I have it in a restricted area on my website.
If you are considering the purchase, I can let you
peruse it, but no mirroring. I don't want O'Reilly or the
authors to lose out.
Let me know, and I will give you access to that area for
a short time. Again, I would like you to get a good look,
so that you will know if you want it, but not so good that
you don't need it anymore.
J. J. Horner
Linux, Perl, Apache, Stronghold, Unix
jhorner@knoxlug.org http://www.knoxlug.org/
| [reply] |
I have it, and I think it's great to have the searchable text
of all those Perl books. But honestly, I rarely use it. I keep
my stack-o-perl books on my desk next to me, and most of the
time it's quicker to just get the one I need and look things up
in the index. YMMV.
--ZZamboni
| [reply] |
I looked at it at a friend of mine, it sure is cool to have a quick reference online when your hacking away, but personally I don't like reading all that text on screen, I prefer books. | [reply] |
If you do a lot of programming away from your library of books, it's a great value. I keep a copy in my laptop bag for those late nights with the brain fizzles badly, and I can't remember something simple.
The search engine is pretty brain dead, but having the indexes linked is really nice. | [reply] |
I bought it about 6 months ago, and it's terrific. About the only thing that I wish it had is Mastering Algorithms (and, if ORA releases a new edition of Perl CD Bookshelf, it'd be great to have the DBI book included as well). If I could miraculously store it on/access it from my Palm, it'd be perfect. | [reply] |
I bought the set about a week ago since it was such a great bargain. I originally learned Perl through some CGI books that just used the language as a means to an end. At the time I needed to learn it quickly to take over management of a site, but now I'm going back through real Perl books to get a better feel for how powerful the language really is. With that in mind, the Bookshelf has been great for me; I've gotten through most of Learning Perl and I'm starting on Programming Perl. Even though I already know most of what I'm reading (in the intro books at least) they've been really useful for learning how to write more concise and functional code. The other great thing about buying the package on CD is the Java-based full-text search engine that comes with it, which greatly increases its value as a reference. Reading on a monitor has never bothered me (having a 19" CRT at 1280x1024x85Hz helps), so that's not an issue. And you certainly can't beat the price. So if you don't have a problem with reading from a screen for extended periods, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it. | [reply] |
