Perl Programmer's Interactive Workbook (Interactive Workbook (Prentice Hall))
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Spotlight Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 3.33Customer Rating: 1
Summary: Poorly organized, poorly explained, many errors
Comment: I used this book as the text for a Perl class. While it seems, at first glance, to be set up well to learn Perl (exercises, sample files, etc.), it is actually a very poorly-written text. Lowe routinely alludes to concepts and says "More about that later," making it extremely difficult to learn about single concepts in their entirety. He will also use code to which he has referred briefly or not at all. The index is no help whatsoever; invariably, if you can even find the term you look up, the pages listed in the index only have passing references to the term.
For my money, Sams _Teach Yourself Perl in 24 Hours_ is a far superior book.
Customer Rating: 5
Summary: This book should become the PERL bible
Comment: This book is my first contact with PERL and it is an enchanting experience! Full of wonder...
Customer Rating: 4
Summary: good book - terrible web site
Comment: First let me say that this is a really good book for beginners. I have learned quite a lot during the course of reading this book and have gone from completely clueless to relatively knowledgeable on the subject matter. Mr. Lowe (unlike other authors) has the ability to stay on the level of the target audience rather than throwing in new and confusing concepts without preparing his readers. I applaud his work and will continue to look for more titles bearing his name.
However, on the cover the publishers tout an interactive web site to help you with the learning process. I have used other interactive course books with much success but the Prentice-Hall "Interactive Perl Training" web site is a farce because there isn't much information there that was noted in the book. Although you'll find what you need throughout the Internet by doing some searching, the publishers should probably have this information on their site for you since they appear to be so proud of their "web-charged learning system".
Aside from this complaint, I am very happy to have gotten this book but will have to think twice before getting anything from Prentice-Hall again. My guess is that marketing got a hold of this book thinking that it needed an edge when it didn't need anything but the truth on the cover or better web designers.