Comments about O'Reilly Media Learning Perl on Win32 Systems:

The closer I was to the end of the book the more disappointed and annoyed I became. The reason: the later chapters were poorly written and not very readable, they seemed to have no connection to the earlier chapters. Here is an example: in Chapter 16, under Opening and Reading Registry Values, the example used Reference, arrow pointer (->), and Object Method. None of these concepts were introduced in previous chapters or explained here. Making things worse, none of these can be found in the index. A few very scatchy descriptions may exist for some (e.g. Reference) in later chapters, but they were not very clear either. It looked like that the chapters were independently written and the authors just didn't bother to correlate the contents. The early chapters were OK. The later chapters need significant improvement for this book to be used as a learning text.

Comments about O'Reilly Media Learning Perl on Win32 Systems:

I am half way through this book now. Although I like this book in general, I hate the part that some of the exercises use the knowledge (as given in the answer section) not introduced in that particular chapter or prior chapters. How can you expect a student to use the knowledge he/she has not learned?

Comments about O'Reilly Media Learning Perl on Win32 Systems:

This book is a good start. I disagree with some of the other reviews. They seem to miss the point. First, I'd like to say that you need to have some programming backround before you start learning Perl. The first chapter is a tough one otherwise. The author does explain things very well, considering the breadth of the subject. If the book gets you to the point where you are convinced that Perl is a good tool, then it has done its job. If you want an exhaustive approach, get Programming Perl.

Yes, the examples are a little lacking. (What do you want - it's 300 pages!). If you want examples, check out the many Perl websites, or get the Perl Cookbook.

In closing, I'd like to say that I love O'Reilly for having produced this book. It takes a pragmatic publisher to aggressively present important and useful subjects, especially given the OS background of Mr. O'Reilly himself. Because of his books, I have learned to value the advantages to the *nix's, without having to blindside myself to the advantages of Windows.

On either OS, Perl is GREAT!

Comments about O'Reilly Media Learning Perl on Win32 Systems:

This book is a good start. I disagree with some of the other reviews. They seem to miss the point. First, I'd like to say that you need to have some programming backround before you start learning Perl. The first chapter is a tough one otherwise. The author does explain things very well, considering the breadth of the subject. If the book gets you to the point where you are convinced that Perl is a good tool, then it has done its job. If you want an exhaustive approach, get Programming Perl.

Yes, the examples are a little lacking. (What do you want - it's 300 pages!). If you want examples, check out the many Perl websites, or get the Perl Cookbook.

In closing, I'd like to say that I love O'Reilly for having produced this book. It takes a pragmatic publisher to aggressively present important and useful subjects, especially given the OS background of Mr. O'Reilly himself. Because of his books, I have learned to value the advantages to the *nix's, without having to blindside myself to the advantages of Windows.

On either OS, Perl is GREAT!

Comments about O'Reilly Media Learning Perl on Win32 Systems:

Well I must say that I am highly disappointed in this book. I was taking an intro to Perl Class in college and this was our text book. I found it very confusing with few real application examples, and it appeared, at times, that the Author's of this book were trying to be too cleaver..verses being clear and concise.

I suppose my largest gripe with this book is that, ( especially for a newbie), it moves from point A to point B without explaining sufficently why you would ever want to do either of them in the first place.

I was hoping to get more out of this book than I did... I would not recommened it for anyone who is just start off. ;0(

Comments about O'Reilly Media Learning Perl on Win32 Systems:

I wanted to use Perl for some repetetive tasks in a Win32 environment, bought this book and got exactely what I wanted and needed. This is not a in-depth description of Perl, it is not a complete programmer's guide. It sets out to learn how to use Perl on Win32, and it delivers just that in a friendly no-nonsense manner. Good reading!

If you are a seasoned UNIX-user or programmer, this book is not what you want -- but then you probably are better off with the Perl Cookbook or all the extensive documentation available on the web. For the rest of us, who just want to learn how get complicated things done in a Win32 environment and has no previous Perl experience: This is a very good book indeed to get you started.