Learning Perl, Third Edition

The authors do a good job of getting the concepts across, but this book is high on: - Larry Wall. Ok, sure, he invented Perl and I'm sure he's a smart guy - but really guys, get over your love affair with him. It's really not helpful. - Footnotes. For the love of god, stop it. Sometimes it seems there's more text in the footnotes that in the section that the footnotes cover. It's distracting at best. - Perl. Sure, it's a Perl book and it's going to favorable to Perl - but - Perl isn't going to cure cancer, create world peace or create a 1000mpg car. Stop treating it like it's magic juice. - Condescension. I personally get the feeling that the authors are riding a rather spirited moral high horse and if you don't agree with them, you're just not that smart. They have good information and it's laid out well. The writing style and editing detracted immensely from this book for me. Table of Contents......Page 3 Typographical Conventions......Page 7 History of This Book......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 1.1 Questions and Answers......Page 12 1.2 What Does "Perl" Stand For?......Page 14 1.3 How Can I Get Perl?......Page 17 1.4 How Do I Make a Perl Program?......Page 20 1.5 A Whirlwind Tour of Perl......Page 24 1.6 Exercises......Page 26 2.2 Numbers......Page 27 2.3 Strings......Page 29 2.5 Scalar Variables......Page 33 2.6 Output with print......Page 35 2.7 The if Control Structure......Page 39 2.8 Getting User Input......Page 40 2.9 The chomp Operator......Page 41 2.11 The undef Value......Page 42 2.12 The defined Function......Page 43 2.13 Exercises......Page 44 3.1 Accessing Elements of an Array......Page 45 3.2 Special Array Indices......Page 46 3.3 List Literals......Page 47 3.4 List Assignment......Page 48 3.6 The foreach Control Structure......Page 51 3.7 Perl's Favorite Default: $_......Page 52 3.8 Scalar and List Context......Page 53 3.9 in List Context......Page 56 3.10 Exercises......Page 57 4.2 Defining a Subroutine......Page 58 4.4 Return Values......Page 59 4.5 Arguments......Page 61 4.6 Private Variables in Subroutines......Page 62 4.7 The local Operator......Page 63 4.8 Variable-length Parameter Lists......Page 64 4.9 Notes on Lexical (my) Variables......Page 66 4.10 The use strict Pragma......Page 67 4.11 The return Operator......Page 68 4.12 Exercises......Page 70 5.1 What Is a Hash?......Page 71 5.2 Hash Element Access......Page 73 5.3 Hash Functions......Page 76 5.4 Typical Use of a Hash......Page 78 5.5 Exercises......Page 80 6.1 Input from Standard Input......Page 81 6.2 Input from the Diamond Operator......Page 82 6.3 The Invocation Arguments......Page 84 6.4 Output to Standard Output......Page 85 6.5 Formatted Output with printf......Page 87 6.6 Exercises......Page 90 7.1 What Are Regular Expressions?......Page 91 7.2 Using Simple Patterns......Page 92 7.3 A Pattern Test Program......Page 94 7.4 Exercises......Page 95 8.1 Character Classes......Page 96 8.2 General Quantifiers......Page 97 8.3 Anchors......Page 98 8.4 Memory Parentheses......Page 99 8.5 Precedence......Page 101 8.6 Exercises......Page 103 9.2 Option Modifiers......Page 104 9.3 The Binding Operator, =~\r\n......Page 105 9.4 Interpolating into Patterns......Page 106 9.5 The Match Variables......Page 107 9.6 Substitutions with s///......Page 110 9.7 The split Operator......Page 112 9.8 The join Function......Page 113 9.9 Exercises......Page 114 10.1 The unless Control Structure......Page 115 10.3 Expression Modifiers......Page 116 10.4 The Naked Block Control Structure......Page 117 10.5 The elsif Clause......Page 118 10.6 Autoincrement and Autodecrement......Page 119 10.7 The for Control Structure......Page 120 10.8 Loop Controls......Page 122 10.9 Logical Operators......Page 126 10.10 Exercise......Page 130 11.1 What Is a Filehandle?......Page 131 11.2 Opening a Filehandle......Page 132 11.3 Fatal Errors with die......Page 134 11.4 Using Filehandles......Page 137 11.6 File Tests......Page 138 11.7 Exercises......Page 147 12.2 Globbing......Page 148 12.3 An Alternate Syntax for Globbing......Page 149 12.4 Directory Handles......Page 150 12.5 Recursive Directory Listing......Page 151 12.6 Exercises......Page 152 13.1 Removing Files......Page 153 13.2 Renaming Files......Page 154 13.3 Links and Files......Page 155 13.4 Making and Removing Directories......Page 159 13.5 Modifying Permissions......Page 160 13.7 Changing Timestamps......Page 161 13.8 Using Simple Modules......Page 162 13.9 Exercises......Page 166 14.1 The system Function......Page 167 14.2 The exec Function......Page 169 14.3 The Environment Variables......Page 170 14.4 Using Backquotes to Capture Output......Page 171 14.5 Processes as Filehandles......Page 174 14.6 Getting Down and Dirty with Fork......Page 175 14.7 Sending and Receiving Signals......Page 176 14.8 Exercises......Page 179 15.1 Finding a Substring with index......Page 180 15.2 Manipulating a Substring with substr......Page 181 15.3 Formatting Data with sprintf......Page 182 15.4 Advanced Sorting......Page 184 15.5 Exercises......Page 189 16.1 DBM Files and DBM Hashes......Page 190 16.3 Fixed-length Random-access Databases......Page 192 16.4 Variable-length (Text) Databases......Page 195 16.5 Exercises......Page 199 17.1 Trapping Errors with eval......Page 200 17.2 Picking Items from a List with grep......Page 202 17.3 Transforming Items from a List with map......Page 203 17.5 More Powerful Regular Expressions......Page 204 17.6 Slices......Page 206 17.7 Exercise......Page 211 Appendix A. Exercise Answers......Page 212 B.4 Extending Perl's Functionality......Page 242 B.5 Some Important Modules......Page 244 B.6 Pragmas......Page 247 B.7 Databases......Page 249 B.10 Lists and Arrays......Page 250 B.13 Networking and IPC......Page 251 B.16 The Common Gateway Interface (CGI)......Page 252 B.17 Command-Line Options......Page 253 B.20 References......Page 254 B.24 Embedding......Page 255 B.26 Converting find Command Lines to Perl......Page 256 B.32 Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)......Page 257 B.33 And More.........Page 258 Colophon......Page 259 If you ask Perl programmers today what book they relied on most when they were learning Perl, you'll find that an overwhelming majority will name Learning Perl--also known affectionately as 'the Llama.' The first edition of Learning Perl appeared in 1993 and has been a bestseller ever since. Written by two of the most prominent and active members of the Perl community, this book is the quintessential tutorial for the Perl programming language.Perl began as a tool for Unix system administrators, used for countless small tasks throughout the workday. It has since blossomed into a full-featured programming language on practically every computing platform, and is used for web programming, database manipulation, XML processing, and (of course) system administration--all this while still remaining the perfect tool for the small daily tasks it was designed for. Perl is quick, fun, and eminently useful. Many people start using Perl because they need it, but they continue to use Perl because they love it.The third edition of Learning Perl has not only been updated for Perl 5.6, but has also been rewritten from the ground up to reflect the needs of programmers learning Perl today. Informed by their years of success at teaching Perl as consultants, the authors have re-engineered the book to better match the pace and scope appropriate for readers trying to get started with Perl, while retaining the detailed discussion, thorough examples, and eclectic wit for which the book is famous.This edition of the Llama includes an expanded and more gently-paced introduction to regular expressions, new exercises and solutions designed so readers can practice what they've learned while it's still fresh in their minds, and an overall reworking to bring Learning Perl into the new millennium.Perl is a language for getting your job done. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer. If you're just getting started with Perl, this is the book you want—whether you're a programmer, system administrator, or web hacker. Nicknamed "the Llama" by two generations of users, this bestseller closely follows the popular introductory Perl course taught by the authors since 1991. This 6th edition covers recent changes to the language up to version 5.14. Perl is suitable for almost any task on almost any platform, from short fixes to complete web applications. Learning Perl teaches you the basics and shows you how to write programs up to 128 lines long—roughly the size of 90% of the Perl programs in use today. Each chapter includes exercises to help you practice what you've just learned. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer. Topics include: Perl data and variable types Subroutines File operations Regular expressions String manipulation (including Unicode) Lists and sorting Process management Smart matching Use of third party modules Printing History November 1993 First Edition. April 1994 Minor corrections. August 1994 Minor corrections. July 1997 Second Edition. July 2001 Third Edition. July 2005 Fourth Edition. Shows how to write, debug, and run a Perl program, describes CGI scripting and data manipulation, and describes scalar values, basic operators, and associative arrays.