It is definitely too obscure for non-programmers, but fails professionals miserably as well.

A single example is enough to condemn the wretched text: with any other standard introductory language text (to Python, C, Java, Lisp - whatever) a programmer will finish the book knowing how to write a function that can add or multiply two arrays. With the Llama book, he not only won't know how to perform this trivial task, but won't know that he doesn't know - because the entire subject of references has been elided, including even a warning as to when they might be necessary.

In other words, this is a great book to read if you want to end up being an unwittingly dangerous Perl coder.

By comparison, the Sam Teach Yourself Perl in 24 Hours book covers references beautifully, as well as many other key topics RS neglects or messes up, and it is probably usable as introduction to programming for someone who has never programmed in any language before.

Bad Llama - bad!

jdporter added p tags