Reviews for Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days: Laura Lemay's Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself)

1. Does the job

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2001

   Excellent introductory text. I have very little programming experience and this got the basics over very well, although it tends to be a little repetitive.

   Lots of very clear examples and a nice little summary and workshop at the end of each lession. The CD contained code for everything if you wanted to do things quickly without bothering to type it all in. However, it could be improved by having more NT specific info, such as useful machine/network admin scripts.

2. Not for complete beginners!

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, August 12nd, 2000

   I didn't feel that this book was for complete beginners which have no programming experience what so ever! It, at places went in to too much detail and didn't tell you why many of the functions of perl were there and what they did! This really annoyed me! Some functions were though explained on later days but these were days too late as I wanted to know later on! Although, im sure it would be ok if you had some programming experience!

3. No matter what level you want to use Perl at, get this book!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2000

   Although there is a mass of Perl-related material on the Internet, this books' organisation and structure makes it simple to learn one of the most practical and powerful languages available.

   I personally struggled with the maze of online resources available but with this book I progressed through the first 5 days in only one day. Within a week I'd picked up the basics necessary to create a script that I needed for work.

   The depth and attention to detail lavished on this book really starts to show once you return to it as a reference. As it covers just about everything Perl-related, you can be sure that you'll never need to turn to another Perl book for help again.

4. WOW!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 1999

   i started out knowing a little bit of C, and no perl, at the end of a week (ok, it didn't take me 21 days... sue me), i was fluent enough to get a job as a perl programmer. This is among the best programming books i have ever read. DOWN WITH THE DUMMIES!

5. Easy to read, great for beginners

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 1999

   This book was just what I needed. I've never looked at Perl before so I needed a book that would get me started immediately. This book did just that with clear, thorough explanations and easy to understand examples.

   It is a good all-round book that covers modules, debugging scripts, security, a bit of cgi and a whole range of other useful stuff; I like it because it explains it all! I don't think that I'll need another reference book for Perl, this one seems to cover everything.