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RE: Advanced Perl Programming

by swiftone (Curate)
on Sep 14, 2000 at 20:13 UTC ( [id://32498]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Advanced Perl Programming

I'm going to have to post in disagreement.

When I first started Perl, I got the Camel book, and had no problems with the first half. (The latter half, discussing blessed objects, references, etc, went a bit over my head at the time. When I started reading the Panther book (Advanced Perl Programming), I again got the first half, which happily covers that latter half of the Camel book. The second half of the Panther book was too much for me.

After a while, I started working with GUIs in Perl, and Networking, and I returned to the Panther book, only to find that it was too skimpy. People unfamiliar with sockets will not be able to program based solely off of what they find here, while people familiar with sockets really only need to have a few functions pointed out. The author has a tendancy to answer every question with parts of a custom module, which don't address the question well enough to give you an answer to a related-but-different question. The GUI section in particular suffers from this. Programmers experienced with callbacks and the like will need little more than a function listing, and those that aren't familiar with it will not find the fundamentals explained here.

As I said, I learned a lot from the first half, but now the Perl Cookbook, and the perlman:perlobj, perlman:ref, and perlman:perlboot pages cover everything in better detail.

You said My only persuasion against buying this book is that is is not for beginners. Which is true. It isn't for experienced programmers either. It seems to try to bridge the gap, and fares poorly IMHO.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Bubbling Panther
by gryng (Hermit) on Sep 14, 2000 at 20:46 UTC
    I've had no formal network, nor GUI learn'n. Additionally, I hadn't seriously touched either until Perl. The Panther along with the man pages was enough for me to feel confortable and get through networking. I still have yet to do GUI, but the Panther makes it seem easy enough.

    I don't know if this fits or not with your description. I consider myself an advanced programmer on certain levels (such as algorithms and program structure), but a novice on some specific aspects (GUI design, device specific programming).

    But I appreciate your feedback, as it gives a good contrast to the review. Which I admit, was a tad bubbly :) .

    Cheers, Gryn

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