[kw-pm] Review: Perl Cookbook, 2nd ed.

Sun Feb 29 07:02:56 CST 2004

At Lloyd's suggestion, I've put the books list onto our website, at
http://kw.pm.org/local/ .

-Daniel

http://coder.com/ - Prescient Code Solutions - (519) 575-3733 da at coder.com

On Sat, 28 Feb 2004, lloyd carr wrote:

> Could a list of the books in the lending library be put on kw.pm.org?
>
> On Sat, 28 Feb 2004, Daniel R. Allen wrote:
>
> > Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 17:37:03 -0500 (EST)
> > From: Daniel R. Allen <da at coder.com>
> > To: kw-pm at mail.pm.org
> > Subject: [kw-pm] Review: Perl Cookbook, 2nd ed.
> >
> > <Commercial> If there are any O'Reilly books you'd like to review, let
> > me know and you can get a free review copy.  They have been very good to
> > us; we have a 10-book lending library due to "extra" books they've sent.
> > Go O'Reilly! </Commercial>
> >
> > Review: Perl Cookbook 2nd edition
> >
> > The Perl Cookbook, by Tom Christianson and Nat Torkington, is probably
> > the second book many Perl programmers buy, after "Programming Perl" or
> > "Learning Perl."  It's often the most dog-eared O'Reilly book a
> > programmer will own.
> >
> > It occupies its place of honour on the shelf for a good reason.  The
> > Cookbook introduces hundreds of recipes[1] to cover all kinds of perl
> > programming situations, from "How do I keep my own private module
> > directory?" to "How do I build a binary tree?" to "How do I intercept
> > Ctrl-C characters?" [2] Recipes range from half a page to half a dozen
> > pages.
> >
> > Each recipe introduces the problem, shows a solution, discusses the
> > solution in depth, and most refer the reader to other sources of
> > solutions or documentation.  The recipes are great for answering
> > questions, but the in-depth discussions are where the book shines,
> > teaching basic and advanced perl by example.
> >
> > However, the Cookbook's first edition has been showing its age; it
> > dates back to perl version 5.004.  (Yes, 5.004.)  Since 1998, the
> > language has matured significantly.  Enter the second edition, out in
> > August 2003, which covers up to perl 5.8.
> >
> > So- a quarter-inch thicker, 175 pages longer, and $10(USD; $21 CAD)
> > more expensive, should you buy it?  My recommendation for anybody who
> > can afford the price tag[3] is a clear "yes".
> >
> > There are two new chapters- one on mod_perl (including Mason and
> > Template Toolkit, two Apache extensions used with mod_perl) and one on
> > XML, which gives ten useful recipes for such things as writing XML
> > from data structures, validation, and reading and writing RSS (for
> > website syndication).
> >
> > Content was rewritten throughout the second edition to accommodate
> > Unicode, and to note modules which moved into core Perl from CPAN.
> > The index is better and the binding appears to be stronger, which is
> > good since the book spends so much time cracked open on my desk.
> >
> > According to the introduction[4], there are over 80 new recipes plus
> > over 100 modified recipes.  They are scattered throughout the
> > chapters; I didn't see any chapters that were neglected for changes,
> > which is good.
> >
> > But the numbers mean that half the recipes are not modified.
> > Philosophically, are there any areas of Perl that have not progressed
> > in the last five years?  Shouldn't all the recipes include up-to-date
> > practices?  Two striking omissions seem to be: WWW::Mechanize, a
> > "glue" module which makes web automation easier; and anything having
> > to do with testing- there are no recipes discussing the excellent
> > Test:: modules, many which are core Perl as of 5.8.
> >
> > However, practically speaking, a complete rewrite would have taken as
> > long as Perl 6 to finish.  That reality suggests that to keep
> > up-to-date, you shouldn't rely only on dead trees, but also on the Perl
> > community, one of the language's great strengths.
> >
> > That philosophical quibble aside, I can conclude that the Cookbook is
> > a great way to learn features of the language, from the basic to the
> > somewhat arcane; and to re-remember exactly how to accomplish that
> > task you knew you saw a year ago but don't quite remember...
> >
> > Perl Cookbook, 2nd edition
> > $US 49.95 / $CAD 77.95
> >
> > [1] 334 in the first edition, to be exact, and 387 in the second.
> >
> > [2] Chapter titles for the second edition:
> >      1. Strings
> >      2. Numbers
> >      3. Dates and Times
> >      4. Arrays
> >      5. Hashes
> >      6. Pattern Matching
> >      7. File Access
> >      8. File Contents
> >      9. Directories
> >     10. Subroutines
> >     11. References and Records
> >     12. Packages, Libraries, and Modules
> >     13. Classes, Objects, and Ties
> >     14. Database Access
> >     15. Interactivity
> >     16. Process Management and Communication
> >     17. Sockets
> >     18. Internet Services
> >     19. CGI Programming
> >     20. Web Automation
> >     21. mod_perl
> >     22. XML
> >
> > [3] minus discounts - Robert Day can get it for us for something like
> >     $50CAD
> >
> > [4] I count only 53 more recipes, but they might have removed some, or my
> >     counting algorithm may have been different than O'Reilly's!
> >
> > --
> > http://kw.pm.org/ - Kitchener-Waterloo Perlmongers -          da at kw.pm.org
> > http://coder.com/ - Prescient Code Solutions - (519) 575-3733 da at coder.com
> >
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>
> dcarr at sdf.lonestar.org
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>