Advice from elders for a newbie

[PerlSufi]

Hello Monks, I recently got an entry level job for a data management company using Perl. This company compiles documents of varying file types for its clients. I am pretty new to Perl and programming in general so I was wondering if any wise monks here have some advice for a budding Perl developer. I am extremely grateful to this community already for the help I have received on an example project like PDF extract.. Having played around with python and java before this, Perl seems to have the most supportive community I have experienced so far. Any tips, book recommendations (I already have most of O'reilly Perl books) etc would be greatly appreciated. peace, PerlSufi

[davido]

If you've got most of the O'Reilly Perl books you've got a year's supply of reading available to you, most of which is top notch. But branching out from there to other publishers, you'll find that Modern Perl is well thought-of, as is Higher Order Perl. There's Sam Treagar's book on creating CPAN distributions, there's Lincoln Stein's book on Network Programming with Perl (an oldie but goodie). Conway's book on Object Oriented techniques with Perl is getting really dated, especially since Moose is becoming so popular. But nevertheless, it's a great book because it teaches the nuts and bolts that you don't get exposed to directly when using frameworks like Moose.

I've also found that studying other languages has helped me to improve my Perl. ...Perl wasn't my first language, but having spent so much time with it, I'm discovering that now examining other languages teaches me a lot.

Then of course there's plain old day to day use. The more you use it, the more familiar you will become, and the more Perl's expressiveness will become an extension of your thought processes.

Last, but not least, get involved with your local Perl community. Attend lectures and presentations. Watch the YAPC presentations on youtube. There's a lot to be learned by being around others who are using Perl every day.

[PerlSufi]

Thanks Davido, Great advice. I intend on joining the Houston Perl mongers group. Both Modern Perl and Higher Order Perl look like excellent books. I like Oreilly's 'Programming Perl', but at the same time I feel it is a little unorganized in some parts.

[CountOrlok]

You can find reviews of almost all Perl books here: Book Reviews
Apart from the most recent editions of the O'reilly Perl books, I would highly recommend Modern Perl by Chromatic
There are a few older books that are still of some value and can impart a lot knowledge, Higher Order Perl being one of them.

[syphilis]

Any tips,...

Answer perl questions that are asked here on perlmonks - or any other place that you happen to frequent, for that matter.

IMO, when it comes to learning, answering questions is (in general) much more effective than asking them.
(I learnt lots of perl by answering questions ... after a while I even started to get some of the answers right ;-)

Cheers,
Rob

[Discipulus]

dont forget Perl Cookbook: it is something aged but worth too. Go to Tutorials too.

[tinita]

I can recommend reading one of the modern perl tutorials