Re: (OT) Perl books
>>>>> On Thu, 28 Jun 2001 12:22:12 -0500, Jay Latham <deltamud@telocity.com> said:
Jay> I've decided that it's time I learned a little about programming
Jay> and I've decided that, for various reasons, Perl would be a good
Jay> place to start. But I'm confused on which book would be best for
Jay> a total newbie. I've been leaning towards the oreilly books
Jay> Learning Perl 3rd edition, and/or Programming Perl but thought
Jay> I'd ask for opinons before making the purchase. Any suggestions?
If you've never done any programming what-so-ever, _Learning Perl_,
aka the Llama book, is not your best choice.
Wait, put down the pitchforks and listen!
The Llama (or at least the 2nd edition; I haven't seen the 3rd yet)
assumes quite a bit of shell and C coding experience, as well as a
fairly broad Unix grounding. I've lead a class or two of newbies
through it in a class/discussion style setting, and many of them were
turned off. I'm starting up another study group of newbies, and this
time I've decided to use a book called _Elements of Programming with
Perl_. In contrast to the Llama, which teaches Perl to programmers,
this book purports to teach programming to people, using Perl as the
vehicle. It's worth at least a look.
After you get through whatever introductory stuff and you're
comfortable with the language, then you should pick up a copy of
_Programming Perl_ (aka the Camel) and a copy of _The Perl Cookbook_
(aka the Ram). You won't need those right away, but eventually you'll
come to like having them around.
Good luck,
john.
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