For beginners, I always liked the Sam's publishing "Teach yourself PERL in 21 days" it has exercises, questions, and is fairly easy reading. But ultimately you should get the "Programming PERL" book (aka: the camel book) by O'Reilly publications. It's geared more toward intermediate to advanced programmers, so it might not be a good beginners book, but it is definitely a must have (for me, and many, its the only PERL book to have =) hope that helps some, good luck. -Jeric : -----Original Message----- : From: Rowan Reid [mailto:rreid@studio3arc.com] : Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 6:13 PM : To: 'bob barish'; suse-linux-e@suse.com : Subject: RE: [SLE] Perl : : : : : > Good Day Everyone; : > Is there recommendations for a good Perl book. I have no : > programming : > experience. So any recommendations would be really helpful. : > : : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596000278/qid=1029539696/sr=2-1/ : ref=sr_2_1/002-9616974-5156810 : : : When it comes to Perl/linux always always go with O'Reilly. Those two : books. Advanced Perl Programming, Perl, and Perl for Beginners I've used : and well look at me now. The reference guide is also good. : : : -- : Check the headers for your unsubscription address : For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com : Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com : Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com : :

On Saturday 17 August 2002 12:15, John Porter wrote:

Jeric wrote:

...

For beginners, I always liked the Sam's publishing "Teach yourself PERL in 21 days" it has exercises, questions, and is fairly easy reading.

This book should not be recommended.

To learn why, visit

http://www.perl.com/pub/a/language/critiques/index.html#Three

Some good book reviews, for all skill levels, are available at

http://www.perl.com/cs/user/query/q/6?id_topic=34

...

ultimately you should get the "Programming PERL" book (aka: the camel book) It's geared more toward intermediate to advanced programmers, so it might not be a good beginners book,

OTOH, it's what I learned Perl from. But then, I'm a programmer...

Btw -- and I hope the rest of the list will forgive me for being overly pedantic -- it is not "PERL", it's "Perl" or "perl". It is al explained l very clearly in perlfaq1.

hth,

Thanks Everyone for all the great input for helping me get started. I have repetitive, daily admin task and I heard perl is the way to go. So I am going to dive into it. Thanks again Bob

On Sunday 18 August 2002 04.33, Jeric wrote:

Hmm, I guess I fell victim to the "apocryphal folklore and post-facto expansions" especially that one about "Practical Extraction and Report Language" :o (i.e. it was an acronym, which would warrant an all upper case spelling) Well, at least that's straight now, thanks :)

I don't know who wrote that faq, but perl *is* an acronym. Here's from the horse's mouth: <quote> Larry: I wanted a short name with positive connotations. (I would never name a language ``Scheme'' or ``Python'', for instance.) I actually looked at every three- and four-letter word in the dictionary and rejected them all. I briefly toyed with the idea of naming it after my wife, Gloria, but that promised to be confusing on the domestic front. Eventually I came up with the name ``pearl'', with the gloss Practical Extraction and Report Language. The ``a'' was still in the name when I made that one up. But I heard rumors of some obscure graphics language named ``pearl'', so I shortened it to ``perl''. (The ``a'' had already disappeared by the time I gave Perl its alternate gloss, Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister.) </quote> http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=3394 The subject of capitalization is treated in the parapraph after the one I quoted. //Anders -- 'Deserves [death]. I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.' --Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings