There is an increasing need for more advanced information about how to write the most effective Perl scripts. This book shows in sixty concise and direct lessons how to tackle and solve common programming obstacles. Effective Perl Programming explains idiomatic Perl, covering the latest release (Version 5), and includes information and useful examples about the structure, functions, and latest capabilities of the language, such as self-documenting object-oriented modules. You can also learn from Hall's answers to real life questions and problems he receives from newsgroups and his Perl seminars.

Joseph N. Hall is a software designer with interests in object-oriented languages, compilers, and graphical user interfaces. He teaches Perl and World Wide Web classes in association with Stonehenge Consulting, a leading provider of Perl Instruction.

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I used to write a lot of C and C++. My last major project before stepping into the world of Perl full time was an interpreted language that, among other things, drew diagrams, computed probabilities, and generated entire FrameMaker books. It comprised over 50,000 lines of platform-independent C++, and it had all kinds of interesting internal features. It was a fun project. It also took two years to write. It seems to me that most interesting projects in C and/or C++ take months or years to complete. But it also seems to me that a whole lot of ideas that start out being mundane and uninteresting become interesting three-month projects when they are expressed in an ordinary high-level language. This is one of the reasons why I originally became interested in Perl. I had heard that Perl was an excellent scripting language with powerful string handling, regular expression, and process control features. I learned Perl, and learned to like it, when I was thrown into a project in which most of my work involved slinging around text files. I quickly found myself spending hours writing Perl programs that would have taken me days or weeks to write in a different language. Who should read this book Effective Perl Programmingis a book of advice and examples. It derives from my experience as a Perl programmer and--especially--as a Perl instructor. The book is suitable for readers who have a basic understanding of Perl and a few months of practical experience programming in it. Because Effective Perl Programmingis a guidebook, not a manual, readers will need access to a comprehensive reference. I recommend either the Perl man pages (freely available in many forms, including Unix man and HTML) or Programming Perl. Although I use a lot of Unix-derived examples in this book, most of what appears here is not specific to Unix. I thought about including Win32 Perl and MacPerl examples but eventually decided that the book would have more integrity and consistency if it didn''t stray from Perl''s "native" operating system. I do encourage non-Unix developers to read Effective Perl Programming, or at least to give it a careful look. How and why I wrote this book I''ve always wanted to be a writer. In childhood I was obsessed with science fiction. I read constantly, sometimes three paperbacks a day, and every so often, wrote some (bad) stories myself. In 1985, I attended the Clarion Science Fiction Writers'' workshop in East Lansing, Michigan. Afterward, I spent a year or so occasionally working on short story manuscripts, but never published any fiction. (Not yet, anyway!) Later on, when I had settled down into a career in software, I met Randal Schwartz. I hired him as a contractor on an engineering project and worked with him for over a year. Eventually he left to pursue teaching Perl full time. After a while, so did I. In May 1996, I had a conversation with Keith Wollman at a developer''s conference in San Jose. When we drifted onto the topic of Perl, he asked me what I would think of a book called Effective Perl. I liked the idea. Scott Meyers''s Effective C++was one of my favorite books on C++, and extending the series to cover Perl would obviously be useful. I couldn''t get Keith''s idea out of my head. With some help from Randal, I worked out a proposal for the book, and Addison-Wesley accepted it. The rest--well, that was the fun part. I spent many 12-hour days and nights with FrameMaker in front of the computer screen, asked lots of annoying questions on the Perl 5 Porters list, posted many bug reports to the same list, looked through dozens of books and manuals, wrote many, many little snippets of Perl code, and drank many, many cans of Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi. I even had an occasional epiphany as I discovered very basic things about Perl I had never realized I was missing. After a while, a manuscript emerged. This book is my attempt to share with the rest of you some of the fun and stimulation I experienced while learning the power of Perl. I certainly appreciate you taking the time to read it, and I hope you will find it useful and enjoyable. Joseph N. Hall Chandler, Arizona 0201419750P04062001