Mark T. Bollenbeck said
It was in much better condition that I thought. Never know what to expect, but hey it's worth a chance for a great price. I was surprise to see it was in excellent condition, since it was rated as "very good" condition. It looks like a new book to me. That's why I keep buying "used" books from Amazon.
Amir Aharoni said
This book is not essential, if you already have several years of experience with Perl, if you know who are Damian Conway, Randal Schwartz and Abigail, and if you know the meaning of weird words like CPAN, Perl Monks and "zero-width positive look-ahead assertion".
If you don't know what these things are, then with a little motivation you can find everything about them using Google without the need for this book. If this would be any other book about programming, i'd give it no more than 3 stars.
However, brian d foy's first-person writing style is very readable and enjoyable, which awards this book an extra star, and does make this book a good buy for people who learned the basics from Learning Perl or Programming Perl. Furthermore, as great and relevant as The Camel Book is, its last edition was published in 2000, and it is already a little dated, in terms of both the technology and the culture of Perl, so Mastering Perl is a pretty good way to get up-to-date.
To sum up - while this book is not as essential as Programming Perl, Perl Cookbook or Perl Best Practices, it is certainly up to the high standards set by those O'Reilly titles.
Michael L. Griffin said
This should not be called "Mastering Perl" but rather, "A Bunch Of Perl Stuff We Didn't Know What To Do With So We Put Them In This Book." You will find some interesting things but this book will not help you Master Perl. If you are looking for mastery try "Perl Best Practices",
"Advanced Perl" (1st and 2nd Ed) and "Higher Order Perl."
This book has interesting pieces that you will learn from but it is mis-titled.
Daniel McKinnon said
'Mastering Perl' is another gem in the line of O'Reilly Perl books that hav continued to set the standard for over a decade now. From the original Perl references that simply discussed the language from the basics of variable declaration to the most complicated ways you can use Perl, O'Reilly has continued to add more and more and more. Many new revisions and editions to the original Perl books were made, 'Learning Perl' was released and now 'Mastering Perl'. Is this too many books, is this simply a cash cow from O'Reilly? Yes and NO. Obviously publishers are here to try and make money, but this isn't a book that was just released for the sake of releasing it. I feel that 'Mastering Perl' is a fine addition to this line of books and well worth picking up for all serious Perl programmers. I feel that any book which builds on your programming skills and you can get something new from is worth the time and effort to read and learn from. This book is a welcome edition and I still feel that the Perl line of books (O'Reilly's original bread and butter) is the best the company has and it's a solid effort. If you want to go beyond the basics and sponge out even more goodies from this great language, pick this 300+ page book up today, kick back and become the best Perl developer that you can!!
***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
joshSVUG said
The journey to mastering Perl requires at least three (3) steps :)
One optional route would be to read:
1) Learning Perl
2) Intermediate Perl... and finally
3) Mastering Perl
brian d foy mentions in his introduction and appendix A that the path to mastery involves learning from many people... and to learn from brian is an advantage. Appendix A is a list of Further Reading and by following up on many of these compounds the effect of the book. You get the bang for your buck.
Chapter 3 on Secure Programming Techniques is helpful because it places the topic front and center. This topic should find its way downstream into Learning Perl to encourage secure programming as early as possible.
I found immediate value in the chapters on benchmarking, profiling (especially DBI profiling) and logging. The chapters on Cleaning Up Perl (chapter 7: perltidy and de-obfuscation) and Configuring Perl (chapter 11: dealing with switches) are a great recap of material critical for "creating professional programs with Perl".
PS - My personal route to mastering Perl had a required stop at "Programming the Perl DBI".
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