perl

Perl Best Practices
$40.00
I came to perl from a C++ background, and was initially horrified by the aspects of perl that control-freak-language developers usually are. However, after using it on and off for a couple of years it became my language of choice because it's so quick and easy to do things that just take too much coding in other languages. (As a friend of mine said who kept pushing me to get used to perl, "Yes, Dave, perl *is* the dark side, but once you go there you'll never want to go back...")

Being A Good Developer I have purchased a number of perl books, and several of those have been useful. The problem is that there's a tremendous amount to remember, especially if you're not coding 100% in perl, especially since encyclopediac reference books just don't have time for the 'why' aspect.

This book excels in a few important ways:

1) There's always a 'why' given, and the right way and the wrong way are contrasted. This makes it, for me, far easier to remember things. It helps that the author uses English very well, and I virtually never find myself wondering what he meant. (In too many programming books, there's just not enough editing of the explanations, and very poor English.)

2) While I don't always agree with the author's best practices, most of the time I do, and he always makes his case well.

3) He shows both 'before and after' code, and gets the amount of code needed to make the point exactly right. I almost never find myself flipping past over-long examples, nor do I find myself not getting things because he's too concise.

This book was both highly useful and a pleasure to read. (Perl is indeed the dark side, but now I revel in the dark side.)

Intermediate Perl
$39.99
This is a great reference book for Perl. Combine this with the Perl Cookbook and you have your tools to tackle your Perl coding tasks. Great book.

Perl Cookbook, Second Edition
$49.95
I liked the book from the minute I started reading. It's written in an easy and understandable manner, and the "cooking recipies" highlight a lot of common questions a typical programmer has when dealing with perl.

Unfortunately it has become a bit dated, and it could do with an update about more modern ways to to things (like e.g. OO with Moose).

Sams Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days (2nd Edition)
$49.99
This isn't bad. I think it moves kinda fast, but that may just be me. This is seriously the only presentation of the subject matter that I'd consider reading to completion. This is a good introduction to Perl and a good reference for the future.