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Buying books

cog on 2004-08-26T13:21:08

I am dangerously reaching the end of "Life, the Universe and Everything", after which I intend to read "So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish".

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find "Mostly Harmless" (the fifth and last of this magnificent trilogy of five books by Douglas Adams) anywhere in Portugal, which means I might have to send it in from somewhere...

Now... I have just received some money I had given up hopes of receiving :-)

Care to guess what this means? :-) Yep, I'm buying some more books :-)

Regarding Perl, I am currently the proud owner of four books: Perl Pocket Reference, Learning Perl Objects, References and Modules, Programming Perl and Advanced Perl Programming (out of which I have only read 2 and a half; nevertheless, I am buying some more).

I come to you, oh noble programmers, to help me in this hour of choices, and beg you to take a look at my humble wish list and give me some good advice on what I should buy next :-) (even if it's something not on the list)

Thanks to you all,

jac aka a happy guy a couple of cents richer for a couple of days, probably :-)

It isn't on your list but...

zatoichi on 2004-08-26T14:37:47

I have done a once through of "Perl Medic" by Peter J. Scott and I must say it is a fantastic Perl resource.

I am reading it again though more slowly this time. I heartily agree with the cover blurb: If you code in Perl, you need to read this book.

I am almost a level 5 Perl programmer to the list given. :-)

Re:It isn't on your list but...

cog on 2004-08-27T08:47:59

I've been hearing lots of good things on "Perl Medic" :-) I guess it must be good :-) It will probably be on my list :-)

My Opinion

phillup on 2004-08-26T16:10:43

I've got a lot of the Perl books on your list, but I don't know where you are in needed / desired skills. I do mostly CGI programming with Mason... so, take this with that in mind.

If I was limited to one Perl book from the list, it would be Perl Cookbook. It is a great book to have around when you have a common problem and you want ideas for a starting point. Without knowing more about your specific needs or desires, I'd say that is one of the best generalized books on the list. I also found it useful when I knew ways to solve the problem in another language and wanted to know the "Perl way". (I've been accused of using Perl to write C++ code.;-))

I'd also say that while Programming the Perl DBI: Database Programming with Perl is a great book, it is dated in the extreme. If your database needs fall in the MySql category, then this book has a pretty good section on using DBI.

Perl and LWP is another book worth having if you absolutely must use that technology. But, WWW::Mechanize has made that much less necessary.

If either of the above two books were updated, I would go out and buy them immediately. But, I would put the current versions near the end of the list.

My most recent purchase has been Perl Medic and I really like the book. It has the best section on testing I've seen so far. I'm not sure if that says something good about the book, or something poor about how little information is in print on the subject... one thing that does bug me about this book is the way they typset the book. New lines of code are presented in italics (ever seen an italicized pipe... looks a lot like a slash) and it does not stand out well.

OTOH, Object Oriented Perl is a most excellent read. Not just for the subject matter, but because it is just plain easy to pick out changed lines of code due to the way they typeset it. Highly recommended if you are looking for another book on OO programming with Perl.

HTH

Re:My Opinion

cog on 2004-08-27T08:52:11

I don't know where you are in needed / desired skills

Mostly, I do Perl for fun and easiness of those terrible tasks, but I don't really have any specific needs... I've always been interested in expanding my skills and knowledge, but in no specific areas...

I'm going to follow your advice and leave those other two books for later :-) I will probably buy the Cookbook, this time :-)

If after making up my first list I still find space for another book, it will probably be "Object Oriented Perl". That's an interesting subject :-)

Thanks :-)

One each

Mr. Muskrat on 2004-08-26T19:05:31

I recommend that you get (at least) one of each.
Fiction: Rendezvous with Rama or anything by Arthur C. Clarke.
Perl: Perl Cookbook is the only book left on your list that I have read. (I actually have most of those on my list as well.)

Re:One each

cog on 2004-08-27T08:55:10

OK, I'm getting the point with "Perl Cookbook" :-)

As for Arthur, I already have a couple of his books (2001, Expedition to Earth), but I have been hearing so many good thing on this one, and I can't find it in Portugal, so... I guess I'll have to send it in! :-)

Tell me, is that book a complete story, or is it just part of a greater one? (I've seen quite a few books with the name "Rama" on them...)

Rama

Mr. Muskrat on 2004-08-27T12:44:21

It's definitely a complete story. The other books in the series are supposed to pick up where this one leaves off but I never made it past Rama II. (I didn't like the collabrative work.)

Re:Rama

jdavidboyd on 2004-08-27T13:58:43

I would say don't ever bother. They go downhill, and I thought the ending was trite trash...

Re:One each

VSarkiss on 2004-08-27T15:10:34

Rendezvous with Rama or anything by Arthur C. Clarke
If I had to pick one Clarke book to recommend, it would have to be Childhood's End. The original "Rama" is indeed good, but it suffers from a very weak ending, IMHO. Of all his books, "Childhood's End" is my all-time favorite.