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3.88 of 5 stars
Learning Perl, better known as "the Llama book", starts the programmer on the way to mastery. Written by three prominent members of the Perl commun... read full description

reviews

Jul 23, 2007
Kent rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This was my first real programming book (not counting others that I bought but never got far enough it to really make a difference). I felt that it was a really good introduction to programming, as well as a fairly good introduction to Perl. It is certainly not the most comprehensive book on the subject, but the simple but effective description and the exercises at the end of each chapter did a lot to help me grasp programming principles and reinforce them. The book was short enough that I re More...
Feb 22, 2010
Manny rated it: 2 of 5 stars
There's this old geek joke where you compare programming languages and cars (Assembler would be a Formula 1 racer, LISP would be an electric car, etc). Here's Perl:

Weird car
3 comments like (6 people liked it)
Oct 07, 2008
James rated it: 3 of 5 stars
In the quest to broaden my technical skills (or 'layoff insurance' as I like to call it), I've opted to learn programming. With IT Support rapidly becoming so automated and out-sourced, it seems to me that my current job will one day be replaced by a robot (in India, likely).

So one of my Unix admin co-workers has been extolling Perl, and I opted to pick up what appears to be the beginner's volume published by O'Reilly (my favorite tech publisher). I'm slowly working through it--it di More...
May 09, 2011
Alexandru rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I've actually read this in russian. It was one of the first books of programming I've read. I remember having a lot of fun when reading it. This was definitely the right book for me at the time. Now I would recommend learning other languages such as Python or Ruby.
Apr 18, 2011
Michael rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I read 3/4 of this book straight though. It's a very well writting programming book. I've only used perl like 3 times in my whole life and have written maybe 2 lines ever though, so maybe this book scared me straight?
Feb 16, 2011
carl rated it: 3 of 5 stars


This was an add on text for a Perl class. Seems like I've
taken more than one version of this class, in person, online,
they're everywhere.
Contains various perls of wisdom you should need for this
language.
Feb 21, 2011
Mike rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book!! While I learned C++ in school as my first language, Perl and specifically this book inspired my love of development and shaped my future career path.
Jan 19, 2010
Kelly added it
Totally learning old school PERL for some stuff at work. This text confirms many of the stereotypes that I have of PERL users. The foreword is a hilarious discussion of PERL wizardry which reminds me why I never learned PERL of my own volition. HAHAHA
May 01, 2011
Plamen rated it: 4 of 5 stars
The book is good but the language is not. Cpan is full with abandoned buggy libraries. I quit using Perl and shifted to Python.
Mar 01, 2010
Brie is currently reading it
It's the camel book. You know what it is. It's hard to force myself to learn Perl because I can just get things done in Bash.
May 02, 2011
Nick rated it: 1 of 5 stars
read this back at CNN in 1999. i've refused to read or write perl since then, and it's done me nothing but good.
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Oct 02, 2011
Kevin rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I read this when the first edition came out, but have been away from the language for a while, and picking it up piecemeal was getting old. It’s vastly improved over the earlier version(s), which were pretty good to begin with. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn about Perl. (Yes, there are a zillion of online tutorials, but this covers a lot more breadth.)
Feb 16, 2010
Amclinux rated it: 4 of 5 stars
A good introduction book to Perl. A most have if you need
to learn Perl programming
Dec 20, 2009
Jon rated it: 5 of 5 stars
On of the best beginner programming books ever written regardless of language.
Apr 14, 2011
Ken rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This really raised my game.
Jan 21, 2010
Monte rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Great book if you want to ..
Mar 21, 2011
Ramesh rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Gentle introduction to Perl. Light paced but good.
Sep 17, 2011
Ettore rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Great guide to Perl. Takes you by hand to learning you some perl, with lots of good perl-humor as well.
Mar 17, 2010
Kenn rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Very hard to read this book from cover to cover. Good book to keep around for reference purposes. This author goes in-depth with Perl. Highly recommend it for Perl Ninjas out there.
Oct 25, 2011
Georgi rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Clear writing style. Great exercises shared.
Sep 09, 2010
michael rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I recommend reading this book for entertainment and never writing a line of perl. The language is more backwards and silly than even VB (which is saying a helluva lot), but the three writers work through its vulgarities well enough to nearly convince the reader that it's actually worth learning. Don't be fooled by their wiles: perl is a mischievous mistress.
Dec 03, 2009
Rob rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Good book for foundations, I would say... My review wouldn't be a particularly fair one because I didn't get too far with this. As quickly as my need to learn Perl arose, it diminished and disappeared. That said, should that need come back, I believe that this is book where I would re-start.
Dec 16, 2009
Mohasin rated it: 5 of 5 stars
If you want to learn Perl, then this book should be your starting point. The book has a humorous and example-based learning approach. You will see more footnotes than anyother book. The footnotes are worth reading with lot of insights on why things are the way they are.
Mar 17, 2011
Amit rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Excellently written book. At first I thought this book was full of chit-chat with so many footnotes but by the end of it, it helped me really understand the basics of Perl. Totally recommend it for anyone who is thinking about "learning perl".
Dec 16, 2009
Rebekah rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I probably read this about seven (??) years ago. It was not my first Perl book but it is one that I would continue to reference as I learned the basics.
Sep 28, 2011
Lesli rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Totally worth the price and the time it takes to learn. I know I will go back to this over and over if I'm trying to write any Perl scripts.
Dec 16, 2009
Alan rated it: 1 of 5 stars
Another embarrassment on my shelves. What can I say? It was 1996 and somebody wanted a CGI script on their site.
Nov 16, 2008
Kyle rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This is by far the most practical, humorous, and productive programming book I've ever read.
Apr 13, 2007
Otis rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I used to write all my scripts in perl - until I found ruby. A great language.
Dec 16, 2009
-uht! rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Kind of a shitty reference, honestly. O'Reilly has much better books.