Which Perl Book?

cmfarley19 · 01-08-2004, 10:49 AM

I want to learn Perl. I am a C++ programmer by trade but dabble in all kinds of stuff.
I can't decide if I should get:

Programming Perl (3rd Edition)
by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, Jon Orwant

or

Learning Perl, Third Edition
by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix

I am open to hearing other suggestions.

Any thoughts?

eric.r.turner · 01-09-2004, 12:07 AM

I would recommend "Programming Perl" over "Learning Perl" for an experienced programmer. At work I spend my days coding C, C++, and Java. I outgrew "Learning Perl" very quickly. "Programming Perl" is comprehensive, yet readable. I would also recommend "Advanced Perl Programming" after you're comfortable programming in Perl.

cmfarley19 · 01-09-2004, 06:50 AM

Yeah, I think "Programming Perl" is the way I'm going to go.

Thanks for the input.

spoody_goon · 01-10-2004, 08:50 AM

O'Reilly Perl Cookbook and PERL IN A NUTSHELL have worked real good for me.

Strike · 01-10-2004, 09:18 AM

Don't learn perl. Learn python.

See this thread for why.

320mb · 01-10-2004, 03:31 PM

Geeze, some of you python people are all the same,
you rant and rave but your arguments mean nothing.
perl was written for LINux and python is going nowhere in this
world,,,,,,get over it!

cmfarley19 · 01-12-2004, 05:44 AM

For what it's worth, almost all of the advice I received on this subject pushed me towards Perl. I have a specific task in mind. when I described it to people in the know, they all had the same basic reaction, "Sounds like a job for Perl".

I'm sure python could do it as well, after all, TIMTOWTDI!