Perl: The Programmer's Companion
Published by John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., 292 pages.
ISBN13: 978-0471975-63-2, ISBN10: 0-471975-63-X
A concise introduction to Perl for programmers familiar with other languages. This book was first published in 1997, so some of its references are inevitably now out of date, but it has remained so popular that it is still available for immediate purchase from amazon and other booksellers now.
Perl is a powerful and flexible programming language. A programmer can easily put together short Perl programs to perform tasks that might otherwise require hours of development effort from a team of specialists – and it′s free! Perl is different in many ways from more conventional languages, and programmers who are used to Java, C or C++ can find its syntax and data types unusual. The Programmer′s Companion is intended to show such programmers the power of Perl and to introduce them to its unique features. Clearly flagged comparisons with other languages help relate Perl′s features to familiar territory. Written in a clear and approachable style, the author′s account of Perl is informed by his extensive knowledge of other programming languages.