Re: So what is your Perl book "Trilogy" anyway?

[crashtest]

I would say:

1. Llama (Learning Perl)
2. Camel (Programming Perl)
3. Ram (Perl Cookbook)

For me, these sort of form a nice trilogy because each book has a different style. The Llama is a beginner's tutorial. The Camel is a reference book. And The Ram takes yet another approach with its recipe-style code listings and explanations. In combination, these three books give you three distinctive perspectives to help cover the basics of Perl.

[apotheon]

Have you read "recipe" books for other languages? If so -- how do you think the Perl Cookbook compares to others? What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the Perl Cookbook?

I haven't really gotten a whole lot of value out of "recipe" programming books in the past, in most cases. The one book that offers a pseudo-recipe approach to what it does that I've found really instructive was Gregory T. Brown's Ruby Best Practices, and that's probably largely because it's only sorta a "recipe" book. I wonder if the Perl Cookbook would actually do me much good.

[ait]

The Perl Cookbok is awesome IMHO. I just wished there was a newer edition, it has been a while at the second edition :-(

[apotheon]

What exactly do you find to be awesome about it?

[crashtest]

I can't say I've got recipe books for other languages - it's something I tend to shy away from because it feels like they come from the copy-paste school of programming. I do like the Perl Cookbook despite that because I find the explanations accompanying the examples to be suitable detailed and interesting.

[apotheon]

Thanks for the information. I'll see if I can find a copy at the local Barnes & Noble, and take a look at some of the explanatory text and see if it catches my interest.