Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2010 09:04:44 -0600 From: Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> To: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: perl qstn... Message-ID: <20100404150443.GA14567@guilt.hydra> In-Reply-To: <86aatjnsts.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> References: <20100403210610.GA4135@thought.org> <4BB8108A.9080104@FreeBSD.org> <1270371713.5861.98.camel@tao.thought.org> <86aatjnsts.fsf@red.stonehenge.com>
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On Sun, Apr 04, 2010 at 08:25:03AM -0700, Randal L. Schwartz wrote:
>=20
> Even simpler:
>=20
> if (@ARGV) {
> print "No args\n";
> } else {
> print "arg is $ARGV[0]\n";
> }
As Randal noted, he accidentally swapped the conditions here. Just for
the sake of absolute clarity, I'll actually swap them:
if (@ARGV) {
print "arg is $ARGV[0]\n";
} else {
print "no args\n";
}
>=20
> If you're studying perl, you might want to join the very
> beginner-friendly mailing list, info at
> http://lists.perl.org/list/beginners.html, or start a conversation on
> perlmonks.org, also relatively beginner-friendly.
PerlMonks in particular is an excellent resource. I haven't been active
there recently, but when I have been active there, I've always found it
rewarding and educational. I can't recommend it enough.
>=20
> And I'd recommend a couple of good books, but I might be seen as
> self-pimping. :)
That's okay. I'll pimp them for you.
Learning Perl, also known as The Llama Book (because it has a llama on
the cover), is one of the all-time best beginner's books for *any*
language that I've ever encountered. I've gone through both the second
and fourth editions, and both are excellent books. I prefer the
organization of the second edition a bit, but the fourth is a trifle more
up to date and does a much better job of covering Windows-related Perl
development issues. If you're only worried about Unixy development and
execution environments, my personal recommendation would be the second
edition, though I suppose your mileage may vary.
As a follow-up to the Llama, the Alpaca book (it has an alpaca on the
cover, naturally) -- in its first edition known as Learning Perl Objects,
References, and Modules (or Perl PORM, as I like to call it), and in
later editions titled Intermediate Perl -- is also an excellent book. In
addition to teaching more about Perl in particular, it also teaches some
important general programming concepts from a Perl perspective, thus
helping broaden your understanding of programming in general.
The final member of the traditional camelid trilogy, and a great book to
tack onto the list after the Alpaca, is the Camel Book, titled
Programming Perl. It's sorta the definitive reference for Perl
programmers, and covers a lot more of the language and its philosophy
than the Llama and Alpaca, though in my opinion the Llama and Alpaca
together provide a needed introduction that the Camel only skims past
(out of necessity, really, since a hand-holding introduction isn't really
the book's purpose).
There's also Mastering Perl, which was written as a sequel to
Intermediate Perl, and I'm sure it's an excellent book. I haven't read
it, though, and know next to nothing about it, so I can't really
recommend it.
All four of the above are published by O'Reilly, and the three I've read
at least are each the kind of book that has given O'Reilly its reputation
as a purveyor of excellent technical books. Perl is blessed by an absurd
number of excellent programming books by knowledgeable authors, and there
are many more that are worth your time as well -- but in general the
above are the canonical starting steps, with others following from there
as you start figuring out what specific areas you want to give your focus
next. Unfortunately, there are also a number of really crappy Perl books
out there (many books that spell it PERL, in all-capital letters, are
among the not-so-great books), and as such I figured I should be explicit
in sharing my thoughts on the best books to get started in Perl.
Now that I've gotten so far off-topic for this list, I'll return you to
your regularly scheduled programming.
>=20
> But if you look at http://learn.perl.org/ you'll see a number of other
> resources, including free tutorials online.
>=20
> print "Just another Perl hacker,"; # the original
--=20
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
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