Perl. This point is not missed by Guelich, Gundavaram, and Birznieks, whose advocacy of CGI is both bolstered by the growing applications module base of Perl and tempered by their awareness of CGI's structural limitations. Both new and returning readers of CGI Programming with Perl should browse the last chapter first in order to appreciate the proposed solutions to CGI's greatest sin: its impractical slowness in a world of a million-hits-per-day Web service. The chapter describes CGI-compatible FastCGI and mod_perl technologies that circumvent the process-spawning slowness of the simple CGI. Advanced users might want to skip directly to O'Reilly's fine mod_perl tome, Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C, by Lincoln Stein and Doug MacEachern.

The authors' second pass at CGI pedagogy is a lucid, honest, and expanded account that develops functionality of dynamic Web pages in a rational progression--from HTML client-server and CGI syntax basics to general input/output, forms, e-mail, graphics, and simple database applications, including maintaining client state and data persistence under the otherwise stateless HTTP protocol. The authors offer synopses of cookies, JavaScripting, server security, and XML, all of which are described in detail in other books.

Whether or not neoclassical CGI is fast enough for your purposes--perhaps for guarded intranets--bear in mind that CGI is the standard to which every other Web server has had to respond. The second edition of CGI Programming with Perl is still the best introduction to the classics. --Peter Leopold ... Read more

Customer Reviews (32)

Write an outline before you start writing a book
Fairly good content, but hideously organized.The book jumps all over the place and really lacks the coherence I've come to expect from O'Reilly books.I used "Learning Perl" to get pretty good with Perl in two weeks.The book on HTML is terrific as well.A good "Learning CGI" book to lead into this one would be nice I think.

Great in it's day
When the first edition came out, it was an atypical O'Reilly book; they were known for publishing guides for working programmers, but this was more of an introduction to a topic instead of a reference.

The problem is that it's not 1998 anymore.The technology this book explains (quite clearly!) really isn't used that much anymore, save by people who already know Perl quite well and want to leverage that skill to simple web scripts.

PHP, Python, Java, and Ruby all come to mind as a few of the modern approaches to the same topic.

After the errata, then what . . .
I've got the July 2000 printing and was amazed at the errata and the errata items yet to be "confirmed"!As an example of the latter, just beyond half-way through the book there's an address book cgi script some 10 pages in length of which only the first page or so is explained.The script is an attempt to use the Perl DBI along with the DBD::CSV modules (utilizing SQL statements) to explain the database role in "Data Persistance"!The problem is that the "getQueryResults" subroutine in the script doesn't return any records when searching for particular field values (and returns every record in the database if no values are entered in the "search" form).In addition the "doUpdate" module reports that an update has been completed when in reality there has been no change to the database!If you're planning on using the book to learn some CGI with Perl, then you're going to be set back by this and other code malfunctions scattered throughout the book!

Even though it's a step up from the CGI Primer Plus for Windows book (and gets a 4 star rating), it still leaves much to be desired for the person who learns by coding!

A good place to start
I purchased "CGI Programming with Perl" thinking it was, like many O'Reilly books, a bible of programming how-to for the working programmer. It's not. What it is, in fact, is a pretty good introduction to writing CGIs with Perl for someone who has some basic knowledge of Perl and HTTP, but who has never done any CGI programming. And that's just the position I was in when I bought it.

The first third of the book is introductory in nature, with an introduction to how forms and CGI scripts work, some discussion of parsing forms in other languages, and some simple examples. The bulk of the book contains more complex examples of tasks like writing questionaires, interfacing with relational databases, maintaining state, graphics and so forth. I did glean a lot of useful information there.

The biggest problem with this book is a problem that's really common to all book on Internet programming: Standards are changing so fast that a year old book is likely to contain chapter upon chapter illustrating obsolete techniques and libraries. In "CGI Programming" there are a lot of examples using Perl modules that haven't really caught on, while some of the newer modules (obviously) aren't meantioned. Another problem is that the book is kind of scattershot in the attention it gives different topics.

Still, I think this is one of the better books for someone with basic Perl skills looking to get started with CGIs. There's enough detail here to start writing CGIs, and enough information out there on the web to go on learning.

Okay, but not much there.
This is an okay book, but there's not much there. If you already know Perl and a little about CGI, there's not much to be had from this book. Learning Perl, Programming Perl and the Perl Cookbook (The O'Reilly one) will complete everything you need to know. This doesn't do much for you. ... Read more

Product Description
Although using Mason isn't difficult, creating a Mason-based site can be tricky. Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason shows you how to create large, complex, dynamically driven web sites that look good and are a snap to maintain. This concise book covers Mason's features from several angles, and includes a study of the authors' sample site where these features are used. You'll learn how to visualize multiple Mason-based solutions to any given problem and select among them. The book covers the latest line of Mason development 1.1x, which has many new features, including line number reporting based on source files, sub-requests, and easier use as a CGI.The only book to cover this important tool,Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason is essential reading for any Perl programmer who wants to simplify web site design. Learn how to use Mason, and you'll spend more time making things work, and less time reinventing the wheel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Great book for beginners
This is a good book. I had no idea about mason but helped me get right up to speed. Recommended for anyone who wants to get their foot in the door to learn mason.

thorough and interesting
I've worked on enough PHP and other lousy web code to have cringed when I read the title of this book: Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason."No!" I cried, "don't cross the streams!"By the end of the book, I was feeling much more at ease (but I still cringe a little at that title).Mason is (though it seems debated) a cross between a lightweight application server and a very lightweight templating system.Requests go into Mason, which dispatches them to handlers and produces a response.The handlers and dispatch are simple but powerful: they use ideas object-oriented programming and allow the programmer to easily abstract and reuse code parts.

It seems like a very powerful system, but its programmer-facing interface is fairly simple.The book walked through all the basic Mason concepts (request, autohandlers, dhandlers, components, methods, etc.) quickly, but with sufficient explanation and demonstration to make everything clear.Chapter 8 walked through the construction of a web and database application, using all the major features covered so far.The features had already been so clearly explained that I felt comfortable just skimming through the chapter.

After that, the book began to cover some more esoteric concepts.Mason is made up of a number of classes: an interpreter, a lexer, a compiler, and a resolver.A programmer can write his own class to implement any of these components, changing the system to suit his whims.At the end of all this, I felt like I could really make Mason do a lot of cool things, and that it was a nice-sized solution for a lot of problems.(I still don't see myself actually /using/ Mason for anything, but now I know it's not so bad, and I know how to use it.)The book was well-written, had the right amount of depth, and was the right length for end-to-end reading.I'm glad I read it.

Mason review (dave rolsky)
I suppose Dave thinks that this is a fairly advanced topic so he can speak in advanced ways (that unfortunately are of no help).
I am not un-intelligent yet after trying several hours i cannot grasp the concept of passing values from html forms, to my mason program.
Parameters in http requests dont have dollar signs in them dave do they?

Put it simply davewould be my advice to you, this book is painful to read as its explained to me as though i was a computer.

Great Book but...
But.. it is a little too short.Not really but I would have loved to have more book.The book covers just about every topic.I personally would have enjoyed to have more examples in each area.They made sure that there is at least on example for each topic.They even give some information about other competing products and about products that use Mason as it's base (for example Bircolage - I think I spelled that correctly).I am really glad the book to come out, it is a perfect addition to my collection of O'Reilly and Perl books.

Thanks for a great book!

Get me to the edge....
I am using Mason for about a year. Then I saw the Mason book. My first tought was: "Why should I buy a book about Mason - The online documentation is excellent...?".

But even the introduction chapters of this book gives you new ideas how to get things done. Starting with the second half of chapter 4 every Masonsite developer should take a close look. He will find a in deep discussion about every Mason feature - and more (e.g. The Bricolage-CMS-Appendix).

I my opinion there is no discussion "to buy or not to buy" this book. The only question is "when".

On the one hand this book can be a bit boring for "new" Mason user and as mentioned before the online documentation is very good. On the other hand if you have your first mason-site done and read this book you will have very likely the urgent desire to rewrite some code.

But this is a common perl problem: "There are many ways to get things done."

I dislike the "Example" chapter. One of the big advantages of Mason is the possibility to seperate perl-code and HTML. This ist not very well done within the example-site.

Conclusion: This book is not needed to get in touch with Mason althought usefull - but if you are really starting to deploy a site I strongly recommend this book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (20)

Removed the barrier for test writing
This is a great book because it teaches the novice how to do simple tests and shows experienced testers some of the more complicated things you can do with tests.Shortly after reading this book I emarked on packaging up a module, intending to get it onto CPAN.Trying to get a module created and packaged is not terribly hard, but it is difficult knowing where to start.The same is true with writing tests.This book removed that barrier.If writing tests for your software seems like an intimidating prospect, get this book: it will probably tell you what you need to know and will certainly give you an excellent place to start.It may even give guidance with some of the trickier tests you come up with.

Why 4/5 stars?I have found a few bits and pieces of information that would have been useful but the book did not cover (or, more precisely, I do not remember the book covering).Perhaps the most important omission is specification-based testing using LectroTest.It could be that the module came out after the book was published in which case the book gets 4/5 stars for its age.I could be wrong, but I get the impression that Perl testing has grown a lot since 2005, so perhaps they should write a second edition.

I can say this much: If O'Reilly were to put out a second edition of this book, I would buy it.

Very mechanical
So you want to learn about testing your Perl programs? This book will teach the mechanics of how to use the test frameworks. However it will not teach you a thing about what to test and why. The examples given all test stuff that a child could verify as correct - things so trivial that writing a test for them becomes an exercise in wasting your time. There isn't a bit of sage advice here on where a test is really useful and why, no tips and tricks, no pitfalls or warnings. A glorified manpage.

Covers the subject will all needed detail.
As always this O'Reilly book is written in simple to understand language and also delves deep into the technical aspects of the subject. It is laid out in a logical order that ensures you have the needed understanding of the basic concepts before moving you onto more advanced concepts.

After reading only the first third of the book you can be competent in writing perl tests for basic functionality. The books goes onto describe more complex scenarios involving uncertainty, unusual circumstances, external resource(ie database).

It explains the best practices when creating perl tests such as how to audit your code to ensure every part of your logic tree is tested.

I really have no negative comments about this book. This book was exactly what I needed to learn how to write perl testing modules.

Good for narrow focus on perl and testing
This book is a decent, gap-filling, focused and useful volume on testing perl with the use of the perl Test modules.

About the book:

This is narrowly and tightly focused on testing, and use of the "Test::" series of objects and techniques in Perl. It covers basic setups and use, and then expands into using mock objects and the mock modules, which are not covered well, if at all, in other published texts, at least not from the standpoint of being a software tester (as opposed to a coder).

It also shows how to drive and mock-up database testing, and the various ways to go about testing web sites and back-ends with Perl. Finally, it covers Test::Class, which sets up Unit Testing, for those coming from a jUnit or nUnit angle. And it touches on testing from other aspects, such as testing libraries or interactive code.

Criticisms:

I have found that most of the O'Reilly "Notebooks" are priced too highly for their small amount of content, and the content is usually very minimal. This book is the one exception I've found in that series.

That being said, I still believe that it should be priced around $20, or perhaps $25. But $5-10 is a minor quibble considering this is the only book of its type (Perl testing).

Another valid criticism is that much of the information in this book can be found spread all over the internet in various places, and some parts can be found in other Perl books. That is true - but ultimately irrelevant. Disparate clusters of information without completeness or context is simply not very valuable when compared to a solid text focused on the subject matter.

Bottom Line:

It is a good compilation and reference for its subject, with a lot of information and context provided, which makes it superior to a collection of links and snippets here and there on the internet.

If you are a Perl coder or a tester, this is a handy book to have on your shelf.

Good material, interesting format
I'm written a lot of perl code, and read a lot of evangelism about testing, but had never done much in the way of actual testing.I was exactly the person for whom this book was intended.And, it worked!The information about testing seems very strong, even authoritative, although since I know little else about it except for what I've learned from this book, I can't say that with my authority of my own.I've read lots of O'Reilly books, but this was my first in the Developer's Notebook series.I don't think it's revolutionary approach or anything, but it does work quite nicely, very focused on the practical, easy to apply immediately.All in all, a very nice book for the situation I was in.If you are in a similar situation, you'll probably like it too. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (14)

Practical, useable, and it doesn't even say "for dummies"
One thing goes without question - Mr. Maher knows his Perl.In this book he takes the most practical pieces of the language and shows you how to use them.Many programming books start so far back to the "beginning" that the first half is dry and boring.Tim's book is neither dry nor boring!The book has an enjoyable cadence as well as being informative and applicable.The quick reference pages are a real value-add as well.

Don't let the "For UNIX and Linux People" part of the title scare you away.While Tim does a great job of showing how Perl compares, contrasts, and can be integrated with Unix, this books is really for everyone.If you're trying to find a good Perl book and maybe are thinking "Hm, that wizard-looking guy or Camel?"Hands-down go for the wizard. (Note: wizard-looking guy is actually an Albanian).Camel has a place in the world, but if its not what you know you need, then this book is almost certainly a better place to start.

If you read this book and want to go deeper... I discovered Tim Maher also teaches via his Seattle based company, Consultix.(From experience, he is an even better teacher than he is writer.)

Title a little misleading
This is an excellent work in how to harness PERL to better use the Linux/ Unix shell and command line.But a warning:this is NOT a good introduction to either the PERL scripting language or shell programming. Rather you need to be familiar with both first before you approach this book, specifically, you need to be familiar with sed, awk, and grep, and you really need to be already familiar with PERL. That said,the book does an excellent job of building on that knowledge and gives some real empowerment.

Command Line Perl
Minimal Perl focuses on translating UNIX/Linux shell commands to Perl (awk, sed, grep, and the like).It doesn't go into whole programs as much as single-use lines, which is fine for simple tasks like checking log files or filtering text files.There are a few conventional programs thrown in the book but all of them are very short.In fact, the comments generally outweigh the code.
Don't take that as bad, though.Tim Maher introduces some great ideas that I haven't seen in the other Perl books I've read.It's a great reference to have on hand for simple tasks.Maher uses clear examples and clever text to get across some complex (and often difficult to read) Perl.
If your looking for traditional programming book, this probably isn't for you.Stick with O'Reilly for how to write complete programs.Minimal Perl is all about quick and disposable code that's more powerful then shell commands but not the overkill of a complete program.

Great Perl Tutorial for Experienced UNIX/Linux Users
This is an excellent Perl tutorial for those who are already familiar with UNIX/Linux shell scripting and other common utilities like find, sed, grep, and awk.Perl combines the strengths of each of these tools and surpasses them in one powerful and portable scripting language.This book is well worth the time and money spent with it for those in its target audience.This book is very well written.The examples are easy to follow and well thought out.The author clearly has a deep knowledge and long experience with the material presented.He takes a very common sense and practical approach to teaching the essentials of Perl scripting without getting the reader bogged down in all the details and capabilities of the language.He seems to have done an excellent job in selecting those parts of Perl that are of the most use for the greatest number of people who need to make use of it.I highly recommend this book.

If you are a Sys Admin
If you are an experienced Sys Admin in the Unix world and need to know enough Perl for scripting, this book is good - but its not a beginners book- the author expects you be familiar with command line Unix and scripting. ... Read more

Product Description
If you build web pages you may eventually want to add a guestbook, order form, page counter, or other interactive elements to your website. CGI Programming 101 explains how to do this in simple, easy-to-understand terms. The book shows you how to write useful, real-world web programs, starting with simple guestbook forms and building up to more advanced applications.

You'll learn:

* The Basics: where to write your CGI programs; how to upload them and set file permissions; how to run them, and how to debug them when things go wrong

* How to decode form data and save it to a file or e-mail it to yourself

* How to create, read, write, and search data files

* How to use Server-Side Includes to add dynamic content to your web site, plus a complete list of Apache SSI directives

* How to use random numbers for displaying banner ads and random images

* How to redirect visitors to another site

* How to extend your programs by using modules

* How to create a MySQL database, and write programs that interact with databases using the DBI module

* How to build an online shopping cart program

* How to e-mail attachments using a CGI program

* How to write secure programs, and protect your programs against hackers and spammers

* How to password-protect an area of your website

...and more.

The second edition has been substantially revised, with 100 pages of new material. It teaches good programming practices from the beginning, including use of the industry-standard CGI.pm Perl module. You'll learn how to protect your form-to-mail programs from being hijacked by spammers, how to build a cookie-based shopping cart, and how to develop a password-protected website. Quick-reference pages and an improved index help you find information easily.

There are also several online tutorials to help you set up your own web server and write CGI programs on any computer system - including Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix.Amazon.com Review
CGI Programming 101: Programming Perl for the World Wide Web is a concise presentation of the key elements of Perl CGI, which makes it perfect for programmers who are under the gun. If you need to get up to speed on text strings, for example, you can read that chapter and be a pro within about 10 minutes.

Form processing is addressed early on, followed by searching and sorting techniques, illustrations of how to use server-side includes (SSI), and other critical issues. There's also a chapter on using MySQL--an open-source SQL database. In general, if you want to get the most out of this book, you'll be better off having some programming experience, be it in BASIC or C++.

The only element missing from this introductory course is an appendix containing Perl's reserved characters, operators, and functions; instead, this material is presented throughout the book. But CGI Programming 101 is still one of the most efficient ways to get up to speed with Perl CGI. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: Perl variables, CGI environment variables, form processing, data file I/O, searching/sorting, server-side includes (SSI), random number generation, strings, date and time manipulation, HTTP cookies, e-mail processing, securing scripts, Perl modules, database programming, and custom Perl modules. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

zero to hero with this rocket powered book
I am not a professional programmer. But I do manage the website for the specialist engineering company I founded and run. I like to have "hands on" control of this very important window for our company to the rest of the world.

To increase the appeal of our website and increase the hit rate, I wanted to create some interactive web pages so the browsing public can generate specific information about our products, and to give them some useful applications to use which normally would cost significant money to buy. (We gain because they have to come to our website to use the application.)

A little research on Google revealed that Perl fitted the bill as the program of choice to use. Now I needed to learn Perl. A little more research came up with this book. I specifically wanted to work with numbers, creating and solving equations, and this book had a chapter on "Working with Numbers" (Chapter 9) so I bought it.

It took a little while to get the Apache version of Perl for Windows set up on my computer (the author's website could be a little clearer on how to do this)and get the "Hello World!" to come up on the screen. The big breakthrough was to create a little program to add two numbers together via the Internet on my browser. At that point, the main principles had clicked into place and I was away.

Within weeks, I was creating scripts two and three thousand lines long, taking full advantage of the range and power of Perl to draw graphs, create line drawings and solve complex equations. I created a full blown ordering system and database, which uses the web as a common network for my staff who need to access the database from different buildings on the factory site.

Throughout this process, when I needed a solution to a particular programming problem, I usually found it in my well thumbed copy of Jacqueline Hamilton's book. If I found that there was a bug somewhere in a particular routine, a careful re-read of the relevant part in the book usually came up with the reason why it was not working.

The more I programmed with Perl, the more I realised what a great book this is. I unreservedly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn Perl.

cgi101
This was a very good book to learn some Perl applications programming.The approach is more how to do a task rather than reviewing commands etc.I used it as a supplement to a more theoretical book.Very easy to get into and get started.

The "101" in the title should be taken seriously
The reason I gave this book 3 stars, when I found it of little use, is because the "101" suggests that it's for someone who knows nothing at all about the subject. So why not give it 5, if it is what it said it is? Because it's not enough about anything at all to be really useful- you can't possibly do much of any web development if this is your resource.

Examples? It spends 24 pages on learning perl. (And note that the 'info per page density' is low; lots of white space.) It touches on many aspects of perl, but not enough to do much of anything. So why include it? If you are going to show people how to use perl for web development, they need to first be more grounded in perl than they'll get out of 24 pages.Oh, and as for use of those 24 pages? An entire page is spent explaining how to determine the length of an array. To be fair, there are more examples of perl throughout the book.

Another: Regular Expressions get 8 lots-of-white-space-and-big-print pages. And the chapter on database access is sort of a whirlwind tour of MySQL.

So is the book useless? No, it's a 'toe in the water' book, and it feels kind of scattered. of course, you could then get the "102" book.

Or you could just buy one of those big, meaty books, which would actually be more useful. Making this book easy to read and non-threatening weakens it too much. Of course, this is also a quick and easy way to write a book.

Great book for new and experienced web designers
I bought this book when I first started designing web pages.That was 5 years ago and I still find this book helpful and easy to use.It is a great starting point for persons interested in web design.It has useful examples (I am still using some of these) to help get started.

The best book for beginners
This book is a great beginners guide as well as a reference booklet for veteran programmers.

Ms. Hamilton's style as an author is unbelieveably clean and understandable. ... Read more

Product Description
Fritz Perls was the co-founder of Gestalt Therapy, which is based on a holistic view of people and their relationship to the environment. A radical and refreshing challenge to psychoanalysis, Gestalt remains one of the most important and influential approaches in counselling and psychotherapy today, and many of its innovations have been assimilated into other therapeutic disciplines.

Customer Reviews (1)

Perls
A book I would not be without, it gives a lot of insights to the foundation of gestalt therapy.. ... Read more