All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report
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Ovid (2709)
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Stuff with the Perl Foundation. A couple of patches in the Perl core. A few CPAN modules. That about sums it up.
"PERL in easy steps"
"PERL in easy steps" instructs the reader how to write Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts in the popular Practical Extraction & Reporting Language (PERL). These allow the exchange of data between a web browser and a web server both on Windows platforms and on Unix-based platforms, such as Linux. The book contains exciting chapters on the major features of the PERL language and there are complete example scripts that illustrate each aspect of PERL.
If that doesn't give you an idea of how bad this book is, here are a few choice items from the book which is copyright 2004!
- "for" is for C-style loops and "foreach" is for iterating over arrays.
- Slices? They've been renamed "subarrays" (though the word "slice" is correctly used in other parts of the book).
- Matt's Script Archive is one of the top three recommended PERL (sic) resources.
- What's "strict"?
- Who cares if open FH, $file succceeded?
- CGI.pm? Nah! This book includes its own lightweight and buggy form parser.
- I found no mention of security (that include taint mode).
- Standard web form counter errors (race condition).
- Incorrect use of "flock" (race condition).
- It's real fun reading <a href="http://localhost/cgi-bin/hello.pl">Click</a>
- Why are we explaining "pack" to new programmers?
And to really get your blood boiling, from page 84 of my edition:
Like other functions a PERL subroutine can be passed a value as an argument from the caller.
The argument as usual is contained in regular brackets that follow the subroutine name in a function call.
PERL automatically stores the arguments passed in a special array called the "underscore array" - which is addressed as "@_".
The first argument value is placed in the underscore array's first element and can be referenced with the syntax "@_[0]".
Yes, conventional wisdom is correct. PERL (sic) is line noise.
And for creating "library files":
The subroutines in a PERL script may be placed in a separate file called a library. Library files are text files that contain the subroutines and normally have the ".lib" file extension.
Of course, since the author never mentions namespaces, the subroutines in a "Library file" are all in package "main" and you can use them with this handy syntax:
#!/usr/bin/perl
require "subs.lib";
&mimetype;
&dochead("Subroutines Library");
&start_table;
...
Why don't you give the publisher some feedback?
I pour myself a cup of strong coffee. :-)
-- Jarkko Hietaniemi
PERL! (Score:1)
Re:PERL! (Score:2)
But you might be able to use PERL to write Php scripts.
Re:PERL! (Score:1)
Impressive! (Score:2)
It's the same kind of feeling I get when I see someone without arms and legs, who is blind and deaf. I really do wonder how the author of this book manages to live with such a huge handicap. Not even the combination of great stupidity and even greater ignorance could stop him fr
Example code (Score:1)
Oh, the horror! Ovid, I curse you for exposing me to this evil. I want my ignorant bliss back.
Chris
Re: "PERL in easy steps" (Score:2)
I left a comment on the book's feedback page and I got a response from the author which pretty much missed all of the points you've made. I've send another, more detailed, reply. I'll let you know how it goes.
Re: "PERL in easy steps" (Score:2)
I received a reply, too. I'm rather disturbed at how blithely the author took the my commentary though I must say that I was happy the publisher took the report seriously enough to contact the author.
Re: "PERL in easy steps" (Score:1)
I emailed the publisher explaining that none of the best practices that have come about in the last ten years were included in the book, etc. I got the following paraphrased response from the author:
Re: "PERL in easy steps" (Score:2)
OK, that's very interesting. You see, that's the exact same response I received. I wonder if the publisher is lying?
Re: "PERL in easy steps" (Score:1)
Yes, that's exactly what I received. From Harshad Kotecha.
It might not be the publisher who's lying. It might be that the author has a canned response to any criticism brought to him from someone who knows what they're talking about.
Who knows? The response to me looked genuine enough. It's definately shoddy work to send the same response to two different letters presumably bringing up somewhat different issues!