xref: /openbsd/gnu/usr.bin/perl/pod/perlbook.pod (revision 73471bf0) 
1=head1 NAME
2
3perlbook - Books about and related to Perl
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7There are many books on Perl and Perl-related. A few of these are
8good, some are OK, but many aren't worth your money. There is a list
9of these books, some with extensive reviews, at
10L<https://www.perl.org/books/library.html> . We list some of the books here, and while
11listing a book implies our
12endorsement, don't think that not including a book means anything.
13
14Most of these books are available online through Safari Books Online
15( L<http://safaribooksonline.com/> ).
16
17=head2 The most popular books
18
19The major reference book on Perl, written by the creator of Perl, is
20I<Programming Perl>:
21
22=over 4
23
24=item I<Programming Perl> (the "Camel Book"):
25
26 by Tom Christiansen, brian d foy, Larry Wall with Jon Orwant
27 ISBN 978-0-596-00492-7 [4th edition February 2012]
28 ISBN 978-1-4493-9890-3 [ebook]
29 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596004927
30
31=back
32
33The Ram is a cookbook with hundreds of examples of using Perl to
34accomplish specific tasks:
35
36=over 4
37
38=item I<The Perl Cookbook> (the "Ram Book"):
39
40 by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
41 with Foreword by Larry Wall
42 ISBN 978-0-596-00313-5 [2nd Edition August 2003]
43 ISBN 978-0-596-15888-0 [ebook]
44 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003135/
45
46=back
47
48If you want to learn the basics of Perl, you might start with the
49Llama book, which assumes that you already know a little about
50programming:
51
52=over 4
53
54=item I<Learning Perl>  (the "Llama Book")
55
56 by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy
57 ISBN 978-1-4493-0358-7 [6th edition June 2011]
58 ISBN 978-1-4493-0458-4 [ebook]
59 https://www.learning-perl.com/
60
61=back
62
63The tutorial started in the Llama continues in the Alpaca, which
64introduces the intermediate features of references, data structures,
65object-oriented programming, and modules:
66
67=over 4
68
69=item I<Intermediate Perl> (the "Alpaca Book")
70
71 by Randal L. Schwartz and brian d foy, with Tom Phoenix
72         foreword by Damian Conway
73 ISBN 978-1-4493-9309-0 [2nd edition August 2012]
74 ISBN 978-1-4493-0459-1 [ebook]
75 https://www.intermediateperl.com/
76
77=back
78
79=head2 References
80
81You might want to keep these desktop references close by your keyboard:
82
83=over 4
84
85=item I<Perl 5 Pocket Reference>
86
87 by Johan Vromans
88 ISBN 978-1-4493-0370-9 [5th edition July 2011]
89 ISBN 978-1-4493-0813-1 [ebook]
90 https://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920018476/
91
92=item I<Perl Debugger Pocket Reference>
93
94 by Richard Foley
95 ISBN 978-0-596-00503-0 [1st edition January 2004]
96 ISBN 978-0-596-55625-9 [ebook]
97 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596005030/
98
99=item I<Regular Expression Pocket Reference>
100
101 by Tony Stubblebine
102 ISBN 978-0-596-51427-3 [2nd edition July 2007]
103 ISBN 978-0-596-55782-9 [ebook]
104 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514273/
105
106=back
107
108=head2 Tutorials
109
110=over 4
111
112=item I<Beginning Perl>
113
114(There are 2 books with this title)
115
116 by Curtis 'Ovid' Poe
117 ISBN 978-1-118-01384-7
118 http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/productCd-1118013840.html
119
120 by James Lee
121 ISBN 1-59059-391-X [3rd edition April 2010 & ebook]
122 https://www.apress.com/9781430227939
123
124=item I<Learning Perl> (the "Llama Book")
125
126 by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy
127 ISBN 978-1-4493-0358-7 [6th edition June 2011]
128 ISBN 978-1-4493-0458-4 [ebook]
129 https://www.learning-perl.com/
130
131=item I<Intermediate Perl> (the "Alpaca Book")
132
133 by Randal L. Schwartz and brian d foy, with Tom Phoenix
134         foreword by Damian Conway
135 ISBN 978-1-4493-9309-0 [2nd edition August 2012]
136 ISBN 978-1-4493-0459-1 [ebook]
137 https://www.intermediateperl.com/
138
139=item I<Mastering Perl>
140
141    by brian d foy
142 ISBN 9978-1-4493-9311-3 [2st edition January 2014]
143 ISBN 978-1-4493-6487-8 [ebook]
144 https://www.masteringperl.org/
145
146=item I<Effective Perl Programming>
147
148 by Joseph N. Hall, Joshua A. McAdams, brian d foy
149 ISBN 0-321-49694-9 [2nd edition 2010]
150 https://www.effectiveperlprogramming.com/
151
152=back
153
154=head2 Task-Oriented
155
156=over 4
157
158=item I<Writing Perl Modules for CPAN>
159
160 by Sam Tregar
161 ISBN 1-59059-018-X [1st edition August 2002 & ebook]
162 https://www.apress.com/9781590590188
163
164=item I<The Perl Cookbook>
165
166 by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
167     with Foreword by Larry Wall
168 ISBN 978-0-596-00313-5 [2nd Edition August 2003]
169 ISBN 978-0-596-15888-0 [ebook]
170 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003135/
171
172=item I<Automating System Administration with Perl>
173
174 by David N. Blank-Edelman
175 ISBN 978-0-596-00639-6 [2nd edition May 2009]
176 ISBN 978-0-596-80251-6 [ebook]
177 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596006396
178
179=item I<Real World SQL Server Administration with Perl>
180
181 by Linchi Shea
182 ISBN 1-59059-097-X [1st edition July 2003 & ebook]
183 https://www.apress.com/9781590590973
184
185=back
186
187=head2 Special Topics
188
189=over 4
190
191=item I<Regular Expressions Cookbook>
192
193 by Jan Goyvaerts and Steven Levithan
194 ISBN 978-1-4493-1943-4 [2nd edition August 2012]
195 ISBN 978-1-4493-2747-7 [ebook]
196 https://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920023630.do
197
198=item I<Programming the Perl DBI>
199
200 by Tim Bunce and Alligator Descartes
201 ISBN 978-1-56592-699-8 [February 2000]
202 ISBN 978-1-4493-8670-2 [ebook]
203 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565926998
204
205=item I<Perl Best Practices>
206
207 by Damian Conway
208 ISBN 978-0-596-00173-5 [1st edition July 2005]
209 ISBN 978-0-596-15900-9 [ebook]
210 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596001735
211
212=item I<Higher-Order Perl>
213
214 by Mark-Jason Dominus
215 ISBN 1-55860-701-3 [1st edition March 2005]
216 free ebook https://hop.perl.plover.com/book/
217 https://hop.perl.plover.com/
218
219=item I<Mastering Regular Expressions>
220
221 by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl
222 ISBN 978-0-596-52812-6 [3rd edition August 2006]
223 ISBN 978-0-596-55899-4 [ebook]
224 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596528126
225
226=item I<Network Programming with Perl>
227
228 by Lincoln Stein
229 ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001]
230 https://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/product/Network-Programming-with-Perl/9780201615715.page
231
232=item I<Perl Template Toolkit>
233
234 by Darren Chamberlain, Dave Cross, and Andy Wardley
235 ISBN 978-0-596-00476-7 [December 2003]
236 ISBN 978-1-4493-8647-4 [ebook]
237 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596004767
238
239=item I<Object Oriented Perl>
240
241 by Damian Conway
242     with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz
243 ISBN 1-884777-79-1 [1st edition August 1999 & ebook]
244 https://www.manning.com/conway/
245
246=item I<Data Munging with Perl>
247
248 by Dave Cross
249 ISBN 1-930110-00-6 [1st edition 2001 & ebook]
250 https://www.manning.com/cross
251
252=item I<Mastering Perl/Tk>
253
254 by Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh
255 ISBN 978-1-56592-716-2 [1st edition January 2002]
256 ISBN 978-0-596-10344-6 [ebook]
257 https://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565927162
258
259=item I<Extending and Embedding Perl>
260
261 by Tim Jenness and Simon Cozens
262 ISBN 1-930110-82-0 [1st edition August 2002 & ebook]
263 https://www.manning.com/jenness
264
265=item I<Pro Perl Debugging>
266
267 by Richard Foley with Andy Lester
268 ISBN 1-59059-454-1 [1st edition July 2005 & ebook]
269 https://www.apress.com/9781590594544
270
271=back
272
273=head2 Free (as in beer) books
274
275Some of these books are available as free downloads.
276
277I<Higher-Order Perl>: L<https://hop.perl.plover.com/>
278
279I<Modern Perl>: L<http://onyxneon.com/books/modern_perl/>
280
281=head2 Other interesting, non-Perl books
282
283You might notice several familiar Perl concepts in this collection of
284ACM columns from Jon Bentley. The similarity to the title of the major
285Perl book (which came later) is not completely accidental:
286
287=over 4
288
289=item I<Programming Pearls>
290
291 by Jon Bentley
292 ISBN 978-0-201-65788-3 [2 edition, October 1999]
293
294=item I<More Programming Pearls>
295
296 by Jon Bentley
297 ISBN 0-201-11889-0 [January 1988]
298
299=back
300
301=head2 A note on freshness
302
303Each version of Perl comes with the documentation that was current at
304the time of release. This poses a problem for content such as book
305lists. There are probably very nice books published after this list
306was included in your Perl release, and you can check the latest
307released version at L<https://perldoc.perl.org/perlbook.html> .
308
309Some of the books we've listed appear almost ancient in internet
310scale, but we've included those books because they still describe the
311current way of doing things. Not everything in Perl changes every day.
312Many of the beginner-level books, too, go over basic features and
313techniques that are still valid today. In general though, we try to
314limit this list to books published in the past five years.
315
316=head2 Get your book listed
317
318If your Perl book isn't listed and you think it should be, let us know.
319L<mailto:perl5-porters@perl.org>
320
321=cut
322