Perl Hacks : Tips & Tools for Programming, Debugging, and Surviving (Hacks)

Intermediate Perl

Perl Best Practices

Wicked Cool Shell Scripts

Perl Testing : A Developer's Notebook

Perl Books

Wicked Cool Perl Scripts : Useful Perl Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems

Format: Paperback
Author: Steve Oualline
ReleaseDate: 15 February, 2006
Publisher: No Starch Press
Rating:

Fun Book For Perl Programmers
Packed with over 300 pages and 47 different examples, this text covers the following chapters:

1. 'Wicked Cool Perl Scripts : Useful Perl Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems' by Steve Oualline is a fun book for Perl programmers that highlight lots of neat little things that can be done with this popular language. General Utilities
2. Website Scripts
3. CGI Debugging
4. CGI Programs
5. Internet Data Mining
6. UNIX Administration
7. Picture Programs
8. Games and Learning Tools

This book won't teach you Perl but this isn't meant to accomplish this. It's just a fun guide for existing Perl programmers that want to learn more exciting things they can accomplish. I feel that this book accomplishes this task perfectly fine and it was an enjoyable read.

**** RECOMMENDED.

Poor riddled with syntax errors
I could have written my own in less time that it took me to fix the errors found in the code. I don't usually feel strong enough to write reviews however don't buy this book unless you want to spend hours debugging someone elses code just for the fun of it. In addition you would expect the downloadable code to work and they don't either. They are not even the same code examples found in the book. Unless you want to pay for the ideas and what modules to use this book is a waste of money.

Cool ideas that can lead you down interesting paths...
. If you have a decent background in Perl and you are looking for practical ideas for scripts, Wicked Cool Perl Scripts by Steve Oualline has a number of benefits to offer..

Contents:
General-Purpose Utilities; Website Management; CGI Debugging; CGI Programs; Internet Data Mining; Unix System Administration; Picture Utilities; Games and Learning Tools; Development Tools; Mapping; Regular Expression Grapher; Index

Each of the chapters includes a number of scripts that are ready to be used and/or modified for your own purposes. The general format is to present the code first, and then tell how to run it, how the module(s) are used in the script, the results you'll see from the script, how it all works, and in some cases how you can hack the script in order to enhance it. On the associated web site, there's also full documentation on the script. So if there's one that you really want to incorporate into your arsenal, you can download it. Makes the book more focused and concise. There were plenty of items in here that piqued my interest, such as the scripts for checking stock quotes and for checking your web site for broken links. There is also a cool script that allows you to search your file systems for duplicate files based on size and a generated checksum. That'd be great for all those sound and video files that look different, but that are duplicates in everything but name.

As with most "recipe"-style books, some people will find a ton of value, and others might not find anything that floats their boat. It's definitely a case of "your mileage may vary". Also, a beginning Perl programmer would be over their head here. You could probably work your way through the code and figure it out, but it would be slow going. But having some background in Perl will allow you to start getting some ideas about potential "wicked cool" scripts that you could use in your toolbox.