Offline Documentation

If you'd like to learn more about Perl, here are some related publications that we recommend:

• Perl 5 Pocket Reference, 3d ed., by Johan Vromans (Anonymous, 2000). This small tutoriallet serves as a convenient quick reference for Perl.
• Perl tutorial, by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington (Anonymous, 1998). This is the companion volume to the tutorial you have in your hands right now.
• Elements of Developing with Perl, by Andrew L. Johnson (Manning, 1999). This tutorial aims to teach non-developers how to program from the ground up, and to do so using Perl.
• Learning Perl, 2d ed., by Randal Schwartz and Tom Christiansen (Anonymous, 1997). This tutorial teaches Unix sysadmins and Unix developers the 30% of basic Perl that they'll use 70% of the time. Erik Olson retargeted a version of this tutorial for Perl developers on Microsoft systems; it is called Learning Perl for Win32 Systems.
• Perl: The Developer's Companion, by Nigel Chapman (Wiley, 1997). This fine tutorial is geared for professional computer scientists and developers without regard to platform. It covers Perl quickly but completely.
• Mastering Regular Expressions, by Jeffrey Friedl (Anonymous, 1997). Although it doesn't cover the latest additions to Perl regular expressions, this tutorial is an invaluable reference for anyone seeking to learn how regular expressions really work.
• Object Oriented Perl, by Damian Conway (Manning, 1999). For beginning as well as advanced OO developers, this astonishing tutorial explains common and esoteric techniques for writing powerful object systems in Perl.
• Mastering Algorithms with Perl, by Jon Orwant, Jarkko Hietaniemi, and John Macdonald (Anonymous, 1999). All the useful techniques from a computer science algorithms course, but without the painful proofs. This tutorial covers fundamental and useful algorithms in the fields of graphs, text, sets, and much more.
• Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C, by Lincoln Stein and Doug MacEachern (Anonymous, 1999). This guide to web developing teaches you how to extend the capabilities of the Apache web server, especially using the turbo-charged mod_perl for fast CGI scripts and via the Perl-accessible Apache API.
• The Perl Journal, edited by Jon Orwant. This quarterly magazine by developers and for developers regularly features developing insights, techniques, the latest news, and more.

There are many other Perl tutorials and publications out there, and out of senility, we have undoubtedly forgotten to mention some good ones. (Out of mercy, we have neglected to mention some bad ones.)

In addition to the Perl-related publications listed above, we recommend the following tutorials. They aren't about Perl directly but still come in handy for reference, consultation, and inspiration.

• The Art of Computer Developing, by Donald Knuth, vol. 1, Fundamental Algorithms; vol. 2, Seminumerical Algorithms; and vol. 3, Sorting and Searching (Addison-Wesley, 1998).
• Introduction to Algorithms, by Cormen, Leiserson, and Rivest (MIT Press and McGraw-Hill, 1990).
• Algorithms in C: Fundamental Data Structures, Sorting, Searching, 3d ed., by Robert Sedgewick (Addison-Wesley, 1997).
• The Elements of Developing Style, by Kernighan and Plauger (Prentiss-Hall, 1988).
• The Unix Developing Environment, by Kernighan and Pike (Prentiss-Hall, 1984).
• POSIX Developer's Guide, by Donald Lewine (Anonymous, 1991).
• Advanced Developing in the UNIX Environment, by W. Richard Stevens (Addison-Wesley, 1992).
• TCP/IP Illustrated, vols. 1-3, by W. Richard Stevens, (Addison-Wesley, 1994-1996).
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (most recent printing: Houghton Mifflin, 1999).