ambar@ora.ora.com (Jean Marie Diaz) (01/15/91)
The Nutshell Handbook, Programming Perl, is the authoritative guide to
the hottest new UNIX utility in years, co-authored by the creator of
that utility.
Perl is a language for easily manipulating text, files and processes.
Perl provides a more concise and readable way to do many jobs that
were formerly accomplished (with difficulty) by programming in the C
language or one of the shells. Even though Perl is not yet a standard
part of UNIX, it is likely to be available at any UNIX site. And if
it isn't, users can get it and install it easily and free of charge.
Reasons to Learn Perl (listed by the authors)
- Perl is powerful
- Perl is a data reduction language
- Perl is a convenient file manipulation language
- Perl is a networking language
- Perl bridges the gap between C and shell programming
- Perl can actually help you to learn C
- Perl allows you to write programs more securely
- Perl lets you develop programs quickly
- Perl develops the three great virtues of a programmer: laziness,
impatience, and hubris
- Perl will increase the value of your resume :-)
The contents of Programming Perl include sections on:
- An Introduction to Perl
- Common Tasks With Perl
- Real Perl Programs; includes database manipulation, grep programs,
programming aids, system administration, filename manipulation,
text manipulation tools, processes, interprocess communication
- Perl syntax
- Perl functions
- Other Oddments; invocation options, debugging, efficiency, the Perl
library, linking in C subroutines, etc.
By Larry Wall and Randal Schwartz
ISBN 0-937175-64-1
Approximately 440 pages, $24.95
About the Authors:
Larry Wall is a programmer at JPL; in his copious free time :-), he
has authored some of the most popular free programs available for
UNIX, including the rn news reader, the ubiquitous patch program, and
the Perl programming language. He's also known for metaconfig, a
program which writes Configure scripts, and for the warp space-war
game, the first version of which was written in BASIC/PLUS at Seattle
Pacific University. By training Larry is actually a linguist, having
wandered about both U.C. Berkeley and UCLA as a grad student. He also
spent time at Unisys, playing with everything from discrete event
simulators to software development methodologies. It was there, while
trying to glue together a bicoastal configuration management system
over a 1200 baud encrypted link using a hacked over version of
Netnews, that Perl was born.
Randal L. Schwartz is an eclectic tradesman and entrepreneur, making
his living through software design, technical writing, system
administration, security consultation, and video production. He is
known internationally for his prolific, humorous, and occasionally
incorrect spatterings on Usenet--especially his "Just another Perl
hacker" signoffs in comp.lang.perl. Randal honed his many crafts
through seven years of employment at Tektronix, ServioLogic and
Sequent. For the past five years, he has owned and operated
Stonehenge Consulting Services in his home town of Portland, Oregon.
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks
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