[RndTbl] Perl

[Bill Newman]

Thanks to Sean for his Perl talk on Jan 13.

I would like to recommend:
  Perl: The Programmer's Companion by Nigel Chapman, published by Wiley

This book is aimed at programmers and focuses on how you can use Perl to work in familiar "programming idioms", i.e. get the job done.  It makes a useful contrast to Larry Wall's "spare me no details" approach.

He uses formal syntax diagrams for precision.  By page 68 he has described enough of the language to launch into an example of a "single pass recursive descent compiler".  To wit, the translator that converts his personal notation for syntax diagrams into the LaTeX notation that drives Mark Wooding's package for typesetting syntax diagrams.

Obscure enough for you? :=)  It's actually not a difficult read.  He uses the same clear "what you need to know" style to go through Data Structures, Objects, Modules, and other Perl topics that have more detail and variability than you need to know all at once.

Not a reference work but an excellent introduction to the power of Perl.

  Bill
_______________________________________________________________
Bill Newman                            wrnewman at mb.sympatico.ca
Winnipeg Manitoba