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Learning Perl
If you ask Perl programmers today what book they relied on most when they were learning Perl, you'll find that an overwhelming majority will name Learning Perl--also known affectionately as "the Llama." The first edition of Learning Perl appeared in 1993 and has been a bestseller ever since. Written by two of the most prominent and active members of the Perl community, this book is the quintessential tutorial for the Perl programming language.
Perl began as a tool for Unix system administrators, used for countless small tasks throughout the workday. It has since blossomed into a full-featured programming language on practically every computing platform, and is used for web programming, database manipulation, XML processing, and (of course) system administration--all this while still remaining the perfect tool for the small daily tasks it was designed for. Perl is quick, fun, and eminently useful. Many people start using Perl because they need it, but they continue to use Perl because they love it.
The third edition of Learning Perl has not only been updated for Perl 5.6, but has also been rewritten from the ground up to reflect the needs of programmers learning Perl today. Informed by their years of success at teaching Perl as consultants, the authors have re-engineered the book to better match the pace and scope appropriate for readers trying to get started with Perl, while retaining the detailed discussion, thorough examples, and eclectic wit for which the book is famous.
This edition of the Llama includes an expanded and more gently-paced introduction to regular expressions, new exercises and solutions designed so readers can practice what they've learned while it's still fresh in their minds, and an overall reworking to bring Learning Perl into the new millennium.
Perl is a language for getting your job done. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer.
320 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1993
128 people are currently reading
811 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
February 22, 2010
There's this old geek joke where you compare programming languages and cars (Assembler would be a Formula 1 racer, LISP would be an electric car, etc). Here's Perl:
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May 15, 2012
This is the way to start writing Perl: quick and painless.
Start on page one, where the authors mention that they "enjoyed writing it," with the following footnote:
Start on page one, where the authors mention that they "enjoyed writing it," with the following footnote:
Now, if you're wondering how we can say that we've enjoyed writing it (in the past tense) when we're still on the first page, that's easy: we started at the end, and worked our way backwards. It sounds like a strange way to do it, we know. But, honestly, once we finished writing the index, the rest was hardly any trouble at all.
February 11, 2020
This book is arguably the best one out there to start your Perl adventure, and I've learned a lot of small details about programming in Perl. Thank you, Randal L. Schwartz for writing this wonderful book. I'm going to start Intermediate Perl immediately.
May 2, 2011
read this back at CNN in 1999. i've refused to read or write perl since then, and it's done me nothing but good.
January 5, 2020
The all-time best book on Perl I've read...
November 28, 2017
Another book moved to the Read shelf even though I haven't read it all the way through yet.
This is a solid introduction, but doesn't cover enough material to help me with my legacy software project. I found the Intermediate Perl book by Schwartz more useful. However, that book wouldn't have made any sense to me without reading this book first.
This is a solid introduction, but doesn't cover enough material to help me with my legacy software project. I found the Intermediate Perl book by Schwartz more useful. However, that book wouldn't have made any sense to me without reading this book first.
August 17, 2018
Perl is so awesome, and powerful, even today.
All the concepts are correct and it is overall very well poised for the future as a language.
Also looking forward to reading
All the concepts are correct and it is overall very well poised for the future as a language.
Also looking forward to reading
October 16, 2020
This was a good reference for me back in the 90s, but it's ancient in internet years. However, it's still worth mentioning that in the index at the back of the book on page 225 under the "S" section is this entry:
Scooby Doo, pronouncing "Windex" 166
Turning to page 166, you find the "rindex" function. :D
Scooby Doo, pronouncing "Windex" 166
Turning to page 166, you find the "rindex" function. :D
April 28, 2021
Teaches Perl in a nice and easy way, but Perl itself will bring tears when you get to RegEx.
August 29, 2021
Para mí ha sido increíblemente bueno. Completamente recomendable.
December 11, 2021
Very shallow at times. The full book (the Perl guide) is funnier and more enlightening.
May 5, 2022
Great book for starting your Perl journey.
March 12, 2023
The llama 🦙 book. Where I learned Perl ♥️
February 18, 2024
This had me on the edge of my seat from page 0 to page -1.
February 29, 2024
Wish I had read this sooner. Demystified much of the language in a clearer and more concise format than the on-line tutorials I had to use since the 90s.
October 25, 2016
This book is absolutely marvelous (and I just read the second edition; little did I know that there were newer ones). It was indeed (to the best of my knowledge) the instigator of my application of programming outside of Visual Studio, which, if you're well acquainted with these areas� well, never mind. Oh, in between Visual Studio and Perl, I learned some shell scripting and various markup languages, because I started using Linux (Debian and Slax specifically) instead of Windows (YAYYYYY!!!!!!). Well, when an aspiring programmer has the bountiful power of the Linux kernel at his command, along with a worthy tome, something is bound to happen. And thanks to this selfsame worthy tome, it did so excellently.
"Why is this a worthy tome?" you may ask. I shall supply you an answer. Firstly, It was published by O'Reilly, which, as the enlightened know, very often makes for an excellent book. Secondly, Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, linguist (quite interesting� a linguist creating a programming language), and employee of O'Reilly Media is co-author of this book, which is considered canonical for Perl developers. Definitely something to read if you want to program in Perl. Thirdly, information is presented in a kindly manner (typical of books published by O'Reilly) instead of the general chaos of some other programming references I've read. And any programmer knows how important order is. Fourthly, it has an index, which is a small fact comparatively and indeed most reference books have indices these days. (NOOO!!!! My web browser's dictionary does not recognize the word "indices." Where has it been for the last five hundred years?) However, indices are so imperative� so essential� so undeniably needed that I believe that I shall mention the fact. Fifthly, there are examples, quite terrific in their own right. Sixthly, it includes some stuff about using Perl as a Common Gateway Interface programming language. Seeing as I am predominately a web programmer, this is fantastic.
All that said, reading this book is a brilliant way to embark on the programming adventure. Therefore, I fully endorse the second edition of by as a reference to the Perl programming language. I hope sometime to read the later editions, because Perl is simply that wonderful. There are some that would argue, but I stick by this thought. I use JavaScript more, and I certainly find JavaScript most amusing, but Perl can operate on "any" operating system without the support of a web browser! It is also a wonderful CGI language, widely used for CGI purposes. And also� I've read that it inspired parts of JavaScript. So up with PERL!!!!!!!! (May it's majesty live forever (for my sake).) And now they're working on Perl 6!!!!
Also, as an official apology: Sorry for dedicating most of my review to irrelevant clauses and exclaiming wildly about Perl. I became a little excited, for I believe I may be writing some code using Perl soon and it's been a while since I have.
"Why is this a worthy tome?" you may ask. I shall supply you an answer. Firstly, It was published by O'Reilly, which, as the enlightened know, very often makes for an excellent book. Secondly, Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, linguist (quite interesting� a linguist creating a programming language), and employee of O'Reilly Media is co-author of this book, which is considered canonical for Perl developers. Definitely something to read if you want to program in Perl. Thirdly, information is presented in a kindly manner (typical of books published by O'Reilly) instead of the general chaos of some other programming references I've read. And any programmer knows how important order is. Fourthly, it has an index, which is a small fact comparatively and indeed most reference books have indices these days. (NOOO!!!! My web browser's dictionary does not recognize the word "indices." Where has it been for the last five hundred years?) However, indices are so imperative� so essential� so undeniably needed that I believe that I shall mention the fact. Fifthly, there are examples, quite terrific in their own right. Sixthly, it includes some stuff about using Perl as a Common Gateway Interface programming language. Seeing as I am predominately a web programmer, this is fantastic.
All that said, reading this book is a brilliant way to embark on the programming adventure. Therefore, I fully endorse the second edition of by as a reference to the Perl programming language. I hope sometime to read the later editions, because Perl is simply that wonderful. There are some that would argue, but I stick by this thought. I use JavaScript more, and I certainly find JavaScript most amusing, but Perl can operate on "any" operating system without the support of a web browser! It is also a wonderful CGI language, widely used for CGI purposes. And also� I've read that it inspired parts of JavaScript. So up with PERL!!!!!!!! (May it's majesty live forever (for my sake).) And now they're working on Perl 6!!!!
Also, as an official apology: Sorry for dedicating most of my review to irrelevant clauses and exclaiming wildly about Perl. I became a little excited, for I believe I may be writing some code using Perl soon and it's been a while since I have.
February 13, 2014
This review was written by my son and husband who used this book extensively. They report:
I have programmed in Python and a little bit in C and I think this book is great - and so is perl. I already knew a little bit about perl from reading a Wikipedia article and looking at the perldoc documentation, but Learning Perl taught my some very useful things that I would have never found alone (splicing, nongreedy regexes, just to name a few).
perl has amazing support for I/O, and the book helped me understand regexes and file I/O. I found both perl and this book to be good for other things, too. I wrote a logging program that wrote logs with timestamps, for example. Other things I used this book and perl for included a calculator, a text-to-HTML conversion program, and a password cracker.
Learning Perl helped me uncover some bugs in my programs, taught me many new things, and was also just a fun read. The only thing I would add would be more about OOP (Object Oriented Programming).
I found the TOC (Table of Contents) to be very well done and the e-book version had links to the proper sections. I could find anything quite quickly with the excellent TOC.
I have programmed in Python and a little bit in C and I think this book is great - and so is perl. I already knew a little bit about perl from reading a Wikipedia article and looking at the perldoc documentation, but Learning Perl taught my some very useful things that I would have never found alone (splicing, nongreedy regexes, just to name a few).
perl has amazing support for I/O, and the book helped me understand regexes and file I/O. I found both perl and this book to be good for other things, too. I wrote a logging program that wrote logs with timestamps, for example. Other things I used this book and perl for included a calculator, a text-to-HTML conversion program, and a password cracker.
Learning Perl helped me uncover some bugs in my programs, taught me many new things, and was also just a fun read. The only thing I would add would be more about OOP (Object Oriented Programming).
I found the TOC (Table of Contents) to be very well done and the e-book version had links to the proper sections. I could find anything quite quickly with the excellent TOC.
July 24, 2007
This was my first real programming book (not counting others that I bought but never got far enough it to really make a difference). I felt that it was a really good introduction to programming, as well as a fairly good introduction to Perl. It is certainly not the most comprehensive book on the subject, but the simple but effective description and the exercises at the end of each chapter did a lot to help me grasp programming principles and reinforce them. The book was short enough that I read it through once without really doing any programming, and then went through it a second time working everything, which meant that I was able to get a broad overview and then hammer out the specifics, which is the way I operate best. Nowadays, when I do program, I tend to prefer Python to Perl, but this book was simple and gently enough that it made me better able to understand my bigger, more comprehensive, but also more complex, Python book.
October 7, 2008
In the quest to broaden my technical skills (or 'layoff insurance' as I like to call it), I've opted to learn programming. With IT Support rapidly becoming so automated and out-sourced, it seems to me that my current job will one day be replaced by a robot (in India, likely).
So one of my Unix admin co-workers has been extolling Perl, and I opted to pick up what appears to be the beginner's volume published by O'Reilly (my favorite tech publisher). I'm slowly working through it--it didn't take long before the jargon started becoming a dense thicket, but at least I'm still understanding the principles behind the process. The chapter assignments are helpful, although I'm concerned that with only three to four assignments per chapter I'm missing key concepts which will be called on in later chapters.
So one of my Unix admin co-workers has been extolling Perl, and I opted to pick up what appears to be the beginner's volume published by O'Reilly (my favorite tech publisher). I'm slowly working through it--it didn't take long before the jargon started becoming a dense thicket, but at least I'm still understanding the principles behind the process. The chapter assignments are helpful, although I'm concerned that with only three to four assignments per chapter I'm missing key concepts which will be called on in later chapters.
March 1, 2015
The book can be good as an introduction to the basics of perl programming but it doesn't mention a lot of the OOP related features in perl. So if you're working on something more than a simple script, you will need to find some other place to read about references and other more advanced topics, which are not really advanced, but the book skips them as probably covering them would have made the book size increase to be around 500 pages.
While it's talking about the basics, it's still worth reading, as what can seem very clear to you in other programming languages, would probably be so hard to understand in perl.
About perl: As the book says, perl has a high learning curve, but once you understand all the tricks you will have high productivity, so don't expect this to be an easy ride.
While it's talking about the basics, it's still worth reading, as what can seem very clear to you in other programming languages, would probably be so hard to understand in perl.
About perl: As the book says, perl has a high learning curve, but once you understand all the tricks you will have high productivity, so don't expect this to be an easy ride.
September 10, 2010
I recommend reading this book for entertainment and never writing a line of perl. The language is more backwards and silly than even VB (which is saying a helluva lot), but the three writers work through its vulgarities well enough to nearly convince the reader that it's actually worth learning. Don't be fooled by their wiles: perl is a mischievous mistress.
September 3, 2011
I read this when the first edition came out, but have been away from the language for a while, and picking it up piecemeal was getting old. It’s vastly improved over the earlier version(s), which were pretty good to begin with. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn about Perl. (Yes, there are a zillion of online tutorials, but this covers a lot more breadth.)
May 13, 2015
This is *the* Perl book. If you only read one, this should be it. The text explains concepts well, and the end-of-chapter exercises are designed to reinforce what you've just learned, integrating with anything you learned earlier, and also to stretch your imagination. You don't need any prior programming knowledge to find this a useful resource.
February 19, 2008
Good book for foundations, I would say... My review wouldn't be a particularly fair one because I didn't get too far with this. As quickly as my need to learn Perl arose, it diminished and disappeared. That said, should that need come back, I believe that this is book where I would re-start.
March 25, 2015
If you want to learn Perl, then this book should be your starting point. The book has a humorous and example-based learning approach. You will see more footnotes than anyother book. The footnotes are worth reading with lot of insights on why things are the way they are.
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January 19, 2010Totally learning old school PERL for some stuff at work. This text confirms many of the stereotypes that I have of PERL users. The foreword is a hilarious discussion of PERL wizardry which reminds me why I never learned PERL of my own volition. HAHAHA
March 17, 2011
Excellently written book. At first I thought this book was full of chit-chat with so many footnotes but by the end of it, it helped me really understand the basics of Perl. Totally recommend it for anyone who is thinking about "learning perl".
February 16, 2011
This was an add on text for a Perl class. Seems like I've
taken more than one version of this class, in person, online,
they're everywhere.
Contains various perls of wisdom you should need for this
language.
April 18, 2011
I read 3/4 of this book straight though. It's a very well writting programming book. I've only used perl like 3 times in my whole life and have written maybe 2 lines ever though, so maybe this book scared me straight?
May 9, 2011
I've actually read this in russian. It was one of the first books of programming I've read. I remember having a lot of fun when reading it. This was definitely the right book for me at the time. Now I would recommend learning other languages such as Python or Ruby.
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