Perl et CGI pour le World Wide Web

by Elizabeth Castro

One of the best things about Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web is the seamless way the author incorporates terminology into her explanations. Elizabeth Castro, author of HTML 4 for the World Wide Web, understands the intermediate user: someone who would be bored by a beginner's guide, but isn't ready to step up to heavy-hitting programming texts either.

In Perl and CGI, she explains basic concepts--such as the difference between a compiled and an interpreted script--within the text, so there's no need to keep flipping back to the glossary. Readers should be familiar with HTML and comfortable with technical explanations, diagrams, and general vocabulary.

Anyone trying to get a grasp on something as complex and powerful as Perl will appreciate Castro's relatively straightforward technique. For example, in the first chapter, Castro explains some basic Perl concepts sensibly: that the $ stands for the s in scalar; the @ sign stands for the a in array; and that the % that labels a hash or associative array indicates two circles on each side of the slash as parts of a pair. This granular, logical way of building Perl knowledge will get new Perl users started. More experienced users will want to use this book as a workbook and refresher. --Jennifer Buckendorff

Genres: Reference, Programming, Computers, Nonfiction, Coding, Website Design, Technology

Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

Studied Spanish, Catalan, and Basque at University of Pennsylvania and University of California at Berkeley. Moved to Barcelona in 1987, found job in computer company translating documentation and software. Started Página Uno in 1990: publisher of Mac related books in Spanish. Moved back to US in 1993 to edit 5th edition of The Macintosh Bible. Wrote first edition of HTML Visual QuickStart Guide in 1995, now worldwide bestseller with more than 1 million copies sold in many languages. Also written books on Perl/CGI, XML, Blogger, iPhoto.

Most recently, wrote EPUB Straight to the Point, and accompanying miniguides, to help people publish ebook versions of their books.

Reviews

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good book for beginners or those in the midst of learning PERL and CGI web forms. One of the things I like about the Visual Quickstart series is that they're task based. I need to know how to do X. It walks you through how to do X in very simple language with clear examples. The O'Reilly book is good as a reference if you already know PERL and are an experienced programmer. This saved my behind when I was learning and needed to get a web form up quickly.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used to be the guy that got books for the local Macintosh Users Group in the late 90's. I ended up with a ton of books like this. This was just too nerdy for me. Never really used PERL and CGI ever so it just collects dust on the shelf

[-uht! · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a much better reference than O'Reilly's messy Perl book. I still pick it up (since I hardly ever use Perl) probably once a month.