Perl For Dummies (eBook)

In the days before personal computers, BASIC was the easy
programming language to learn, and serious programmers learned
FORTRAN or COBOL to do "real work." Today, many people
have discovered that Perl is both a great beginning programming
language and one that enables them to write powerful programs
with little effort.

If you're interested in discovering how to program (or how
others program), Perl For Dummies, 4th Edition, is for you.
If you already know something about programming (but not about
Perl), this book is also for you. If you're already an expert
programmer, you're still welcome to read this book; you can
just skip the basic stuff (you never know what kind of new tips and
tricks you'll pick up).

This reference guide shows you how to use Perl under many
different operating systems, such as UNIX, many flavors of Windows
(Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Me, and Windows
XP), and Macintosh OS 9 and OS X; in fact, Perl runs on many more
operating systems than these.

Here's a sampling of what Perl For Dummies, 4th Edition,
has to offer:

* Installing Perl on various platforms

* Nailing down the basics of building Perl programs

* Working with text and numbers

* Constructing lists and working with them

* Creating conditionals and loops

* Delving into more advanced features such as operators and
functions

* Reading and writing files and directories

* Using subroutines for modularity

* Demystifying Web server programs

* Creating your own Internet clients

The Perl programming language enables you to write fully working
computer programs with just a few steps. It's particularly
good at common programming tasks, such as reading and writing text
files, but it also excels at reducing the work that programmers
have to do. Perl For Dummies, 4th Edition, shows you how to
do all of that and how to modify programs to your heart's
content. After all, one of the common phrases in the world of Perl
programmers is, "There's more than one way to do
it."