Cheap DVDs, books, CDs & Games

Search:

Perl in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))

By: Nathan Patwardhan Ellen Siever Stephen Spainhour
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 0596002416
ISBN-13: 9780596002411
Released: 03 Jun 2002
RRP: £28.50
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Write Perl? You need this book. - By: Timothy Allen, 24 Sep 2002
I have this book next to my computer. It's alll dog-eared & coffee-stained, which is its own form of five stars. It has good sections on how to write with the CGI module, LWP (for making Perl act like a web client), Perl/Tk, etc.

This makes an excellent addition to "Programming Perl" & "The Perl Cookbook", both from O'Reilly & both available here.

Don't buy this book (unless you are mad) - By: , 02 Dec 2001
I can't believe the good reviews for this book! It is an awful book from beginning to end. Little more than the perldoc for a range of modules, there are inadequate descriptions & examples. The only benefit is that it is cheap, but even still "Programming Perl" (3rd edition) is a much, much better buy.
To important not to have. - By: , 11 Aug 1999
This is the only book that travels in my 'everyday' work bag. Everything I've needed to know has been in this book.
The book you need when you can't rember the way. - By: , 24 Mar 1999
Perl in a Nutshell fills in that gap between the man pages & the other books. Learning Perl was good for the novice & Programming Perl had the main information you required. Advanced Perl Programming pushed out the boundraries, while The Perl Cookbook provided the missing bits of the first edition on Programming Perl.

For various reasons, I aleays prefered the first Programming Perl. I found it more complete & easier to find what I wanted. However the Perl 5 improvements to the language, meant a bigger book & a revision & I always have found it a little harder to find the odd things I am looking for when coding.

Now we have the "Quick Reference" Perl in a Nutshell, finding the correct syntax is easy & it covers the wider range of many of the other modules too. Together with the cookbook & the others, you have good solid, high quality upto date documentation, reference & solid working examples. In addition the books are very readable & clearly set out, which makes reading then a pleasure

A bargain - By: , 23 Mar 1999
I'm amazed nobody has posted anything about this book yet. I've had it a couple of weeks, & it's become my favourite Perl book. Some people may criticise it for being a paper version of the online documentation, but I think it's much more than that.

The core of the book begins with a language reference. Operators, special variables, file test operators, etc (alll those things you can forget if you've not used them for a bit) & available functions are listed. There might not be much here that isn't in the man pages, but it's much easier to read a book on the bus. Besides, I found that flipping through the pages I discovered lots of functions that I didn't know about before.

Then the standard modules are documented. Each one is explained briefly, & the method callls are documented. Again, there might not be much new stuff in here, but it's a very useful reference.

Next come chapters on CGI/mod_perl, Databases, Network programming, Perl/Tk & Win32. These are rather good. They don't necessarily tell you where to start, but give you concise examples of how things can be done. I've learnt loads about what you can do with Perl just by flipping through them.

Combine this with the Cookbook & the online docs, & I've got everything I need for day to day coding. And you can't knock it at this price.