In 1987, Perl 1.0 changed the world. In the decades since then, the language has grown from a simple tool for system administration somewhere between shell scripting and C programming to a powerful, general purpose language steeped in a rich heritage.
Even so, most Perl 5 programs in the world take far too little advantage of the language. You can write Perl 5 programs as if they were Perl 4 programs (or Perl 3 or 2 or 1), but programs written to take advantage of everything amazing the worldwide Perl 5 community has invented, polished, and discovered are shorter, faster, more powerful, and easier to maintain than their alternatives.
They solve difficult problems with speed and elegance. They take advantage of the CPAN and its unparalleled library of reusable code. They get things done.
This productivity can be yours, whether you've dabbled with Perl for a decade or someone just handed you this book and said "Fix this code by Friday."
Modern Perl is suitable for programmers of every level. It's more than a Perl tutorial-only Modern Perl focuses on Perl 5.12 and 5.14, to demonstrate the latest and most effective time-saving features. Only Modern Perl explains how and why the language works, to let you unlock the full power of Perl.
Hone your skills. Sharpen your knowledge of the tools and techniques that make Perl so effective. Master everything Perl has to offer.
When you have to solve a problem now, reach for Perl. When you have to solve a problem right, reach for Modern Perl.
I think I'll place Modern Perl next to Effective Perl Programming 2nd Edition. I have loads of Perl books. I would not suggest this one for a beginner. Unless they have a sense of art and finesse. I've been using Perl for about seven years. Maybe since 5.8.3? Always with ActivePerl on Windows. Now I'm at 5.12.3. I have Perl things that work. And after reading Modern Perl, I have the desire to try and redo some things better. I'm not a pro Perl programmer. I just like the way Perl does things. I think context and $_ are cool. I think regular expressions make personal computing worthwhile. Since 5.8.3, there have been changes. Good changes. I changed too. I'm self-taught, and write Perl for my own uses, both at home and at work. Mainly for file maintenance and searching web pages. But if you have done your own pre-Perl 5.10 scripts, and would like a sense of where the Perl community has been going, I strongly suggest this book. On page 6, there are three code snippets, labeled "A Perl novice might multiply a list of numbers by three by writing:", then "A Perl adept might write:", and finally, "An experienced Perl hacker might write:". That's why I think Perl is neat. And this book wants to help me enjoy it.
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Overview
In 1987, Perl 1.0 changed the world. In the decades since then, the language has grown from a simple tool for system administration somewhere between shell scripting and C programming to a powerful, general purpose language steeped in a rich heritage.
Even so, most Perl 5 programs in the world take far too little advantage of the language. You can write Perl 5 programs as if they were Perl 4 programs ...