Re^5: Perl 6 Fundamentals (reviews)

[nikosv]

how would you filter which one to get first, considering that they all address the same target group, that is beginners to Perl6? would you weight the author's name more? the number of pages? the index? the publisher?
this is where timing gets critical,because if you were looking to get started with perl6 at a a time where just one title was accessible,you wouldn't have to think twice.
but now it gets complicated, for both publisher and potential reader audience.

[LanX]

> where just one title was accessible

Well the first printed Perl6 book I saw was 15 years ago. (no joke, I had it in my hands =)

> the number of pages? the index?

Personally?

• I'd look at the index and read the free online chapter and potential reviews.
• Than I'll decide which style I prefer and where my priorities are.
• Than I'd chose one or two.
• If you are still lost take the cheapest or toss a coin.
BTW: IIRC is O'Reilly sending free trials to Perlmonger groups, if they promise to write a review. (dunno about apress)

My book store would allow me to order them all and investigating them there before I choose.

Or probably you'll find send back options at online stores too.

(

If that's not enough, sorry it really highly depends on taste...

• some prefer a good academic structure and cross referencing ,
• others want plenty of simple hand on examples to copy the code,
• others want an entertaining language with jokes and anecdotes
• ...
)

HTH! :)

[Your Mother]

If I were in the market, I would buy them all. I had 30ish Perl Books on my shelf until I had to downsize my book collection 90% or so in a move. Price of a book is a pittance compared to an hour of training, etc.

[LanX]

Well depends if you are a poor student and if a book shelf fits in your room.

And a bad book can cause lots of damage.

(e.g. I can't recommend PBP w/o mentioning to ignore the Inside-Out-Class chapter)

But I get your point, lately I was in a bookstore to find good MySQL literature to help elevate the level of our DBA.

At the end I found out it was far more economic to let my client buy them all and decide in practice which to keep (and while being payed)

Unfortunately there is no German version of "Modern Perl" for my colleagues, maybe I'll ask to translate the online version one day...

[Your Mother]

PBP is a rather strange case. Just like his OO book. I highly recommend it without necessarily endorsing all of the conclusions. He is extremely good at writing about thinking and even where I disagree I learned there were more things to consider than I had realized. And the OO book was a revelation for me and not specifically due to the subject matter.