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All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

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  • I think it'd be neat if we could also rate books grouped into a single unit (the obvious example would be a package composed of Learning Perl, Programming Perl and Perl Pocket Reference, by O'Reilly).
  • At the Apprenticeship Hour at YAPC::NA last year, Uri Guttman asked for help in developing books.perl.org for this sort of purpose.
    • Ah, yes,

      I do recall that.

      I'm kind of split between wanting it here on use perl, which is sort of an existing community hub, or on books.perl.org, because it deserves its own site. For various reasons which may become apparent later, I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment.

      -dave
      • The good thing about doing it on use Perl is you already have the usersin the database with access etc. It's up to whoever wants to do it; if you want to do it on use.perl.org, I can help you do it. books.perl.org could redirect to use.perl.org etc. too. But if you have other plans, go for it.
        • Yep, I thought of that too. It'd be one less login for people to deal with, which is nice. OTOH, it might be a conflict if we wanted to give me admin access to the books stuff, but not the rest of use Perl (I don't know how fine-grained the access controls are).
          • I'd have no problem giving you admin access.
            • Well _I_, of course, am a paragon of trustworthiness! But there are some shady characters like that Uri Guttman fellow who might be considered for admin duties related to book things as well. But you have to keep that guy on a _very_ tight leash!

              (I'm joking, for those who aren't sure)

              More seriously, I was thinking generally about whether we'd want to require a 100% overlap between having admin powers for book stuff and admin powers for use Perl in general. I, being a paranoid sort, tend to favor isol
              • There is some support in Slash for ACLs, but I've never used it. If necessary, it could be used, and if it needs some work, I could make it work. So no worries. :)
    • What about using something PODish for inline book reviews in the online journals? =bookreview Core Perl This book ruined my recent Jamaican vacation. I couldn't but it down ... yada yada =cut You could always parse and export to books.perl.org if/when put into production. Spearhead the semantic web with simplistic inline comments. WOOHOO!
      • (cursed submit button)

        What about using something PODish for inline book reviews in the online journals?

        =bookreview Core Perl This book ruined my recent Jamaican vacation. I couldn't but it down ... yada yada

        =cut

        You could always parse and export to books.perl.org if/when put into production. Spearhead the semantic web with simplistic inline comments. WOOHOO!
        • Well, it would require a fairly complex bit of POD (title, edition, author(s), publisher, categories, rating, etc).

          And people'd screw it up (or forget about it) on a regular basis. With a nice simple set of web forms it'd be easy to add info.

  • How about doing a Google search on 'perl book reviews' [google.com]?

    ...to name a few.

    Note to Pudge: I like the poll idea, though. Example:

    • "Programming the Perl DBI"
      • Two Snaps And A Twist
      • Haaaaated iiiiiiiit
      • Cowboy Neal

    Question for Pudge: What if people just sent you reviews via a story submission? I don't care as much about an N year old review about

    • I know you can find reviews out there. But these are generally all a single person's reviews.

      My idea was that it'd be nice to:

      A) Be able to see what others in the Perl community are reading (and not just Perl books, but other programming/tech books, design books, whatever).

      B) Be able to see how much people liked certain books. Book X has a rating of 7.8 out of 10, with 200 votes is useful info, though I'd still like to hear that some particular person I trust liked it (but that would be there too, i

      • I'd still like to hear that some particular person I trust liked it

        I thought that books.perl.org would be the logical place for a community book review site. With this added request / requirement / feature, I'm not so sure.

        Since slash now offers the friend/foe feature, a slash plugin on use.perl seems more reasonable. How difficult would it be to note that 200 people liked a particular book, including 8 of my friends? Conversely, showing that 8 of my friends liked a book while 12 disliked it would

      • Strangely enough, Amazon already does these things for you...

        A) Be able to see what others in the Perl community are reading (and not just Perl books, but other programming/tech books, design books, whatever).

        ..."Customers who bought this book also bought:". If that's not enough, follow the link that says "Explore similar items". If that's not enough, click on "More Results". Read the reviews of each title you are interested in along the way. Read the "Customers who bought this book also bought"

        • Gee, much as I love Amazon ...

          Wait, I really dislike Amazon, both for their patent strategy and even more so for their union-busting.

          Yes, I know Amazon does this. But I want a community site for this. A site run by a commercial interest for commercial purposes (i.e. to make Amazon, Inc. more money) is not appropriate.

          That's probably one of the reasons we have dbi@perl.org instead of dbi@yahoogroups.com, for example. Or why Ask and I bothered creating jobs.perl.org instead of telling everybody to go
            • Now, now. Let's be fair here.

              You and Dave are looking at the "criteria" for evaluating "requirements" for books.perl.org with a host of unstated goals in mind.

              Just because Amazon provides a zero-cost solution does not make it optimal.

              Just because *.perl.org requires sweat equity to work does not make it "more costly". (Especially if Dave is looking for his next Mason/Slash project. ;-)

        • Strangely enough, Amazon already does these things for you...
          Amazon even provides you with the means to manage your list of trusted reviewers, called the Favorite People List.

          Perhaps, but I've got to agree with autarch, mjd and numerous other Perl people on this one: Amazon isn't where this belongs.

          Amazon can't be reasonably expected to create anything other than a community of book/stuff buyers. That's their goal, not ours, and they're certainly within their rights to try and create the best buye

        • I've covered this in journals passim. The problem with the Amazon review and rating system is that people who don't know what they're talking about, use it.

          Now I really don't want to come across as an intellectual snob, but I'd far rather read the reviews and ratings of the people who's opinions I respect.

          For example, currently Programming Perl [amazon.com] has 45 reviews and an average rating of 4.5 stars, but CGI Programming 101 [amazon.com] has 43 reviews and also 4.5 stars. Even Matt Wright's book [amazon.com] manages and average ratin

          • I agree! I don't know where I'd be without Matt Wright's CGI/Perl Cookbook. It even taught me how to develop custom subroutine libraries for my CGI programs, and comes absolutely packed with ready-to-use CGI programs to add interactivity to my web site!
    • Yes, we can do book reviews. It's best to contact me before submitting one, to make sure we're on the same page, though (don't go through all the work for nothing).

  • The trainers list recently chewed a guy a new ass for having a site at perltraining.com as it might be reinventing the wheel of what is dead on mouldering on perl.org. I encouraged this person to continue on anyway.

    If someone wants to do book reviews, LET THEM . Besides, it's usually the people bitching who we can count on not to help in any way.

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