What's the best book to read for a beginner in order to learn PERL?

Question

I'm a novice web designer and the biggest complaint I get is that the sites I make are kinda hard to update, so I want to learn PERL so I can make simple content management systems. Any ideas on how I can accomplish this? Is PERL the best way to go? I can really use some help with this problem, I'm totally lost.

Answer 1

I'd recommend the book "Perl: The Complete Reference" by Martin C. Brown



http://www.amazon.com/Perl-Complete-Reference-Martin-Brown/dp/0072129506



At least I've learned Perl using that book.



Perl is a scripting language that is as good as any, so you will surely find a job with that. And yes, you can make CMSs with it.



PHP is much easier than Perl and it's more oriented towards the Web, so you might want to learn that instead. They both have a similar syntax, except while Perl uses $, @ and % for variables, PHP uses only $



Writing a CMS is a bit difficult, you shouldn't start with that if you've never programmed before. First write a Hello World program, then write a simple web form where you calculate the sum of two numbers... start simple!

Answer 2

Perl or PHP, yeah. But by the sound of it you've never programmed in either language, so good luck writing a "simple" content management system!



If you have any programming background at all, you should find the Perl manpages have everything you need. "man perlfunc"



Perl's greatest strength lays in regexps (regular expressions). If you master those you can achieve just about anything.



With no disrespect whatsoever, I honestly think you're about to bite off WAY more than you can chew. Even a "simple" CMS isn't so simple. If you seriously want one, get in touch with an experienced programmer, at least to talk it through with them.

Answer 3

Programming Perl, Third Edition by Perl creator Larry Wall

Answer 4

I would imagine that you could use any number of languages to accomplish a content management system. The company I work for is quite large and has been quite successful using Perl to do all of the back end processing, such as content management. I have included a number of sites that might get you started. All of our developers use the O'Reilly books for learning as well as reference (link included below).