Mastering Perl : [creating professional programs with Perl

Perl programmers need a clear roadmap for improving their skills. Intermediate Perl teaches a working knowledge of Perl's objects, references, and modules -- all of which makes the language so versatile and effective. Written by the authors of the bestselling Llama book, Learning Perl, this guide offers a gentle but thorough introduction to intermediate programming in Perl. Topics include packages and namespaces, references and scoping, manipulating complex data structures, writing and using modules, package implementation, and using CPAN.;Intermediate Perl; Preface; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Comments and Questions; Safari® Enabled; Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction; 1.2. What About All Those Footnotes?; 1.3. What & s with the Exercises?; 1.4. What If I & m a Perl Course Instructor?; 2. Intermediate Foundations; 2.1.2. Transforming Lists with map; 2.2. Trapping Errors with eval; 2.3. Dynamic Code with eval; 2.4. Exercises; 2.4.2. Exercise 2 [25 min]; 3. Using Modules; 3.2. Using Modules; 3.3. Functional Interfaces; 3.4. Selecting What to Import; 3.5. Object-Oriented Interfaces. This is the third in O'Reilly's series of landmark Perl tutorials, which started with Learning Perl, the bestselling introduction that taught you the basics of Perl syntax, and Intermediate Perl, which taught you how to create re-usable Perl software. Mastering Perl pulls everything together to show you how to bend Perl to your will. It convey's Perl's special models and programming idioms. This book isn't a collection of clever tricks, but a way of thinking about Perl programming so you can integrate the real-life problems of debugging, maintenance, configuration, and other tasks you encounter as a working programmer. The book explains how to: Use advanced regular expressions, including global matches, lookarounds, readable regexes, and regex debugging Avoid common programing problems with secure programming techniques Profile and benchmark Perl to find out where to focus your improvements Wrangle Perl code to make it more presentable and readable See how Perl keeps track of package variables and how you can use that for some powerful tricks Define subroutines on the fly and turn the tables on normal procedural programming. Modify and jury rig modules to fix code without editing the original source Let your users configure your programs without touching the code Learn how you can detect errors Perl doesn't report, and how to tell users about them Let your Perl program talk back to you by using Log4perl Store data for later use in another program, a later run of the same program, or to send them over a network Write programs as modules to get the benefit of Perl's distribution and testing tools Appendices include 'brian's Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem' to improve your troubleshooting skills, as well as suggested reading to continue your Perl education. Mastering Perl starts you on your path to becoming the person with the answers, and, failing that, the person who knows how to find the answers or discover the problem. Perl is a versatile, powerful programming language used in a variety of disciplines, ranging from system administration to web programming to database manipulation. One slogan of Perl is that it makes easy things easy and hard things possible. "Intermediate Perl" is about making the leap from the easy things to the hard ones. Originally released in 2003 as "Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules" and revised and updated for Perl 5.8, this book offers a gentle but thorough introduction to intermediate programming in Perl. Written by the authors of the best-selling "Learning Perl," it picks up where that book left off. Topics include: Packages and namespacesReferences and scopingManipulating complex data structuresObject-oriented programmingWriting and using modulesTesting Perl codeContributing to CPAN Following the successful format of "Learning Perl," we designed each chapter in the book to be small enough to be read in just an hour or two, ending with a series of exercises to help you practice what you've learned. To use the book, you just need to be familiar with the material in "Learning Perl" and have ambition to go further. Perl is a different language to different people. It is a quick scripting tool for some, and a fully-featured object-oriented language for others. It is used for everything from performing quick global replacements on text files, to crunching huge, complex sets of scientific data that take weeks to process. Perl is what you make of it. But regardless of what you use Perl for, this book helps you do it more effectively, efficiently, and elegantly. "Intermediate Perl" is about learning to use Perl as a programming language, and not just a scripting language. This is the book that turns the Perl dabbler into the Perl programmer. Perl is a versatile, powerful programming language used in a variety of disciplines, ranging from system administration to web programming to database manipulation. One slogan of Perl is that it makes easy things easy and hard things possible. Intermediate Perl is about making the leap from the easy things to the hard ones. Originally released in 2003 as Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules and revised and updated for Perl 5.8, this book offers a gentle but thorough introduction to intermediate programming in Perl. Written by the authors of the best-selling Learning Perl , it picks up where that book left off. Topics include: Packages and namespaces References and scoping Manipulating complex data structures Object-oriented programming Writing and using modules Testing Perl code Contributing to CPAN Following the successful format of Learning Perl , we designed each chapter in the book to be small enough to be read in just an hour or two, ending with a series of exercises to help you practice what you've learned. To use the book, you just need to be familiar with the material in Learning Perl and have ambition to go further. Perl is a different language to different people. It is a quick scripting tool for some, and a fully-featured object-oriented language for others. It is used for everything from performing quick global replacements on text files, to crunching huge, complex sets of scientific data that take weeks to process. Perl is what you make of it. But regardless of what you use Perl for, this book helps you do it more effectively, efficiently, and elegantly. Intermediate Perl is about learning to use Perl as a programming language, and not just a scripting language. This is the book that turns the Perl dabbler into the Perl programmer Learning Perl, better known as "the Llama book", starts the programmer on the way to mastery. Written by three prominent members of the Perl community who each have several years of experience teaching Perl around the world, this edition has been updated to account for all the recent changes to the language up to Perl 5.8. Perl is the language for people who want to get work done. It started as a tool for Unix system administrators who needed something powerful for small tasks. Since then, Perl has blossomed into a full-featured programming language used for web programming, database manipulation, XML processing, and system administration--on practically all platforms--while remaining the favorite tool for the small daily tasks it was designed for. You might start using Perl because you need it, but you'll continue to use it because you love it. Informed by their years of success at teaching Perl as consultants, the authors have re-engineered the Llama to better match the pace and scope appropriate for readers getting started with Perl, while retaining the detailed discussion, thorough examples, and eclectic wit for which the Llama is famous. The book includes new exercises and solutions so you can practice what you've learned while it's still fresh in your mind. Here are just some of the topics covered: Perl variable types subroutines file operations regular expressions text processing strings and sorting process management using third party modules 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 point to the Llama. With good reason. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer If you're just getting started with Perl, this is the book you want—whether you're a programmer, system administrator, or web hacker. Nicknamed "the Llama" by two generations of users, this bestseller closely follows the popular introductory Perl course taught by the authors since 1991. This 6th edition covers recent changes to the language up to version 5.14. Perl is suitable for almost any task on almost any platform, from short fixes to complete web applications. Learning Perl teaches you the basics and shows you how to write programs up to 128 lines long—roughly the size of 90% of the Perl programs in use today. Each chapter includes exercises to help you practice what you've just learned. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer. Topics include: Perl data and variable types Subroutines File operations Regular expressions String manipulation (including Unicode) Lists and sorting Process management Smart matching Use of third party modules Printing History November 1993 First Edition. April 1994 Minor corrections. August 1994 Minor corrections. July 1997 Second Edition. July 2001 Third Edition. July 2005 Fourth Edition. This book picks up right where Learning Perl leaves off. With Intermediate Perl, you’ll graduate from short scripts to much larger programs, using features that make Perl a general-purpose language. This gentle but thorough guide introduces you to modules, complex data structures, and object-oriented programming.Each chapter is small enough to be read in just an hour or two, ending with exercises to help you practice what you’ve learned. If you’re familiar with the material in Learning Perl and have the ambition to go further, Intermediate Perl will teach you most of the core Perl language concepts you need for writing robust programs on any platform.Topics include:Packages and namespacesReferences and scoping, including regular expression referencesManipulating complex data structuresObject-oriented programmingWriting and using modulesTesting Perl codeContributing to CPANJust like Learning Perl, material in this book closely follows the popular introductory Perl course the authors have taught since 1991. This second edition covers recent changes to the language up to version 5.14. Take the next step toward Perl mastery with advanced concepts that make coding easier, maintenance simpler, and execution faster. Mastering Perl isn't a collection of clever tricks, but a way of thinking about Perl programming for solving debugging, configuration, and many other real-world problems you’ll encounter as a working programmer.The third in O’Reilly’s series of landmark Perl tutorials (after Learning Perl and Intermediate Perl), this fully upated edition pulls everything together and helps you bend Perl to your will.Explore advanced regular expressions featuresAvoid common problems when writing secure programsProfile and benchmark Perl programs to see where they need workWrangle Perl code to make it more presentable and readableUnderstand how Perl keeps track of package variablesDefine subroutines on the flyJury-rig modules to fix code without editing the original sourceUse bit operations and bit vectors to store large data efficientlyLearn how to detect errors that Perl doesn’t reportDive into logging, data persistence, and the magic of tied variables Intermediate Perl Preface Conventions Used in This Book Using Code Examples Comments and Questions Safari® Enabled Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 1.2. What About All Those Footnotes? 1.3. What & s with the Exercises? 1.4. What If I & m a Perl Course Instructor? 2. Intermediate Foundations 2.1.2. Transforming Lists with map 2.2. Trapping Errors with eval 2.3. Dynamic Code with eval 2.4. Exercises 2.4.2. Exercise 2 [25 min] 3. Using Modules 3.2. Using Modules 3.3. Functional Interfaces 3.4. Selecting What to Import 3.5. Object-Oriented Interfaces. 3.6. A More Typical Object-Oriented Module: Math::BigInt3.7. The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network 3.8. Installing Modules from CPAN 3.9. Setting the Path at the Right Time 3.10. Exercises 3.10.2. Exercise 2 [35 min] 4. Introduction to References 4.2. Taking a Reference to an Array 4.3. Dereferencing the Array Reference 4.4. Getting Our Braces Off 4.5. Modifying the Array 4.6. Nested Data Structures 4.7. Simplifying Nested Element References wit. Take the next step toward Perl mastery with advanced concepts that make coding easier, maintenance simpler, and execution faster. Mastering Perl isn't a collection of clever tricks, but a way of thinking about Perl programming for solving debugging, configuration, and many other real-world problems you'll encounter as a working programmer. The third in O'Reilly's series of landmark Perl tutorials (after Learning Perl and Intermediate Perl ), this fully upated edition pulls everything together and helps you bend Perl to your will. Explore advanced regular expressions features Avoid common problems when writing secure programs Profile and benchmark Perl programs to see where they need work Wrangle Perl code to make it more presentable and readable Understand how Perl keeps track of package variables Define subroutines on the fly Jury-rig modules to fix code without editing the original...

Learning Perl is ideal for system administrators, programmers, and anyone else wanting a down-to-earth introduction to this useful language. Written by a Perl trainer, the book's aim is to make a competent, hands-on Perl programmer out of the reader as quickly as possible. The book takes a step-by-step, hands-on tutorial approach and includes hundred of short code examples.

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A hands-on tutorial featuring exercises and complete solutions, covering basics rather than advanced issues. Contents include Perl basics, the language's broad capabilities, brief code examples, system commands, and how to manage DBM databases using Perl. This second edition contains a new chapter on CGI programming. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

"This is the third in O'Reilly's series of landmark Perl tutorials, which includes Learning Perl, the introduction to the basics of Perl syntax, and Intermediate Perl, the guide to creating re-usable Perl software. By conveying Perl's special models and programming idioms, Mastering Perl pulls it all together to help you bend Perl to your will." "This book isn't a collection of clever tricks, but a way of thinking about Perl programming so you can solve real-life problems of debugging, maintenance, and configuration that you encounter as a working programmer." "Mastering Perl starts you on your path to becoming the person with the answers or, failing that, the person who knows how to discover and troubleshoot the problem."--Jacket "Take the next step toward Perl mastery with advanced concepts that make coding easier, maintenance simpler, and execution faster. Mastering Perl isn't a collection of clever tricks, but a way of thinking about Perl programming for solving debugging, configuration, and many other real-world problems you'll encounter as a working programmer. The third in O'Reilly's series of landmark Perl tutorials (after Learning Perl and Intermediate Perl), this fully upated edition pulls everything together and helps you bend Perl to your will."--Publisher's description Presents guidelines on the art of coding with Perl, covering such topics as references and scoping, object-oriented programing, writing and using modules, testing Perl code, and contributing to CPAN. Written by the authors of the bestselling Llama book, Learning Perl, and updated for Perl 5.14, this book offers a gentle but thorough introduction to intermediate programming in Perl. Shows how to write, debug, and run a Perl program, describes CGI scripting and data manipulation, and describes scalar values, basic operators, and associative arrays.