Rating:  - Good for experienced programmer.
The book is ok is if you have prior knowledge of programming and or scripting. It gives you a good introduction to the basics of Perl.
However, if you are new to programming you might find the information a little short on concepts. I took a class that used this book and I hade to use other sources to do homework or get a better understanding of some concepts.
Mind you my copy is well worn as if you know multiple languages you can sometimes mess up syntax so it is recommended if you wish to learn Perl and have a programming or scripting background.
However, if you are very new to programming and scripting you might have better luck with "Beginning Perl by Simon Cozens"
Rating:  - perl, it's what's for breakfast
clear, easy to follow, light...
mr schwartz is known as (one of) the top perl trainer(s) and
experts in the world, this book is an example of why. he goes
step-by-step, building on what you just did, and providing clear
explanation the entire time.
i have struggled to learn various languages/shells in the past,
but this book makes sense, and i can say that it has taught me
perl.
Rating:  - Learning Perl...
In short, this is a good book. I'd recommend it to anyone wishing to start learning Perl.
However, it's not entirely easy to read, but then again show me a computer book that is. Also like other programming books, this couldn't have been edited! No way!! It's full of awful mistakes in code and grammar!! Believe me, when you're trying to figure some examples on a Monday morning at 5 am, the mistakes don't help!!!
On the whole, the author has done well with this book. I must say though, it would have been nice if the book referenced the Windows platform more often. The author keeps going on about how easily portable Perl is, but, didn't tell us the equivalent way of doing some programs on Windows. As you can imagine, some of the examples I simply couldn't do.
Like all other computer books I've picked up, this one recommends you to read others... why oh why oh why can't there be one massive super computer bible of a book??? Perhaps, I'll write one that is edited!!!
Rating: - A classic, great for people starting that want to learn more
A classic, everyonne should make sure they read and get through this book before moving on to Perl coding.
Rating: - Excellent Introduction to Perl for Experienced Programmers
I learned Perl 4 from the first edition of this book years ago. I recently read the third edition to get up to speed with Perl 5 and found this book covers nearly every aspect of Perl I've used over the years. Perl is a complex language, and any introductory book on Perl needs to restrict itself to a subset of the language to prevent the reader from becoming overwhelmed. The authors did an excellent job of presenting a subset that is large enough to cover most everyday Perl tasks, yet small enough to remain accessible to the Perl novice. The exercises at the end of each chapter solidify most of the core concepts and syntax of each chapter.
There were some shortcomings to the book, however. The book is oriented heavily towards Unix systems, and programmers working on Windows systems will have a hard time getting started and completing some of the exercises. The authors should have provided instructions for downloading ActiveState Perl, a free professional Windows port of Perl, and provided more assistance on the Unix-oriented exercises.
Additionally, some basic language features were not covered, such as the peculiarities of do blocks and using chr and ord to convert between characters and their numeric codes. Most importantly, the book does not cover two-dimensional arrays. They are mentioned only in two paragraphs in Appendix B, which refer the reader to four different perldoc sections. This topic is complicated and important enough to warrant its own chapter.
In summary, this book is an excellent introduction to Perl for programmers who are experienced in other languages already. It's not so good for beginning programmers because basic programming concepts are not explained. The major shortcoming is that readers, especially those using Windows, will be frustrated at not being able to easily do what they want to do and will too often need to wade through the documentation.
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