review: modern perl

I've just finished modern perl by chromatic. Everything is right about this book. chromatic and onyx neon have been very generous by providing the text free on github and in pdf format. I bought a paper copy from amazon - I like to buy a copy of texts like this if it is practical since I'm assuming a small profit for the author will motivate more good stuff in the future.

First, I like short technical books. like "javascript the good parts" by Crockford, and "effective perl programming" by Schwartz, this book doesn't bother with the rote documentation filler that most authors regurgitate to get an extra three hundred pages into their volume. chromatic has rightly recognized the need for documentation to accompany wall's "programming perl", not replace it. you can and will finish this book.

I consider myself a competent perl guy, but chromatic introduced me to some great new features in perl's core, and the coverage of moose is excellent.

what I liked best about this book was the section on things to avoid. perl5 has grown some warts given its ripe age, and I had underestimated and misunderstood the disadvantages of certain features such as prototypes and barewords.

last update 2010-11-28