Perl Best Practices

I have to agree with the previous reviewers that this book will seriously change the way you code Perl. Having read this you will write more readable, more maintainable, more thoughtful, better documented (and better self-documenting) code... and this in addition to learning techniques to simply writing *better* code.

Use the downloadable files to amend your Emacs/Vim config to the PBP way, and run all your pre-release code through perltidy and Perl::Critic (using the PBP theme) and you will wonder why you ever released those un-readable, "I'm pretty sure I understood what I was doing when I wrote this", scripts/modules in the past.

Yet another classic from the O'Reilly stables.

Best Perl book ever (3/3 people found this helpful)

Not only the best Perl book I've ever read, it's also one of the best programming language books, period.

If you've ever programmed C++ or Java, you'll know how revered the likes of Effective C++ and Effective Java are, a series of tips, suggestions, idioms, advice and commandments. This is the equivalent for Perl, except it's even more thorough and covers even more ground, from brace layout and statement formatting, to regexes, unit testing, documentation and command line parsing.

There's also an exceptionally good chapter on object orientation, wherein author Damian Conway guides the reader through the use of his own Class::Std module. If you're using objects in Perl, and you're still rolling your own, you're really making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself. Class::Std provides object features reminiscent of CLOS, and makes Perl competitive with the likes of Python and Ruby when it comes to objects. Class::Std has changed the way I code Perl forever, and I know I'm not the only one. Seriously, this chapter is worth the price of admission on it own.

It's hard to overstate just how much excellent stuff there is in here, there's even useful emacs and vi settings provided! And I've not even mentioned how well written it is. Damian Conway really does prove himself the master of witty examples.

Perl Best Practices is just brilliant. Absolutely essential reading - don't code Perl without it.

Wow (4/11 people found this helpful)

I have been programming computers for the last 22 years. I loved Perl from the moment I set eyes on it. After I receiving my copy of Damian Conway's new book I love Perl even more.

Damian Conway

Reader Reviews:

No Perl bookshelf should be without it... (0/0 people found this helpful)

Best Perl book ever (3/3 people found this helpful)

Wow (4/11 people found this helpful)

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