By Jennifer Kyrnin

Dateline: 04/05/99

If you are planning on writing CGIs, the most common language for writing them is Perl. There are many books out there for learning the language and using it for your CGIs. These are my four favorite books on Perl.

Perl in a Nutshell

If you can get only one book on Perl, get this book. While it might not be the best book to learn Perl, it will help you get started, and it is an excellent reference. It will help you get Perl installed, and explain the basics of Perl quickly and concisely. However this is not where the book excels. It is in the clear explanations of the Perl functions (by category and alphabetically), the standard modules, and a whole section on CGI. The CGI section includes using CGI.pm and mod_perl, both very useful for writing CGIs. There is a section on Databases, Network Programming, and Perl/Tk (for writing GUI interfaces in Perl). This book is excellent and although it is a bit dry and difficult for beginners, even a beginner who is willing to expend some energy will get a lot out of this book.

Learning Perl

Your first step is to learn the language, and with this book you will have a strong start. At a little over 270 pages, it is not long enough to be overwhelming, but it is packed with information. You'll learn the history of Perl, where to get it, and a quick overview all in the first chapter. The other chapters cover basic abilities of Perl such as Regular Expressions, Functions, Arrays and Hashes, DBM manipulation, and converting other languages to Perl. In the second edition there is a new chapter devoted to writing CGIs with Perl.

This book is intense, but once you have read through it and tried the exercises you will have a strong background in Perl for writing your Perl scripts. This is a great book for programmers who already know another language and would like to pick up Perl quickly.

Perl for Dummies

If what you're looking at is a more lighthearted approach to learning Perl, then you should check out this book. It teaches the basics of Perl, including where to get it, and how to use it, in a light tone with many jokes and humor. Like all the "Dummies" books, it includes cartoons (by Rich Tennant) that break up the book. This book is designed more for the non-programmer who would like to learn Perl. It discusses some basics of program writing (such as indenting, and naming variables) and then dives deeply into how Perl works, including chapters on controlling your computer, object oriented Perl, and using Perl with XML, email, and the Web.

While seemingly more simple than Learning Perl, this Dummies book covers all you need to know about Perl and you will be writing scripts before you know it. This book is perfect for the average Web Developer who wants to expand his/her skills by learning to read or write CGIs written in Perl.

Programming Perl

Written by the creator of Perl, this book is a comprehensive guide on how to use Perl effectively. If you are already proficient in another programming language and want to learn Perl and be challenged, then this is the perfect book to buy. It covers all the primary elements of Perl, including functions, modules, and regular expressions. This book is also useful for the intermediate Perl writer who is still not confident in the knowledge of all Perl has to offer. As the authors say, "[You are] allowed to have differing skill levels... and to put the language to good use before [you] know the whole language", and this book takes that to heart.

Other Perl and CGI Books

Perl Cookbook
By: Tom Christiansen & Nathan Torkington

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