Title: Learning Perl
Date: 2021-03-13
Let me start by saying this: fuck the Python, Rust, and Go elitists that I keep
running into. Seriously, it *really* put me off learning those languages for
the most part, just because of how snobbish so many of its fans tend to be.
Meanwhile, Perl's community has been absolutely welcoming and friendly toward
me, and I'm happy to actually be able to say that.
And on that note, I've been trying to learn [Perl][1], and I'm really enjoying
it. I ended up getting copies of several books (some of which are still on
their way, and most of them has been so newbie-friendly that I'm honestly
impressed with how much thought was put into them.
* Learning Perl (4th Ed and 6th Ed)
* Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules (in the mail)
* Intermediate Perl
* Mastering Perl
* Programming Perl (4th Ed)
* Advanced Perl Programming (in the mail)
* Perl Coockbook
* Programming the Perl DBI
* Learning Perl/Tk
* Mastering Perl/Tk (in the mail)
* CGI Programming with Perl
* Perl & LWP (in the mail)
* Perl & XML (in the mail)
* Perl Module Reference Vols 1&2 (in the mail)
* Programming with Perl Modules (in the mail)
* Perl Utilities Guide (in the mail)
Of the list, *Learning Perl* has defintiely exceeded my expectations, most
notably after the disappointments that were *Learning Python* and *Head First
Python*. The latter pushed sharing code on module repos as early as the second
chapter. Meanwhile, [CPAN][2] isn't even mentioned until 15 (of 16) in *Learning
Perl*, and only in pulling down modules, not publishing to the archive.
And that's something rather telling in those books: with Python, outside of Zed
A. Shaw's excellent *Learn Python (3) The Hard Way*, I've never come across a
"beginners" book that didn't push ideologies onto the reader. But with Perl and
Ruby? I rarely see either of their communities and writers pull that kind of
stunt. Same with Lua, come to think of it.
That said, one thing I can happily praise *Learning Perl* for is the excessive
footnotes that the authors put into it, and I mean that in a good way. They use
the footnotes to clarify themselves so as not to take away from the actual text
of the paragraph, and sometimes to make rather chuckle-inducing comments to try
and lighten the mood. And that's something I appreciate, because learning a new
skill can be extremely stressful as it is.
And every explanation has been both thorough and to the point, without so much
fluff or jargon that it throws off my focus. It gives me what I need to know,
and context for that information.
While I'm just starting out, this is the first time I've really gotten a chance
to have *fun* with programming since my short time with PHP back in the day.
Most of the time, it's been too stressful or overly-technical while trying to
just learn the basics. Even *Head First C#* was a bit on the technical side
when I was using that to try and learn Windows application development.
So yeah, Perl has become something to enjoy, no matter what the numerous haters
seem to say about it.
[1]:
https://www.perl.org/
[2]:
https://www.cpan.org/
