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English translation (Programmation avancée en Perl)by arhuman (Vicar) |
on May 09, 2001 at 02:16 UTC ( [id://78978]=note: print w/replies, xml ) | Need Help?? |
Advanced programming in Perl INTRODUCTION I have mixed feelings about this book. I was looking for a book about Perl internals, which would go a little bit further than the Camel and which would be a little bit easier to grapple with than Perl sources. This book partially met my expectations. I found an interesting book on several accounts, with an excellent technical level but some aspects (which I'll detaill below) noticeably reduce this book's value. PRESENTATION Advanced programming in Perl includes 412 pages. It's broken up into 20 chapters :
And 2 appendices :
I don't understand the logic of this layout, and it seems a bit 'disjointed'. Chapters are, to my mind, quite uneven, some are excellent, others are less good. Some areas are VERY (too much?) detailed, like the whole chapter 5 about Eval for example, or the 3 chapters about the GUI. More than the topics presentation order, It's their interest (varied) and the reasons why they were choosed that bother me. Whatever the author say to justify his choices (these topics were choosed beccause they're what a programmer SHOULD know), the choice seems arbitrary, and to say the least questionable. (No chapter about Security ? Sorting ? Obfuscation ?...) Aside from the above subjective issues, I have 4 specific complaints :
But everything isn't bad in this book : On the good side, we'll notice:
CONCLUSION This book remains a good book about Perl, less exciting than the CamelBook, less practical than the CookBook, nonetheless, it contains excellent and detailed information, while being clear and easy to read. However I just can't refrain from imagining what this book would have been if it would have been written by a Perl fanatic... And dreaming... (How long until a book written by our saints?) ;-)
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