Product Description
Build scalable and extendable web applications using the agile MVC framework

• Increase reusability and empower the delivery of more complex design patterns by extending the MVC concept
• Build an editable web interface
• Extend Catalyst through plugins
• Plenty of examples with detailed walkthroughs to create sample applications
• Updated for the latest version, Catalyst 5.8

In Detail

Many web applications are implemented in a way that makes developing them difficult and repetitive. Catalyst is an open source Perl-based Model-View-Controller framework that aims to solve this problem by reorganizing your web application to design and implement it in a natural, maintainable, and testable manner, making web development fun, fast, and rewarding.

This book teaches you how to use Catalyst to weave the various components involved in a web application, using methods and tools you personally prefer along with recommendations and details on the most popularly used objects like the DBIX ORM, TT2 Template, and Moose.

This book will take you from how the MVC pattern simplifies creating quality applications to how Catalyst allows you to tap this power instantly. It explains advanced design patterns and concludes with the improvements that Moose brings to all this. It also incorporates valuable suggestions and feedback received from the community members and our customers. By the end of the book, you will be able to build clean, scalable, and extendable web applications. This book embodies Catalyst's philosophies of Do It Yourself and Don't Repeat Yourself.

Design, develop, test, and deploy applications rapidly with the open source MVC Catalyst frameworkWhat you will learn from this book

• Use the Template toolkit to generate HTML output
• Design a database schema and access a SQLite database
• Create a CRUD interface to a database
• Use FormBuilder to define auto-generating and self-validating forms
• Create easy-to-maintain configuration files
• Import CSV files into a database
• Paginate search results
• Use the session plugin to add sessions to an application
• Explore authentication and authorization, implementing page-level and record-level control
• Use DBIC for easy handling of data
• Add a REST API to allow other applications to access your application
• Add AJAX interactivity to your application
• Incorporate RSS feeds in your application
• Automate testing and learn "Test-Driven Development"
• Mix a procedural interface with a relational DBIx::Class interface
• Write a database interface without DBIx::Class
• Build a custom Model without using any database

Approach

The book is written in an exploratory style: try something and then understand how it works. It will guide you through the features of Catalyst using real-world examples and systematic code snippets.

Who this book is written for

If you are a Perl Developer and want to strengthen your skill by understanding Web Application development using MVC principles, then this book is for you. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good content. Beginner friendly.
The Good

This book does a pretty good job of covering all of the basics for people new to Catalyst from installation and app creation to using the most common ORM (DBIX::Class), testing and deployment. There always seems to be a debate about what examples books should use for beginners: best practices vs. simple examples. This book does a pretty good job of finding that middle ground in that area. For example, some of the templating examples aren't the greatest when it comes to reuse, but the prevention of XSS and security/html encoding are explained fro the beginning.

I'm also fond of this books treatment of models. While it doesn't explicitly mention "domain model" vs. "data model" arguments, it does a great job of having the user think about having their "models" be reusable and working outside of Catalyst (like in a pl script) before applying "glue" to use those models inside of Catalyst. This is reinforced by creating a few utility scripts to prepopulate the database with data before using that data in Catalyst itself as well as creating non database models for use as Catalyst "models".

This book spends a fair amount of time talking about the most common features of DBIx::Class as well as presenting options to do the same things in DBI without an ORM for contrast. This book feels like it's really 35% of a DBIx::Class book. I think that's a good thing.

Another good area for me was Authentication/Authorization. Those two things aren't the same and a lot of framework book gloss over that fact. This book did a good job of explaining the difference and showing how to implement each part.

One of my favorite chapters of the book was the "Hot Web Topic" area which covered RESTand AJAX. While most people are familiar with these things, it's nice that a beginners book covers them. My favorite nugget though is Jemplate, which allows you to essentially reuse templates from your views within your AJAX handlers. While everyone seems to talk about AJAX, I've not seem too many people take up the topic of templating your dynamically generated HTML for the sake of DRY.

Last but not least, it's always nice to be able to download the source code for the examples included in the book.

The Bad

Like all books, there are some things that feel like they were glossed over for the sake or brevity that would've have made for a more complete book for Catalyst beginners.

First, in the tempting examples, this book uses an admittedly "unsupported" module called TTSite, which have the common header/footer/wrapper type issues already implemented. I think it would have been better to walk users through setting up those things using the default view and the wrapper options in Template Toolkit.

This is a minor nit and not really a bad thing, but it would've been nice for the book to talk a little more about the use of go() vs forward() when transferring between actions.

My last complaint is one of linking to CPAN. CPAN modules often change hands or are updated by many people. Almost all of the links to CPAN in this book link to a specific persons account when they should probably be linking to the dist instead:

# Current
[...]

# Better
[...]

The Ugly

The worst part about this book for me was the code formatting. The wrapping of long lines isn't very readable and for the most part it feels like someone formatted code using Microsoft Word. I haven't ready any other Catalyst books for comparison, but the code formatting in my Rails books are much easier on the eyes to read. I don't know if that's due to language differences, color/font choices, or if maybe putting the code inside of images would help.

Conclusions

Without having read other Catalyst books, I do think this book is a good resource for beginners of Catalyst MVC development. People already familiar with an older version of Catalyst might not find too many surprises, but there are a few nuggets of information about Catalyst+Moose and a good overview of DBIx::Class to refresh your brain. ... Read more

Product Description
A fascinating and thorough account of the Egyptian process of mummification and efforts to safeguard places of burial against thieves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure - Oh My!
"Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure: Secrets of Ancient Egypt" was a great gift for my oldest daughter who is really into archaeology.The book was an easy yet entertaining read that allowed her to explore some of the more exciting aspects of ancient Egypt without being lost in a lot of big words.This book is a great educational tool.

An Intriguing Book for the Adolescent
I bought "Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure: Secrets of Ancient Egypt" for my adolescent cousins a few years back. This is really the stuff dreams are made of when you are at that age. This is actually quite an intriguing book that captivates the reader immediately. I recommended this book to a friend of mine whose has a boy very interested in archeology. That is why this book immediately came to mind. As I recall the cover grabbed me right away but the text itself is very well written. It definitely ignites the imagination and is fuel to the minds of many a young archeologist in the making.

this book is very cool.
I think this is A realy good book.It is very scary and interesting.Also it is about mummys and tombs. ... Read more

Product Description
Perl is an immensely popular scripting language that combines the best features of C, key UNIX utilities and a powerful use of regular expressions. It has a wide range of uses beyond simple text processing and is commonly used for web programming - creating and parsing CGI forms, validating HTML syntax andhyperlinks - as well as e-mail and Usenet news filtering.Perl is increasingly the system administrator's scripting language of choice and is used for file and directory manipulation, database access and a whole range of daily system operator chores. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good, abeit slightly overcomplicated introduction to Perl
This is a good book which is a unique mix of intro and intermediate material. It is now also available as electronic edition including Kindle Editionfrom Amazon.

It is suitable for one semester course in Perl. Version covered is Perl 5.8 not 5.10. Some issues covered such as dereferencing of arguments in subroutines are rarely covered even in intermediate books. This is definitely much better and cheaper book then Learning Perl (ignore the lemmings effect in Amazon reviews of this pretty weak book).

The strong point of the book is the set of examples (you can download them) which illustrates basic material of each chapter. Running them is a must for studying Perl with this book.

Examples are often overcomplicated (like most Perl books authors Simon Cozen tries to impress reader with his knowledge of intricacies of Perl and often loses the sense of proportion; but he is not as bad as Randal Schwartz who is a pathological "overcomplicator" ;-). Still they are very helpful in understanding the language. A very useful exercise that I successfully tried with my students is the simplification of examples provided.

The book is the best for programmers moving from other languages then to "plain vanilla" beginners. It might be also useful for Unix system administrators who know Unix shell reasonably well.

The range of topics covered is really impressive:

Introduction
Chapter 1: First Steps In Perl
Chapter 2: Working with Simple Values
Chapter 3: Lists and Hashes
Chapter 4: Loops and Decisions
Chapter 5: Regular Expressions
Chapter 6: Files and Data
Chapter 7: References
Chapter 8: Subroutines
Chapter 9: Running and Debugging Perl
Chapter 10: Modules
Chapter 11: Object-Oriented Perl
Chapter 12: Introduction to CGI
Chapter 13: Perl and Databases
Chapter 14: The World of Perl
Appendix A: Regular Expressions
Appendix B: Special Variables
Appendix C: Function Reference
Appendix D: The Perl Standard Modules
Appendix E: Command Line Reference
Appendix F: The ASCII Character Set
Appendix G: Licenses
Appendix H: Solutions to Exercises
Appendix J: Support, Errata and P2P.Wrox.Com

Simon Cozens definitely knows the language well and it shows.

The book coveres a lot of intermediate topics like references, databases, OO concepts, CGI, etc.

Lists and hashes are explained well although the author often abuses lists and uses them where they do not belong.Both lists and hashes are introduced early in the book.

Regular expressions are explained OK. I like the approach the author takes in writing a small program which demonstrates various concepts.

The book covers both DBM databases and SQL databases. MySQL is used to demonstrate how PERL interacts with an SQL database. Most Linux distributions have MySQL installed by default, the book also contains useful information about installation and basic configuration, that helps to make MySQL up and running.

DBM, which are simple key-value pair databases are covered in more detail. The author demonstrates complex data storage using DBM files. Normally DBM can only store a single value for any key.

As for SQL only fairly simple SQL commands are covered, but then it is an introductory books and it's naive to expect full SQL coverage.

In CGI chapter the author introduces CGI environment variables and HTTP commands such as GET and POST first. Then he switches to the CGI.pm module which is standard module in Perl but unfortunatelyintroduces a lot of overcomplexity in the topic. CGI security issues are also mentioned.

Basic networking is covered in chapter 14.The Net::FTP module is covered in chapter 11 ( Object-Oriented Perl ) which makes this chapter simultaneously an extension of networking chapter.

The set of examples from the book greatly enhances the value of the book. It is mostly error free and immediately usable. Also each chapter has exercises with the answers. That makes the book more suitable for the classroom.

All-in-all this is a solid introduction to Perl which is attractive not only due to the price.

Good, abeit slightly overcomplicated introduction to Perl
This is a good book which is a unique mix of intro and intermediate material. It is now also available as electronic edition including Kindle Editionfrom Amazon.

It is suitable for one semester course in Perl. Version covered is Perl 5.8 not 5.10. Some issues covered such as dereferencing of arguments in subroutines are rarely covered even in intermediate books. This is definitely much better and cheaper book then Learning Perl (ignore the lemmings effect in Amazon reviews of this pretty weak book).

The strong point of the book is the set of examples (you can download them) which illustrates basic material of each chapter. Running them is a must for studying Perl with this book.

Examples are often sometimes overcomplicated (like most Perl books authors Simon Cozen tries to impress reader with his knowledge of intricacies of Perl and often loses the sense of proportion; but he is not as bad as Randal Schwartz who is a pathological "overcomplicator" ;-). Still they are very helpful in understanding the language. A very useful exercise that I successfully tried with my students is the simplification of examples provided.

Due to this the book is the best for programmers moving from other languages then to "plain vanilla" beginners. It might be also useful for Unix system administrators who know Unix shell reasonably well.

The range of topics covered is really impressive:

Introduction
Chapter 1: First Steps In Perl
Chapter 2: Working with Simple Values
Chapter 3: Lists and Hashes
Chapter 4: Loops and Decisions
Chapter 5: Regular Expressions
Chapter 6: Files and Data
Chapter 7: References
Chapter 8: Subroutines
Chapter 9: Running and Debugging Perl
Chapter 10: Modules
Chapter 11: Object-Oriented Perl
Chapter 12: Introduction to CGI
Chapter 13: Perl and Databases
Chapter 14: The World of Perl
Appendix A: Regular Expressions
Appendix B: Special Variables
Appendix C: Function Reference
Appendix D: The Perl Standard Modules
Appendix E: Command Line Reference
Appendix F: The ASCII Character Set
Appendix G: Licenses
Appendix H: Solutions to Exercises
Appendix J: Support, Errata and P2P.Wrox.Com

Simon Cozens definitely knows the language well and it shows.

The book covered a lot of intermediate topics like references, databases, OO concepts, CGI, etc.

Lists and hashes are explained well although the author often abuses lists and uses them where they do not belong.Both are introduced early in the book.

Regular expressions are explained OK. I like the approach the author takes in writing a small program which demonstrates various concepts.
The book covers both DBM databases and SQL databases. MySQL is used to demonstrate how PERL interacts with an SQL database. Most Linux distributions have MySQL installed by default, the book also contains useful information about installation and basic configuration, that helps to make MySQL up and running.

DBM, which are simple key-value pair databases are covered in more detail. The author demonstrates complex data storage using DBM files. Normally DBM can only store a single value for any key.

As for SQL only fairly simple SQL commands are covered, but then is an introductory books and it's naive to expect full SQL coverage.
In CGI chapter the author introduces CGI environment variables and HTTP commands such as GET and POST first. Then he switches to the CGI.pm module which is standard module in Perl but unfortunatelyintroduces a lot of overcomplexity in the topic. CGI security issues are also mentioned.

Basic networking is covered in chapter 14.The Net::FTP module is covered in chapter 11, Object-Oriented Perl which makes this chapter simultaneously an extension of networking chapter.

The set of examples from the book greatly enhances the value of the book. It is mostly error free and immediately usable. Also each chapter has exercises with the answers. That makes the book perfectly suitable for the classroom.

All-in-all this is a solid introduction to Perl which is attractive not only due to the price.

Judging a Kindle book by its (lack of a) cover ? 0 stars
I am searching for a good PERL reference for my Kindle which I just received, and the "Programming Perl" is not out, nor are any of the other good books that I would normally consider, and the other ones are enormously expensive ... way past the $9.99 or whatever that Amazon says that most books will sell for.

So ... I thought I would download this item, "Beginning Perl", just to see what it is, since it is only $0.99.

I am rating this as 1 star since I just downloaded it and the first thing I noticed is that it has no table of contents or apparently an index.This does not even look like it is a book.This may be the best book in the universe on Perl when I can click past all the beginning stuff to get to something useful, but without a TOC, index and linking, it is useless.

If this does turn out to be something useful, I will come back and amend this review, but it is very unlikely with no linking, and I am irked that this is even being charged for - Amazon customers ought to be paid for even looking at something so undeveloped and primitive, or pull it off the Kindle shelf until it is a real useful item.

In fact the next thing I am going to do is to complain about this to Amazon.Com since it is not, in fact, a book, and is useless.

One of the Best manuals
I have been a part-time Perl coder over the last ten years and have around 15 Perl and Perl related manuals. I purchased this book back in 2000 and still use it today. When I compare my other manuals with this one, there is really no comparison. The book has a way of explaining and using examples to direct the user to create basic yet effective working perl scripts. Far too many Perl manuals jump from the very basic examples to more advanced topics leaving many stones unturned. When I compare other Perl manuals covering the same topics Cozen's covers, I ask myself,
"how could the other writers not include this essential information?" This an essential Perl reference for the beginner or experienced user. I just wish this had been my first Perl rather than my fifteenth.

Cozens is the man
There is a second edition by the same title coming out, but without Simon Cozen listed as an author.Cannot say whether the 2nd edition is any good, but the out-of-print 1st edition is excellent.The first edition can be found online. I believe Simon is going to take a break from writing for a while. I hope he finds his way back to writing about Perl eventually. ... Read more

Product Description
The book really shines in its code examples: short, clear and to the point; the author repeatedly shows how something can be done in Perl 5 code and how it's expected to work in Perl 6.The author guides you through creating variables and accessing the data in them. You will find out how to save memory by only using the OO variable types when you need them.

— "Mr...after reading Scott Walter's gentle overview, I am actually looking forward to Perl 6 - eagerly anticipating rather than dreading its arrival.

Perl 6 Now: The Core Ideas Illustrated with Perl 5 is perfect for those eager to see where Perl is headed, Perl 5 programmers who want to know that their favorite tricks will still work in some form, and programmers wishing to open their minds to advanced programming topics.

Perl 6 generalizes the language, making it more extensible, eliminating longstanding pitfalls, and adding new concepts. Thanks to some clever people and impressive efforts, many of these new features work in Perl 5, so you can start using them now in production-level code.

The book teaches the basics from a Perl 6 perspective, touching on variable interpolation, datastructure use, object construction, threads, closures, symbol tables, and other core features. It then introduces continuations, coroutines, binding (or aliases), hyper operators that work on lists of data at once, set operators that work on complex datatypes, lightweight multidimensional arrays, strong type checking, autoboxing, precompilation, automatic module dependency installation, and more.

Though Perl 6 changes the fundamental syntax in some areas, Perl 5 code isn't left in the lurch. Thanks to PONIE, code from both versions may coexist in a single program. You'll need to adjust only a few habits and learn a few new things, and this early adopter's guide will help you do these things.

Customer Reviews (6)

As good as it's going to get
Perl 6 is pretty confusing no matter how you cut it. Scott does a nice job here of demonstrating the features of six. And he does it in a way that makes more sense than the Apocalypse stuff that Larry writes. If you are going to be using six as soon as it comes out then you will want to have a look at this in the meantime. It's the first book or article I have read that explains the new features in ways that I can understand.

look at the advanced features
Walters presents his book for Perl 5 programmers, who might be eyeing Perl 6 and wondering if they should migrate. So the chapters are designed with the new Perl 6 features explicitly demarcated and usually at the start of each chapter. The book emphasises what is different about Perl 6.

But it is also more than for Perl 5 readers. The book can be read as a complete explanatory text on Perl 6 OR Perl 5, for someone who has never programmed in any version of Perl. It shows that Perl 6 is in part a competitive response by the Perl community to the presence and influence of other languages. Overall, this evolutionary pressure benefits you, as a Perl programmer, by giving you a more powerful language.

For me, the most interesting section was at the end. There's a nifty discussion of possible set operations, implemented in a simple syntax. Plus other more abstract computer science topics. Try exercising your imagination by perusing these pages, even if you can't see an immediate need for them in your coding.

Also - it was good form for Walters, in an earlier review, to say that he wished he could've blogged without rating his own book.

This book rocks!
This is a clever, well-written book that will likely put your mind at ease if you are anxious about Perl 6.Scott makes interesting and intellegent comments, and provides good code samples.This book should appeal to Perl programmers of any skill level, and is not as dry as most programming books.An enjoyable read!

Trivia and notes from the author
Hi everyone!

Here's some trivia you might not otherwise find, and then I'm going to try to clear up exactly what this book *is*.

25% of the royalties on sales of this title have been pledged to the Electronic Frountier Foundation and The Perl Foundation. These two organizations have shaped the world for the better for those of us who love to express ourselves creatively using computers and the 'Net. Being a hacker wouldn't be the same without cryptography or Perl.

http://perl6now.com has a sample chapter, Multidimensional Arrays, which talks about PDL, the Perl Data Language, and doing vectorized operations on light weight, storage efficient large arrays. It also has all of the frontmatter including the Introduction and detailed Table of Contents. The Introduction is the best explanation of the book. There's also a link to my blog and other goodies.

Perl steals madly from other languagers (and always has); Perl 6 stole the coolest batch of features yet; _Perl 6 Now_ introduces these bizarre, alien, potent ideas using Perl 5 CPAN implementations and nearly 800 code listings.

First, it's a decidedly a Perl 5 book. It's about language features recently introduced in Perl 5, language features implemented as CPAN modules that intentionally or coincidentally parallel Perl 6's new features, and it's about advanced use of Perl 5's features to do things that Perl 6 tries to streamline or generalize to put into common reach. Perl 6's syntax will make learning Perl easier for novices but learning a new syntax just plain isn't that interesting to most of us. There are Perl 6 syntax examples but these are secondary to the introduction of the idea that spurred the change. Every idea included has a Perl 5 implementation. There is no hand-waving. Everything works in Perl 5 and everything is relavent to Perl 5. Making so many of Perl 6's ideas work on Perl 5 is no small task - this book contains hundreds of hacks, module demonstrations, tricks, and so on. This isn't a book on Parrot and it's not a book on PONIE (yet, though hopefully a second edition will do better). It only teaches how to incorporate the best parts of most of the languages on Earth to write some seriously mental Perl. If you enjoyed _Object Oriented Perl_, this book is for you.

-scott

P.S.: I wish I could blog here without rating the book, but I can't. Sorry.

Perfect for early adopters of Perl 6
This book simplifies the transition from coding in Perl 5 to coding in Perl 6. Common elements and themes between the two languages are demonstrated, along with an introduction to the advances found in Perl 6. Scott outlines a vast set of features using specific examples easily understood by Perl programmers of all levels.
Scott also uses humor throughout to make this Perl 6 guide a fun read. I especially enjoyed an example using pet washing to illustrate type checking (Type Safety chapter)! The expert's voice indeed - I hope we see more books from Mr. Walters. ... Read more

Product Description
The Perl language is well suited for use with "data munging" tasks: those that involve transforming and massaging data. While Perl is commonly used for such tasks, there has been no book focused on the topic of munging. This book covers the basic paradigms of programming and discusses the many techniques that are specific to Perl. It also examines standard data formats such as text, binary, HTML, and XML before giving tips on creating and parsing new structured data formats. Source code downloads and technical support from the authors are available on publisher's Web site. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

David Cross is usually funnier.
David Cross, star of stage and screen, is normally hilarious.And with a title like that, I was sure that 'Munging' was some hilarious indie slang for something disturbing.Alas, page after page I turned hoping for a witty anecdote, but none came.I never even figured out who the main character 'Perl' was supposed to be.Was she some sort of computer / robot?Why does everyone want to Mung her?Sloppy writing David, you really phoned it in here.Stick to Arrested Development.

No-nonsense resource for meat and potatoes Perl scripting
The quintessential Perl activity is data processing, particularly in a Unix environment, where output is piped into a script from some other program, transformed, and spat out again. Many people's first encounter with Perl will probably be in this task. David Cross's book shows how to do this with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of flexibility. It's not a Perl tutorial however, so you will need some basic knowledge of Perl, having read The Llama is enough. There is an appendix of 'essential Perl' to refresh your memory if you're a bit rusty.

The book begins by revising some of those basic Perl practices that come in handy for scripting, e.g. command line options, regular expressions and sorting. The second part of the book deals with parsing fairly simple data: traditional fixed-width record data (e.g. the column-based stuff that you often find as the output of old Fortran and C programs), unstructured data (e.g. doing word counts on text files), and formats such as CSV, PNG and MP3. This is the strongest section of the book, and contains lots of useful hands-on information.

The third part of the book deals with more modern forms of data files, in the shape of XML. Parsing HTML also gets a chapter to itself, after the author usefully demonstrates the limitations of any simple solution (e.g. using regexes), which provides pretty strong evidence in favour of the standard 'don't try it yourself, use a CPAN module' argument. The XML chapter itself covers the XML::Parser module in reasonable detail. However,there are now many more XML parsers in Perl out there, and XML::Parser is probably no longer the best solution (Grant McClean's Perl XML FAQ on the net has a good overview of the options). Excluding the seemingly obligatory 'here's a bunch of books and websites to learn more' chapter, the last proper chapter is on parsing, and the Rec::Descent module, and it's a very good gentle introduction.

If you're not working in a command line environment, there's not a whole lot here you're going to need. Equally, if you've been doing this sort of thing for a while, there's not much here that will be new to you, not all the subjects are explored in any great depth. And some of it (particularly the XML chapter) is a bit outdated and superficial, so I would knock off a star from my rating if you're more interested in the XML/HTML chapters.

But for the simpler tasks, e.g. parsing column based data, this is recommended. You're shown all the handy tricks you need such as piping, taking input from standard in as well as files, slurping paragraphs etc. My 4-star rating applies if this sounds like what you need: it's a clear, short and to-the-point book, which is definitely taking with you on your first journey into data munging.

I wish I had purchased this book years ago
As a DBA, I bought this book to enhance my data manipulation skills with Perl but I found so much more in this compact book.David Cross provides many excellent code examples and explanations for common, non-database data manipulation tasks.For example: working on delimited and fixed-width text files and managing complex data structures in perl with array and hash refs.David has excellent communications skills as his examples and explanations taught me much about Perl that I did not previously understand completely.I also found the Chapter 4 on regular expressions to be one of the best and most concise.The only downside of this book is that I wish it had more pages to read!Regardless, it's a must-have perl book.

Belongs on every sysadmin's desk
This book isn't about arcane corners of Perl theory.It's about how to write Perl programs that perform the "simple" task of converting data from one format to another.

Need to get every headline from an RSS feed?Or report the three users with the most processes running, as listed by `ps`?Or extract the first paragraph from each of a thousand HTML files?Or make a .tsv file based on all the "From:" and "Subject:" lines in your mailbox file?If those sorts of tasks sound familiar to you, then this is the book you've been looking for.It has working code for doing these sorts of things, involving lots of different common kinds of formats.

By tech book standards, this book is short (300 pages), but it's clear and direct and to the point -- no bloat here.Every page tells you something you need to know, with useful examples for every idea that it explains.

Valuable for its _clarity_
After reading this book I rewrote a pretty massive postscript pasrsing and munging system that I was having a lot of trouble with and felt like I did it the _right_ way.If you follow the author through his examples and actually read the book (which I was able to read almost straight through) I think that you will find yourself with a more long-view approach.And I think that makes this book valuable.And admit it, every time you read throgh a regex chapter you get a little more in the old noggin... ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Good for beginners
This is a very good book for PERL beginners. Easy to follow, good hands on samples. Though the examples are for web based development, we can try it on UNIX/LINUX shells.

Examples are simple and the book covers almost all sections of PERL (except for DB programming).

Overall excellent book for beginners. ... Read more

Product Description
With more than 1,000 examples, Perl Black Book, 2nd Edition is a complete reference to the Perl language ranging from language syntax and idioms to its use in applications such as e-commerce and integration with technologies such as XML and SOAP. Award-winning author Steven Holzner has updated his best-selling first edition to cover all aspects of Perl language version 5.6 including: syntax changes, improved security features, new database modules, and built-in functions. Three new chapters have been added to the second edition covering XML with DOM, SAX, CGI, SOAP, and WML. Plus, three chapters from the first edition have been moved to the included CD-ROM for a grand total of 31 chapters of complete Perl coverage. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (46)

Will get you of the ground and you will come back for more
This has been a tremendous reference book. This book will help you find answers quickly. It is very well indexed, and it covers most of the subjects that a Perl jockey would run in to.



Perl Black Book

Best Perl book ever
Steven Holzner has written many, many tech teach/reference books, but his Perl Blackbook is by far the best. The book features several characters, but focuses mainly on the Novice programmer and the Master programmer. The Novice works through the book, much as you would, learning about Perl along the way.

But don't let the "teaching" aspect of the book fool you - It is a tremendous reference book. Very well indexed, and covering most any subject that a Perl coder would run in to.

For anyone looking to learn: Get this book. For anyone looking for that 'beat all' reference book: Get this book.

One of the best Perl references ever
This book can be used to learn Perl, the format goes through beginning topics very nicely, and then gets you working on tougher topics very quickly. However, I have found that this book is much more valuable as a reference. If there's ever a time you say to yourself, "Hmm, how can I do that in Perl?" or "What can I do with that function?" then this book can help. It covers a HUGE amount of topics, from the basics of Perl, to cgi, to network programming, to Tcl/Tk, to.... well, just about everything. If you need to learn something, then there's a good bet this book will teach you everything you need to know about it. Invaluable.

Everythign I had looked for
When I discovered Perl, I was a C++ programmer. I wanted to more easily manipulate textual data, and let's face it, cgi programs are just not the happenin deal when it comes to web apps. Enter Perl. At the time I bought this book, I had seen a ton of Perl scripts doing what I wanted to do, but Perl as a language seemed so foreign to me. The Black Book bridged the gap wonderfully, and it is so well written that I managed to read most of it on a car voyage from Louisiana to California (I can't even read some of my favorite novels while traveling).

The book makes learning Perl a breeze, and it comes with a CD to check out any mentioned code you want (thought there is tons of code in the book anyway). The book and CD have tons of real world scripts that you can learn from and apply to the projects you are most probably already working on. I loved this book, and I think anyone who wants to learn Perl shoul start here.

Bottom line: Probably a better learning book than reference book (although it is still a good reference), this book made Perl easily accessible to me.

Essential desktop reference
I have quite a few books on Perl, but most of them only warrant an occasional reference.This book, on the otherhand, is well-worn because I refer to it frequently.The examples are clear and concise.The book is well organized and flows nicely from topic to topic.If you are looking for one good book to get you started with Perl, and one that will grow with you, this is the book to get. ... Read more

Product Description
This quick-reference guide to the Perl programming language provides acomplete overview of the language, from variables to input and output, fromflow control to regular expressions, from functions to document formats --all packed into a convenient, carry-around booklet.Updated to cover Perl version 5.003, this guide includes a summary ofPerl syntax rules, a complete list of standard library modules with briefdescriptions, and a precedence table for Perl operators. Perl 5 Desktop Reference is the perfect companion to LearningPerl, a carefully paced tutorial course by Randal L. Schwartz, and Programming Perl, the complete, authoritative reference workcoauthored by Perl developer Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Schwartz. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The book to have close at hand when learning perl
This quick reference guide to Perl 5.000 was always close at hand when I was learing Perl. It provided just enough detail to remind me of the sticky points of syntax and usage while being lean enough to find items fast. It is a truly useful companion to both the Camel book (Programming Perl, 2nd edition) and the Llama book (Learning Perl).

These days I don't use it as much, mainly because my knowledge of Perl has grown to the point where I have fewer questions of usage, but also because I have the CD-Rom edition of O'reilly's "Webmaster in a Nutshell" which contains a full text version of "Programming Perl". I can now look things up electronically in about the same time I could onpaper.

Perl's quirky syntax and the attitude built into the language of there's always more than one way to do it, makes having multiple reference sources a requirement, if only to find the Perl guru who thinks like you do. Vromans uses a clean, straightforward style which is a refreshing change from the sometimes too humorous style of Larry Wall and Randal Schwartz. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (41)

Heartfelt and Powerful
Marion gives a powerful firsthand account of what is was like to live through the Holocaust.Definitely a must read.

Stories of the past are very important
I read this book many years ago. I cherish the ancestral story that is depicted inside the paperback cover, and would definitely encourage anyone that would like to understand a part of life in the holocaust time period to look into exploring this book from cover to cover.

Four Perfect Pebbles
We were lucky enough to hear Marion Blumenthal Lazan speak here in Des Moines. I knew that I wanted to share her story with my grandsons. We have to teach the Holocaust to our young people so that history will not be repeated!

Absorbing Read for a Biography
I found this book uncommonly absorbing, for being written in a biography style. Mostly you will learn about many events from World War II, and how a true story was played out for the Blumenthal family.

I expected the book to be okay, but as it turned out, I really enjoyed it! I truly recommend this book for anyone at all, who is interested in reading a real life Holocaust story.

Good put not exciting
This is a good read but it is not exciting. I could take it or leave it. Its interesting to see how they recall and tell the events of the holocaust that they went through, but its not something that I would run out to get to read. I think Number the Stars, Annie Frank or The Hidding Place are more gripping that this one. ... Read more

Product Description
Web, Graphics & Perl/Tk is the second volume of The Best of the Perl Journal, compiled and re-edited by the original editor and publisher of The Perl Journal, Jon Orwant. In this series, we've taken the very best (and still relevant) articles published in TPJ over its five years of publication and immortalized them into three volumes. The forty articles included in this volume are simply some of the best Perl articles ever written on the subjects of graphics, the Web, and Perl/Tk, by some of the best Perl authors and coders.Much of Perl's success is due to its capabilities for developing web sites; the Web section covers popular topics such as CGI programs, mod_perl, spidering, HTML parsing, security, and content management. The Graphics section is a grab bag of techniques, ranging from simple graph generation to ray tracing and real-time video digitizing. The Perl/Tk section shows you how to use the popular Perl/Tk toolkit for developing graphical applications that work on both Unix/Linux and Windows without a single change.Written by twenty-three of the most prominent and prolific members of the closely-knit Perl community, including Lincoln Stein, Mark-Jason Dominus, Alligator Descartes, and Dan Brian, this anthology does what no other book can, giving unique insight into the real-life applications and powerful techniques made possible by Perl. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good TPJ articles for the topics Web, Graphics and TK
"Web, Graphics and Perl/TK" is a reprint of the best articles of the The Perl Journal (TPJ) for the following topics:

- Web programming with Perl
- Graphics programming with Perl
- Perl/TK

The chapter about "Web programming" covers roughly the following topics:
- CGI programming and CGI.pm
- mod_perl programming
- LWP (libwwwperl) and the modules to parse HTML
- Miscellaneous topics

I found the main chapter "Web programming" very interesting and a good introduction into the topics that it covered.

The chapter "Graphics" is a collection of articles about Graphics programming without the use of Perl/TK (e.g. GD, Perl and GIMP). I found the articles to be quite interesting and to contain some very good ideas. Because I am a database guy, I will not use most of these ideas but I will definitely use GD to generate web graphics. It is always amazing how much you can do with Perl and how easy this can be (sometimes).

The third part of the " Web, Graphics and Perl/TK" deals with Perl/TK only. I personally do not really understand TK (even when I was still using TCL/TK) so that I cannot really comment on the contents of these articles. I found them quite readable and the stile was OK. However if I had to (re-)learn TK, these articles would not be enough. If I need to use Perl/TK, I will buy the O'Reilly books that cover Perl/TK.

I like this TPJ series because the authors cover a certain aspect of Perl or Perl usage in a very condensed form that makes it easy to get a quick start in this area. I am really looking forward to reading "Games, Diversions and Perl Culture" (last book of this series ... Read more

Product Description
In each column, Randal ... carefully discusses the problem, and then shows the Perl code needed to resolve it. Each column is written in a conversational style that is easy to read, yet doesn't talk down to you.Check out the table of contents and see why it made my mouth water. If you are a Perl fan, you will enjoy this. Highly recommended.

Randal Schwartz's Perls of Wisdom is a collection of more than 70 columns from popular and prolific Perl columnist Randal Schwartz. These insightful pieces cover everything from Perl basics to how to decompose XML using an HTML parser. Schwartz's unique writing style and (sometimes) truly twisted use of Perl makes for exciting reading for those who want to enhance their Perl skills.

Customer Reviews (8)

Enjoyable, if dated
I really enjoyed this book - I haven't had to write Perl consistently in years, but programming, ultimately, is programming, and the book shows clear thinking the whole way through. Many of the problems tackled aren't big issues anymore, of course, but it's still a great read.

David Berube
Berube Consulting

Some good, some not so good
Not that useful if you've been around Perl a while.Biggest annoyance - leader blurbs that tell you that what you're about to read is out of date and something better is already out there.

Useful tidbits abound
It's amazing how much Perl knowledge is crammed into some people and Randal Schwartz has more than his fair share!

His articles are concise and cogent. You might want to complain about the layout somewhat, but collections rarely fit into neat categories and these columns are no exception.

While quite a bit of this makes use of tools and techniques that I have not found use for yet in my work, it has made me think about implementing a few things for my own personal joy. And by pawing through the examples and the code, I picked up a tidbit or two that I had not thought of or considered before, especially in Section 5, The Webmaster's Toolkit. I can't wait to try some of it out!

If there's to be any complaint, it's that some articles (as the author admits) have had their core ideas superceded by newer additions to Perl. It might have been nice to find addenda to these articles, showing some updated coding, rather than having it left up to the imagination. Still, it's not enough of a complaint to rate this as anything less than a 5-start masterwork.

Messy, even for an article book
It's not in my nature to like article compilation books and this one seems actually a little worse than usual to me. The content is all over the place and the formatting should have at least gone through some sort of standardization process. I find this kind of book very lazy. At the very least, be sure check the outline to make sure what's being covered matters to you before spending the money on this one.

Great help!
Randal Schwartz is PERL.He is the PERL man.

I know PERL very well, but even I learned a lot from this great book. ... Read more

Product Description
Provides readers with the methods, algorithms, and means to perform text mining tasks

This book is devoted to the fundamentals of text mining using Perl, an open-source programming tool that is freely available via the Internet (www.perl.org). It covers mining ideas from several perspectives--statistics, data mining, linguistics, and information retrieval--and provides readers with the means to successfully complete text mining tasks on their own.

The book begins with an introduction to regular expressions, a text pattern methodology, and quantitative text summaries, all of which are fundamental tools of analyzing text. Then, it builds upon this foundation to explore:

• Probability and texts, including the bag-of-words model
• Information retrieval techniques such as the TF-IDF similarity measure
• Concordance lines and corpus linguistics
• Multivariate techniques such as correlation, principal components analysis, and clustering
• Perl modules, German, and permutation tests

Each chapter is devoted to a single key topic, and the author carefully and thoughtfully introduces mathematical concepts as they arise, allowing readers to learn as they go without having to refer to additional books. The inclusion of numerous exercises and worked-out examples further complements the book's student-friendly format.

Practical Text Mining with Perl is ideal as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in text mining and as a reference for a variety of professionals who are interested in extracting information from text documents. ... Read more

Product Description
Provides fully working examples of problems and applications most people write in Perl--all examples used in this book come from the Web and the author's own vast code library. No other book has thousands of lines of annotated code--serves as a memory jogger, a source for new ideas, a solutions gold mine, as well as a stepping stone to learning the semantics and specifics of the language. Cut-and-paste code on CD--contains all the code and applications from the book in a simple chapter-by-chapter directory structure. Descriptions of HOW the programmer tackled problems in line-by-line detail is provided with each solution. Variety of programs provided--Many listed will work on both Windows and Unix machines without any modifications, and some will contain specific lines of code for running on Unix machines that are not necessary for the Windows platform. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Wait...
Wait... Although this is a good book, it doesn't mean that it'll teach you perl. It actually doesn't intend to teach you perl from basics. What I really love about this book is, it gives a reader lots of ideas on how to use perl efficiently.

Those who are hoocked on CGI can also buy this book. After buying the book you can either 1)read through it and have new ideas on how you could write perl programs efficiently or 2) just grab the ready-to-use programs from the CD and run'em. I agree, this is not the only book that provides you with ready-to-use programs. I also wrote a review to CGI/Perl Cookbook, which got my just one star. Difference between these two titles is that, CGI/Perl Cookbook is pretty far from giving you tips and doesn't go through their ready-to-use programs in details. As toPerl:Annotated Archives, it does a good job onexplaining the programs. Also the programs included in the book are intended to handle some very frequent tasks, like checking HTML validity, Managing your news pages, CGI security (for details look at the table of contents in the left menu).

If you are beginner and want to learn perl and to be able to write your own programs and modules, I do not recommend you this title. Don't buy it. Go for either CGI101(highly recommend it) or Elizabeth Castro's Quick Start guide.

In overall, this is a good book, which provides you with lots of usefull ideas and programs as well.

Nice idea; poor execution
Although I've used Perl for a while, I like collections like this. I started reading this book and was immediately thrown off by at least one coding/logic error in the encrypt/decrypt programs (which are among thefirst scripts in the first chapter). The fact that these are annotatedmultiplies the error, because a newbie is more likely to be misled by theclear explanation of something that is false. This left a bad taste in mymouth, so I've been leery of using the book much since (it's the last onethat I consult). Finally, I don't like the author's Perl style. Yes,"there's more than one way to do things," but the style is (IMHO)somewhat non-Perlish and may lead to people missing out on the PerlPhilosophy.

I recommend the Perl Cookbook instead for recipes, and theProgramming Perl book for examples/tutorials.

Martin++ !
There's something wonderful about a book that doesn't sit on a shelf for any period of time. It becomes dog-eared from use and its layout and content becomes familiar. Martin Brown's Perl and Python Annotated Archivesare two such books in my personal collection. I find myself constantlyswitching between computer languages and with books like these, it's a snapto become productive very quickly. Other reviews here have covered thefine examples in the AA books but what struck me the most was that Martindoesn't overly rely on modules from CPAN to illustrate his point. Some havelikened CPAN's contents to being 'software integrated circuits' --something you just plug and and use.This is great for people who don'tcare about the details and have a but if you want to learn how thingsreally work, this book's example code is where it's at. Of course he's nodummy and liberally uses things like Getopt in the right amounts.

If youbuild Web solutions and only have time to absorb one chapter, read andunderstand the CGI security chapter. My personal favorite has to be eitherthe entries on databases or the cross platform systems administrationsection. Too many Perl books concentrate on Unix and don't acknowledgeother OSes. I think 'macfbf.pl' might be the first code example for theMacintosh I've seen in a Perl book!

There's a lot for Perl newbies andold dogs to learn from this book and it's well worth the effort to gleansomething from every chapter.

Martin is one of the most interactiveauthors I've ever dealt with and always responds to emailed suggestions,questions and constructive criticism with a professional yet friendly tone.He's been quick to point out the very rare typographic mistakes and updateshis Web site's errata section quickly. That alone makes his books worthhaving!

An essential book for all Perl users and teachers
There are many ways to learn a programming language but only a few yield positive results.One of the most effective solutions is to learn how to use a particular language to solve real-world problems, and this is precisely the approach that Martin C. Brown chose to help the reader of hisexcellent Perl Annotated Archives book learn the language that powershundreds of thousands of Internet and intranet servers around the world. Instead of a series of dry lessons found in many Perl textbooks, with PerlAA you can start writing and experimenting with the source code right afteryou open this book. This makes it an ideal book for both teachers of thePerl programming language and for their students who want to see how theorythey learn works in practice.

Perl is not an easy language to learn andthe lack of commented code samples is what discourages a lot of people fromlearning it.Martin C. Brown does an excellent job of teaching not onlyhow to write useful applications but also how to keep your code simple,clean and easy to maintain which is no mean feat considering how easy it isto write cryptic code in Perl.So, the first star is for what's betweenthe covers.

I'm sure that many people who tried to learn a programminglanguage from a book will agree that it is not enough to just dump the bestideas and code onto paper--they must be presented in a way that helps thereader to quickly find any little bit of information he/she needs.I foundnothing to complain about in that department and I agree with my studentswho often praise this book for its ease of use and the ease of access tothe information contained inside it.The second star is therefore for thepresentation of the material.

How about the accuracy of the text and thesource code?Well, it is *very* high and does not contain any seriouserrors.This has been confirmed by my students who have been using thisbook for the last six months and found very little errors or omissions. Those that were spotted are not fatal and can be quite easily fixed by thereaders themselves.That's why the third star is for the accuracy of thematerial.

The fourth star is for the CD-ROM disc sold with the book. Although the CD-ROM disc is an almost essential companion to a computerbook, it rarely is utilized in a way that justifies it's additional cost. However, what I found on the disc sold with Perl AA made me very happy.Ilove it when I can copy, paste and customize *full* source code and notonly short examples.You can use it as a source of ready-made solutionsand a great learning/teaching tool.

The last, fifth star is for MartinC. Brown's reader support.His Web site is a treasurechest for those who are looking for free code (Martin makes tons of codeavailable for free), updates or error corrections (not that Martin makes alot of mistakes he needs to correct).Rarely you will find an author whooffers such support and that's something you should consider if you expectmore from an author.

In short, Perl AA is an excellent book for those wholearn, teach and use Perl in real world.This book is a safe investmentwith a very *high* return.

Good "Book no. 2" for those just beginning to learn Perl.
This book approaches Perl from a different angle than any other I've read. Instead of teaching the basics, it shows the reader how to use Perl effectively to solve day-to-day problems. Processing web logs, filehandling, generating reports from text files and databases, sending andreceiving mail, building dynamic web pages, extracting HTML andadministrating network. These are just few of the subject this bookstouches. It also shows the reader how using CPAN archives can save muchtime (and frustration). Old timers will probably not find anything theydidn't already know, but less experienced system administrator will findthis book a good help and a time saver. I would also recommend this toanyone wanting to know "how to use Perl" as opposed "how towrite Perl". ... Read more

Product Description
Written for biomedical professionals and hospital practitioners interested in creating their own programs, Perl Programming for Medicine and Biology, discusses and reviews biomedical data resources, data standards, data organization, medicolegal and ethical conduct for data miners, and grants-related data sharing responsibilities. It teaches readers the basic Perl programming skills necessary for collecting, analyzing, and distributing biomedical data and provides solutions to in-depth problems that face researchers and healthcare professionals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Review of Berman's Perl Programming
I reviewed an early draft of this book for the publisher, for which I received no compensation. I was interested to see whether the author responded to some of my suggestions. He did.

The book begins with a preface, which compares biomedical professionals of the 1970s, who couldn't touch-type, against biomedical professionals today, who lack computer programming skills. In the modern biomedical world, every biomedical professional should be able to do some computer programming. It's not enough to leave this skill to information technology professionals, just as keyboard typing is no longer left to clerks. If you are responsible for a large biomedical database, then you must be able to explore it yourself, both to get a first-hand overview of the data, and to better understand how to benefit from the information technologists with whom you work.

Three computer languages satisfy the minimum requirements for biomedical programming: Perl, Python, and Ruby. These languages are: free; fast; and easy to learn. Each provides a large user community; easy environment for correcting errors; large, available library of specialized modules; built-in pattern recognition commands; and yet are capable of large-scale data-analysis for advanced programmers. This list, enumerated by Dr. Berman and many others, should be chiseled in granite, published everywhere, and yelled from the rooftops. Greater compliance with this list would clear out much of the clutter in the chaotic world of biomedical informatics.

"Perl Programming for Medicine and Biology" covers all the areas of major interest to biomedical researchers, clinical scientists, and healthcare students: (1) how to download a cost-free copy of Perl for personal use; (2) simple Perl programs and troubleshooting; (3) file conversions; (4) file reading, one line at-a-time; (5) pattern-matching; (6) assigning data-arrays; (7) building an index; (8) regular expressions (regex); (9) biomedical nomenclatures; (10) searching and sorting; (11) data management; (12) internet and network protocols and data transfer; (13) cryptography, privacy, and data-scrubbing; and (14) related metadata languages (HTML, XML and RDF). For each data analysis area, the book includes sample problems that are accompanied by complete explanations, and by Perl source code that the reader can copy into his/her own computer and try out. The book makes generous use of publicly available datasets and other resources in these examples, so that the reader can perform his/her own computing experiments on data of genuine biomedical interest.

Several features of this book are particularly valuable for the busy professional reader. First, every chapter begins with a Background section, so that the reader gets an immediate overview of the material to be covered. These Background sections are inviting and insightful: why should the average biomedical professional care about a particular area, and what tasks can be carried out in Perl? Second, the Glossary is one of the highlights of the book. The glossary is reminiscent of Dr. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, or Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary: included for each term is both a solid definition of what it is, and a personal opinion of why one should know or care about the term. Third, the Reference section isn't just a list of citations; each reference is accompanied by a useful commentary. Finally, the Resource section lists copious on-line resources available to the reader for further, in-depth study.

Some impatient readers, like myself, read the beginnings of a few chapters in a technical book, and then go quickly to the last chapter of the book, to see where it all ends, and whether it seems worthwhile to slog through the whole thing. Such readers are in for a pleasant surprise: the background sections, glossary, and references are reasonably comprehensive, and separate the wheat from the chaff among concepts in Information Technology. You can get a good overview of the whole book in a few hours.

The book is written in a breezy style that cuts through all the usual verbal chatter of more academic publications. This is an easy book to pick up and start reading, and hard to put down.
... Read more

Product Description

Makes performance analysis and queueing theory concepts simple to understand and available to anyone with a background in high school algebra

Presents the practical application of these concepts in the context of modern, distributed, computer system designs

Packed with helpful examples that are based on the author's experience analyzing the performance of large-scale systems over the past 20 years.

Customer Reviews (3)

Both theory and practice plus free modeling software
The coverage of the theory in the first part of the book is very well done. However,its the practical examples in the second half where the book really shines. There are a number of examples modeling client server and web applications.

A copy of his modeling tool, PDQ, is available by download from his website. This version is in Perl.Even though I am not a very experienced Perl programmer I think this is an interesting way to get more practice by building PDQ models. The PDQ package is explained very well and a number of example models are covered.

Some of the examples are from various scattered publications. It's great to get these example models collected in one volume. Dr. Gunthers characteristic sense of humor comes through in the examples.

There is some very practical information about model validation and what to do to account for hidden latencies. There are clear examples of how to practice the art of applying queuing models to real problems.

I would have liked to see some more examples of load dependent servers. Overall I rate the book five stars and I really appreciate getting the modeling software for free!

A great tool for the capacity planner or performance analyst
This book lays out basics of queuing theory in a way that is both understandable and easy to apply.I have fumbled for years using complex performance analysis tools without ever really knowing whether or not I'm getting the right answer.Now I know what looks right and what doesn't. Gunther has an easy to follow style as he introduces the concepts of queuing theory. Then he shows you how to apply what you have learned using real life examples.It's a definite "must have" for the capacity planner or system performance analyst.

concise and lucid exposition on performance analysis
dr. gunther has written a gem of a performance analysis book. for starter, the unix load average is a wonderful detective story. i especially liked chapter 5 with real performance analysis experiences applying queueing theory discussed in both chapter 2 and 3. the best part is dr. gunther's exposition of queueing theory into the essence for the working performance analysts. in addition, appendix B on buffers and appendix C on memoryless property are the most lucid explanation i have read. i would also heartily recommend dr. gunther's other book, the practical performance analyst. ... Read more

Product Description
Distilling many years of Perl experience--including aninsiders look at Perl development (the authors are members of the Perl6 core development team)--Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials, 2nd Edition isan unparalleled preview of major changes in the widely-anticipatedPerl 6. This sneak peek of what's coming in Perl includes succinct butthorough coverage of groundbreaking new developments in Parrot--thelanguage-independent interpreter engine that will execute code writtenin the new Perl 6 language. Designed to be language independent,Parrot can be used to interpret other dynamic languages such asPython, Tcl, Ruby, and even Java.

Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials also uncovers the most revolutionarychange in the language itself--Apocalypse 12 on objects.TheApocalypse design documents (in the sense of "revealing", not"end-of-the-world") explain significant changes in new Perl 6features, numbered according to the chapters in O'Reilly's landmarkCamel book , Programming Perl.

Apocalypse 12 is the result of cutting-edge research inobject-oriented languages and is guaranteed to grab the attention ofany serious Perl programmer. Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials alsoincludes expanded coverage of Apocalypse 5 (regular expressions) andApocalypse 6 (subroutines).

Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials is the only book available to chart thecourse of the long but fruitful voyage of Perl 6.It reveals all theingenious developments that will make Perl 6 more powerful and easierto use.

Perl gurus and programmers alike will rely on this slim but essentialbook for both a clear view of the Perl horizon and to ensure they hitthe ground running once this important new version of Perl isreleased. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An excellent source of information on a moving target
If you are just curious about Perl 6 and Parrot, this is a good book. If you are planning on diving into the language and want to know some complex internals, this is a good book. In fact, either way you slice it, it is pretty darn good. The only caveat is that this is not a tutorial style book and probably does not completely cover the Perl 6 language. This of course is clearly stated in the book itself since this book was published before the release date of a perl implementation of Perl 6 was even decided upon.

But now that date looks like it is over the horizon. There is chatter on the wires that 'Rakudo Star' will be released in April-ish 2010. This most likely will be the first release of perl 6. The question then is; is this book relevant? And the answer is unequivocally yes. It gives you a lot of information on Perl 6 syntax and features and provides a pretty through overview of Parrot.

It is a densely packed book, a lot like K & R's book on C. But it is readable and usable even as reference. Well worth buying.

Good reading in many ways for many users
I found this book well written and enjoyable. As someone interested in how a team goes about developing a new language, parts of it read like a good NY Times feature. For anyone writing Perl professionally, this is a good heads-up on where their language is going. For introductory Perl users, esp those coming from another language, the Design Philosophy and quick language review sections are very useful for 'grokking' Perl at a high level and then seeing how the pieces fall into place.

Serious Perl programmers only
As you can imagine, this short book is only for the serious Perl guru. The first half of the book is on the Perl 6 language and is so terse that it's only readable by experienced Perl programmers. The second half of the book covers Parrot, the new Perl Virtual Machine. This is seriously hard core material, which is useful if you plan to write your own compiler to fit on top of the machine.

Doubtless this is some cutting edge and impressive material, but the book has no ramp for beginners. If your job depends on high-end Perl, you will want to read this book. If you are an average Perl user you can probably wait for the next version of Programming Perl.

Parrot ~ .NET ?!
Perl 5 is the current version of Perl out there in active use. But a cadre of key developers has been steadily tooling up a major upgrade, Perl 6. This book gives you a detailed preview that claims to be an accurate description of what it will be, when it is officially released. In part, of course, so that existing Perl users can plan for the future. But the book is also a call to arms. Ifyou are enticed and intrigued by Perl 6, and would like to contribute to its development, then please do so! The authors show how to join the development team. An all-volunteer effort, mind you. They can't pay you anything.

Speaking of which, that brings up the second part of the book. As part of the Perl 6 effort, there is a related project, Parrot. It will be a language independent virtual machine that can convert Perl 6 source to a byte code binary. And also do likewise for Tcl, Python, Java and other languages.

Does this ring any bells? Sounds in the spirit of Microsoft's .NET. That was and is a massive task in design and implementation. No one outside Microsoft, and precious few inside, knows how much it is costing. What is impressive is that here in Parrot, we have a bunch of volunteers trying a similar effort, with no $budget to speak of. Can they do it? The authors strongly argue, "yes". ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (12)

Disappointing
I had high hopes for this book, but it fails on several levels.

- Most of the scripts in the book use an external module for the important work. For me this means I can't customize the script as much as I'd like to.

- A lot of the code messes around with the internals of a module. This is a terrible way to program. The end result is that now those modules have updated code and so these scripts don't work for me. Which leads me straight to:

- Most scripts just don't work.

Steve, if you are reading this, check out "Programming Perl"...it's a great place to start learning Perl.

Buy something else
This book wants to be a recipe book. But in my opinion it doesn't do it's job very well. There are too many simple examples inside (which take a lot of space) and can be found in similar form on-line. Also, the author doesn't do a very well job at explaining things the right way and it seems the examples aren't that well thought through (both the choice of examples and their presentation).

The recipes explained in the book are not nearly as good as those in ie. Perl Cookbook, and don't seem to be that usable either. This book looks more like a collection of school assignments with solutions than practical examples needed by a developer. It may be interesting for someone who wants to learn Perl, but then it may also be too hard for beginners to comprehend the code inside the book (the explanations are not that elaborate).

The list of recipes might look interesting at first glance, but if you go into depth with this book, you soon notice that it simply isn't worth it.

a mixed bag of solid scripting
The problem with book titles which marry terms like 'wicked' and 'cool' with programming, is that scripts which, for example, determine the particular type of EOL marker in a file, may not match your personal definition of cool. More realistically, the book's subtitle promises that the 40ish programs given here are 'useful', and this is more or less true.

There's plenty here with a system administration flavour, e.g. a duplicate file finder, a website dead link checker, a Unix user deletion script. Also, the Tk toolkit is used for some simple GUIs, and the Image::Magick module for manipulating graphics, which is probably enough to get you started on your own ideas.

Even if your needs and interests don't align with the author's, a lot of the scripts remain useful, if not for the exact content, then at least for providing the skeleton that you can use for your own ends. Some of the scripts use an object oriented interface, but don't require the user to create an OO module, so as long as you're comfortable with references, mostof the code here is very good for building a beginner's confidence in tackling non trivial scripts. There's also a reasonable amount of explanation of what the different bits of the code are doing, although the layout of the annotation is not particularly effective (the Head First books still lead the way in this), and the discussion does not go too high level. This is appropriate for the most part, but you're probably not going to be able to get too far with Tk on your own from just the material provided in this book.

On the downside, the Perl itself is not very idiomatic, so you may pick up some bad habits from the style. For example, the size of an array is checked with 'if ($#words != 1)' where 'if (@words != 2)' would be the more usual form. Sometimes scalars are implicitly initialised with undef (e.g. 'my $x', the usual practice), sometimes they're explicitly assigned (e.g. 'my $x = undef'), all in the same script. Return statements are always given in the form 'return ($x)'. This is nothing a good dose of Perl Best Practices can't fix, however.

Additionally, there are some unfortunate typos, e.g. the discussion of script 38 refers to $\ as the input record separator, while the code itself correctly uses $/. I spotted a stray 'TODO: Need something here to go somewhere' comment in script 34 which did not inspire an enormous amount of confidence.

And when it comes down to it, I just didn't find many of the scripts all that interesting. There's a whole chapter on downloading and using United States Geographical Survey mapping data, which didn't do much for me, I have to admit. The 'internet data mining' chapter is very weak, consisting of only two scripts, the first using the Finance::Quote module to print out a stock price, and the second to download some pictures from the web. For a book published in 2006, one might have expected something on web services or RSS. Given the amount of material devoted to GUIs and graphics, it's also a bit disappointing that there's almost nothing music or sound-related to be found in the entire book (one of the scripts does play a sound, but shells out to do so). The final chapter is about displaying a regular expression pattern as a finite state machine. Again, this is a solid, non-trivial example of running Perl, but if like me, youfind regular expressions about as intrinsically fascinating as printf formatting codes, your pulse will not be racing at the prospect of slogging through all 2,000ish lines.

Overall, this is a decent if not spectacular collection. If you've learnt just enough Perl to be dangerous, but are not quite sure how to put it all together into a running program, this book provides inspiration. You might want to look at Perl Cookbook too, though.

A book full of examples of how NOT to write perl
I couldn't resist the title, so I got this book. Unfortunately, I cannot reccommend it to people who want to learn to write better Perl, execpt as a source of examples of the mistakes you should avoid.

For example, in one of the earliest examples, the authors uses "return undef" in a situation where the return value of the routine is assigned to an array, to indicate the routine didn't find any of whatever it was looking for. Unfortunately, this is a mistake, the correct code would be to use "return;" all on its own. The correct solution produces an empty array or interim values; the mistake creates an array containing one element, 'undef'.

There are a number of similar mistakes which indicate the author is in over his head, writing things he doesn't understand; the editors know even less about the matter; and the code was never tested and verified for correctness.

If you want to learn Perl, get "Learning Perl"; If you want to improve your Perl, get "Intermediate Perl.

Tom

Good, yes.Wicked cool, maybe not.
This is a great book for learning by example, particularly as a follow-on to something like Learning Perl to get you started.It provides a number of useful scripts (even though some of them duplicate functionality of common system utilities), with explanations of how and why they work, and even notes on how you might alter the code to suit your own purposes.If you're a relatively new programmer that already has the basics of Perl in mind, but find yourself at loose ends wondering what to do next to help cement what you know and start learning more, this book may be exactly what you need.It's also useful for figuring out some of the basic principles of translating code between Perl and another language, thanks to the source code explanations.

The scripts themselves, however, are not exactly what I would call "wicked cool".The title is an obvious marketing conceit, designed to make the book seem more enticing.Most of the scripts, in fact, are surprisingly mundane -- but that doesn't mean they aren't useful.You may actually find yourself using some of them, with minor alterations, in your day-to-day life.Just don't expect to be wowed by the scripts themselves. ... Read more

Product Description
"Overall, highly recommended for anyone using Perl at a less than expert level. That's probably a lot of us..."— Tony Lawrence, Information and Resources for Unix and Linux Systems

Over the years, Perl has grown from an elegant scripting tool into a mature and full-featured language for application development, boasting object-oriented programming, a flexible threading model, built-in support for Unicode, and a thriving community. Available on almost every platform, and offering a comprehensive library of modules, there is no task too big or small for Perl to tackle.

Pro Perl helps you master the key features and complexities of this powerful language. Aimed at intermediate and advanced developers alike, the material assumes some general knowledge of programming concepts but not necessarily prior Perl experience. However, given the expansive coverage of core language topics, Pro Perl also serves as a valuable guide to seasoned Perl programmers seeking to push their proficiency to the next level.

Using a depth-first approach to aid learning of advanced concepts, you're provided with detailed examinations of many key topics, including regular expressions, networking, modules and packages, object-oriented development, and much more. Pro Perl seeks to provide developers with not only the answers to their programming questions, but also advanced ideas and related concepts that expand the developer's understanding of Perl as a language.

This edition of Pro Perl offers updated and expanded content, and improved organization by combining material from previous editions of Professional Perl Programming and Professional Perl Development. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Comprehensive, but excessively wordy
I think this 1000 page book would make a fantastic 500 page book.I think the information provided is first-rate, but there much repetition and wordiness -- that it makes it a little hard to wade through.

I think it could be the "the best" Perl book, but it needs serious editing work to get it there.

But, whatever you want to know about the Perl language, you can find -- it's just a matter of wading through the verbiage to get there.

Pro Perl Book Review
This was a wonderful purchase.I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money so I decided to go with one of the used book versions to save some money.This seller was wonderful, the book was in great condition (much better than I had expected), and the service was terrific, quick and hassle-free.The book, itself, is just what I wanted.It doesn't cover all the topics one might want; but I needed a single reference that I could keep near one of my work sites where it wasn't practical to have several references on Perl.This book is exactly what I had hoped it would be; a really good, quick reference for most of the things I need.

Did anyone proof this? Where are the errata?
I'm only up to page 140 and there are numerous code errors. Some examples:

1) There is a reference to "Appendix A" but there are no appendices in my copy.

2) p 139: he suggests that the expression "\[1, 2, 3]" will return an array reference, but this is actually returning a reference to a reference to an array, using 2 levels rather than 1 level of indirection. This wouldn't be crucial except that this is the section of the chapter/book in which he is specifically explaining references.

Further, while there is a link to submit errata, there is no link for a place to view/download them. Other reviewers have mentioned the frequency of this kind of error.

This book would be a very bad source for someone truly new to perl.

Refence Manual, Plus So Much More
One of my arguments with Perl, which ironically is one of its strengths, is that it is such a powerful language there are perhaps thousands of things that you will never use, or not even know about that the language can do.Once a language relegated to scripting-use only, it has developed over the years into a full-featured language around which applications are being developed from.For example, there are numerous front-end web applications that are built around Perl not to mention in my own line of work we use a number of Perl applications to process and manipulate incoming data.The little kid has finally grown up and matured!

In Pro Perl, the author takes you through an in-depth analysis of the Perl language from the beginning topics up to advanced topics (including a relatively new one for Perl, Object Oriented programming).Many Perl books have a habit of either showing you the basics, and leaving you yearning for more; or showing you advanced topics that you are left scratching your head wondering "How did they jump from A to Z with no in-between"?In Pro Perl the author has taken an approach of explaining the concepts and walking you through the introduction and leading you to the more advanced topics without breaking it into distinct pieces of beginning, novice, etc.The book can be considered more of a instructional reference manual more than a code-snippet type book, which many programming books are nowadays.

One of the benefits this book offers is that throughout the book there are multiple reference charts and tip sidebars that either give you information on a syntax or available options, or lead you on to find more information elsewhere.Personally, I find the reference charts valuable as the author does not leave you guessing what all the available options or for a particular command or syntax -- in essence, he is opening the door for you to explore further on your own by showing you other possible roads.

This is a great book for those comfortable with programming and new to Perl, or those who have used Perl in the past but perhaps wanted to see what else it could do for them. The only thing lacking from the book is an indexing system on the side.It would have been great if you could have just flipped the book open to the appropriate section when you are on those fast-fact-finding missions.

This has become one of my favorite references
This is a very comprehensive book for those who want to learn the Perl language from the ground up.The author does an excellent job of being detailed without being repetitive or writing at too basic a level.Intermediate users of Perl can find a lot here but even a novice will find sufficient explanation to allow them to learn the language from scratch.The book is well organized and starts with an introduction to Perl followed by how to acquire and install Perl.From there it goes right into the meat of the language with variables, operators, data types, interpolation, substitution, subroutines, regular expressions, working with files and directories, etc.Besides the language itself the author deals with some of the common administrative tasks like adding new modules and packages.The book ends with some advanced topics like embedding Perl and dealing with processes, signals and threads, and networking.

At 990 pages this is a massive book that is easy to follow and full of examples to show exactly how each concept should work.Pro Perl is highly recommended to everyone from the complete novice to advanced level Perl programmer and includes a lot of detail that I have spent hours on the Internet looking for before. ... Read more

Product Description
In this introduction to computational molecular biology, Rex Dwyer explains many basic computational problems and gives concise, working programs to solve them in the Perl programming language.With minimal prerequisites, he covers the biological background for each problem, develops a model for the solution, and then introduces the Perl concepts needed to implement the solution.The chapters discuss pairwise and multiple sequence alignment, fast database searches for homologous sequences, protein motif identification, genome rearrangement, physical mapping, phylogeny reconstruction, satellite identification, sequence assembly, gene finding, and RNA secondary structure. Concrete examples and a step-by-step approach enable readers to grasp the computational and statistical methods. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not a good perl programming book period!
This books tries to combine and explain both bioinformatics and perl programming yet fails miserably at both. Though I have taken a class on learning perl this code is difficult to read and poorly explained. The bioinformatics is useless because the examples are simply stupid. For example instead of using free energy to determine RNA folding the author uses hydrogen bonding which is completely irrelavent or predicting species by using %gc or %at content between two organsims also useless.If you are looking for bioinformatics programming tips this book will not help you.
Variables are introduced that are not explained and the program is written in the most condensed possible way making it difficult to read and leaving you wading through each line. I am thankful I have taken programming perl and bioinformatics or this book would be of zero value. If I could I would give this book a -5 stars. Check it out at a library before you BUY!!!!!!! Even if perl.com reviews the book favorably the biology is at best completely WRONG!!! Buy O'Riely's advanced bioinformatics.

Develops effective genomic toolkits for UNIX, Windows & Mac
Combines intuitive derivations of most key algorithms, thoughtful use of key references to illustrate solutions of main problems with a detailed example, and develop well documented, carefully programmed,perl toolkit.The 65 routines on the CD in UNIX, Windows, and Mac formats perform most of the essential maipulations of GenBank sequences. I only miss Hidden Markov Model routines. ... Read more