Some people have criticised the review because, in their opinion, the "Perl black Book" does not stress good Perl programming practices. (My interpretation). Baby-talk Perl. No error checking. Not the true Perl way.

That may be true - but I first learned Perl from an online reference called "Introduction to Perl & CGI Programming". Many people here will foam at the mouth and cry "Sacriledge! Burn that heathen publication!" at the mention of that publication. Yes, I would not recommend people buying that book. BUT it got me interested in Perl, and wanting to know more, I bought the Camel book, the Llama book, and found this place. So my soul was saved, so to speak. But until I read and used the rather poor book initially, I didn't even know what Perl could do - to continue the metaphor, I didn't realise I had a soul.

The moral - just because the reviewed book may not be the best, or even a recommended book for serious Perl programming (and programmers), kommesel found it good enough to start with. Hopefully, if all the nitpicking, back-biting and bitchiness hasn't turned him off this place, he may stay around long enough to advance his Perl knowledge to the point where he does understand the advnaced features of the language, and knows good ways to do things, and can understand why wome of the approaches and techniques people frown upon are dangerous.

++ to kommesel for having the guts to at least give us his impressions.