Re: (Perl) Programming Books like the Camel Book

[polypompholyx]

Perl Best Practices by TheDamian has that nice mix of usefulness and readability that Programming Perl has. Both are within arm's reach. The most thumbed book on my desk is Albert's Molecular Biology of the Cell for similar reasons (although obviously for a slightly different problem set).

[amarquis]

I was skeptical at first, because I usually don't like "This is how you should do it" books. I just read the sample chapter at O'Reilly, though, and it looks to be full of good guidelines. I think I'll be picking it up.

Thanks!

[Argel]

One of the things I really like about PBP is TheDamian will usually present you with some code and then in an "oh by the way" fashion point out the bug that you probably missed while looking over that code^*. It's easy to say if you do X these are the pitfalls but to show a brief, good example of broken code made for a very compelling reason to follow his recommendations. And I actually learned a lot about Perl from that book. It's definitely one of the best Perl books out there.

(*) He then shows code that follows his recommendation.

[eyepopslikeamosquito]

A while back I did a book review of Perl Best Practices and a similar C++ book at:

• Two Different Languages: Two Similar Books (PBP and CCS)

We use these two books as the basis for our company coding standards.

[tinita]

because I usually don't like "This is how you should do it" books.

this is such a common misconception about PBP. only people who haven't read it say it's a book that tells you how to code. it doesn't. read the foreword. it's important.

the book's more like "well, very probably this is the way you should do it, because ... if you do it in another way, you are free to do, the important thing is that you thought about it."

[amarquis]

That comment was just my knee-jerk from seeing the title. Having read the sample chapter up, I found it to be exactly like you describe. I especially liked the examples of the troubles you can get yourself into. It is one thing to say "Do it like this because X," but having the "If you do it that why Y and Z can happen" drives the point home well.

I feel like after reading it I'll definitely remember the advice while I'm coding, and if I'm not following the advice at least I'll know where issues can pop up.

[oxone]

I would second the recommendation for 'Perl Best Practices' as a definite "must read". I too was initially put off by the name, but it's full of great ideas. I learnt more about OO from the recommendations in this book than I did from the Camel and the Cookbook put together.

[Burak]

I have a copy of PBP. Excellent book. But I wonder, why doesn't he update his rather old OOP book? That one is also nice, but 8 years old and includes nasty things like pseudo-hashes and such...