Books › Learning Perl
Learning Perl
First published 1993 · 394 pages
A friendly, hands-on mentor that transforms daunting syntax into practical, everyday superpowers.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like sitting next to a patient, slightly nerdy mentor who knows all the best shortcuts. The pacing is deliberate and steady, designed to build confidence through hands-on exercises rather than overwhelming you with abstract theory. The mood is distinctly productive and encouraging, stripping away the intimidation factor of a notoriously quirky programming language. Its prose is conversational, clear, and laced with gentle humor, making dry technical concepts feel accessible and surprisingly fun. It is perfect for pragmatic problem-solvers, system administrators, and curious tinkerers who want to roll up their sleeves, write functional code quickly, and experience the quiet, satisfying thrill of automating the tedious parts of their day.
- Mood
- productive
- focused
- lighthearted
- empowering
- Tone
- approachable
- humorous
- pragmatic
- encouraging
- geeky
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- practical problem-solving · mastery of tools · demystifying complexity · the joy of automation
- The writing
- Conversational and clear, laced with gentle humor and accessible analogies that ground technical concepts.
- The arc
- Moves from the initial intimidation of unfamiliar syntax to the satisfying confidence of practical mastery.
- Who it's for
- Pragmatic problem-solvers, system administrators, and curious coders who want a friendly, structured mentor to guide them through a powerful language.
About the book
If you're just getting started with Perl, this is the book you want—whether you're a programmer, system administrator, or web hacker. Nicknamed "the Llama" by two generations of users, this bestseller closely follows the popular introductory Perl course taught by the authors since 1991. This 6th edition covers recent changes to the language up to version 5.14. Perl is suitable for almost any task on almost any platform, from short fixes to complete web applications. Learning Perl teaches you the basics and shows you how to write programs up to 128 lines long—roughly the size of 90% of the Perl programs in use today. Each chapter includes exercises to help you practice what you've just learned. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer. Topics include: Perl data and variable types Subroutines File operations Regular expressions String manipulation (including Unicode) Lists and sorting Process management Smart matching Use of third party modules
November 1993 First Edition. April 1994 Minor corrections. August 1994 Minor corrections. July 1997 Second Edition. July 2001 Third Edition. July 2005 Fourth Edition.
Description from Open Library.
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