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Perl Books

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Note

It is not absolutely necessary to read an organized book, in order to learn Perl. However, occasionally many people like it better than reading an ad hoc tutorial on their computer screens, and then trying to understand the man pages. Here is a list of books that can teach you Perl with some remarks on each book.

Books for Beginners

Modern Perl

A book by chromatic, a well-known Perl programmer, writer, and author, about how to write Perl 5 in a good and modern way. Covers from the basics up to doing object-oriented programming using Moose, and a bit beyond. I've read this book and can recommend it.

The book is available online for free download and viewing and we have a local mirror.

Beginning Perl

This book is intended for people who are new to programming and wish to learn how to program using Perl. Those that already have a past experience in programming, will find it easier, but otherwise, even those without prior experience will be able to learn using it.

The first edition of the book is available online for free download.

Learning Perl

Also referred to as "the Llama Book". Considered one of the best books for people who are absolute beginners in Perl and even in programming in general. This book however, does not cover references, modules, and objects and other important features of the Perl language. As such, you'll usually need to complement your learning by using another resource.

It is also not intended for people who are absolute beginners in programming.

Available online electronically for a registration as part of O'Reilly's Safari.

Elements of Programming with Perl

A book that teaches Perl for people who have no programming experience. Takes an unusual approach of introducing them to Literate Programming as well, and using it for creating documentation and better organizing the examples.

Books for Those with Previous Programming Knowledge

These books are intended for people with a solid knowledge of programming in at least one other programming language besides Perl, who would like to learn Perl.

Impatient Perl

A book for people who need to learn Perl as soon as possible. Its full text is also available online for free download. We have a local mirror.

Learning Perl the Hard Way

Also intended for people who are already familiar with programming, and want to learn Perl quickly, and is available online for free download.

Perl for C Programmers

This book teaches Perl for experienced C Programmers. It is comprehensive and encompassing and tries to focus on Perl code that resembles C as much as possible. If you don't know C either, it will probably be of little help.