Review of Perl for Dummies (Third Edition) (Paperback)

I am copying an excerpt from "The Perl Journal" review of this book.

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Summary: This is a really rotten book. Very few books are able to attain as many as eight major flaws:

1.'Dummy' approach encourages and reinforces the reader's disability

2.Lack of concrete programming examples

3.Lack of general discussion of how to program, apart from language-specific features

4.Reference manual organization style

5.Inclusion of too many useless and abstruse features

6.Complicated explanations where simple ones arepossible

7.Scaremongering and panic instead of calm explanation of affairs

8.Many, many technical errors, some very serious

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I taught myself Perl with little programming background (BASIC, 20 years ago). I started 1 1/2 years ago and am now using it daily as a web developer and data analyst.

Learning Perl from the books and resources out there is *extremely* difficult. There were many times I could've saved 3 weeks of hammering on a script if a perl guru had said, "Hey, list context just means the function wants a list, like an array or hash." I understand very well that the O'Reilly books are godawful for a beginner b/c that's where I started and suffered long from every explanation that said simply, "It's just like in C, so we won't explain it." That said, the books are pretty terrific once you're at a level to absorb them, but steer clear before then, unless you already know everything that POSIX means.

It might be tempting to pick up this book b/c there are pretty much no Perl books for those who haven't coded already. You should consider "The Elements of Perl" instead of this one. It's a better start for beginners and a wonderful way to start to understand Perl, its idioms, its culture, and how to program well. There is also "The Perl Black Book" which is a much better overview of the Perl than any single O'Reilly book, though the author isn't a guru, he's a good writer and tackles everything from the basics to advanced stuff with lots of examples and a CD with all the code.

Perl is wonderful, so please do pick up a book, just not this one.



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Review of Red Hat Linux 7.1 Bible (Paperback)

I found this book to be pretty much a rerun of previous editions. The primary reason I bought this "Linux 7.1 Bible" is that by the name I thought it would cover this Linux release including all new additions. The main thing I was looking for was a good explantion of iptables and how to correctly use them since this is supposed to replace ipchains and be much more powerful. What I found was the author mentions that iptables is the newest firewall configuration tool and is to replace ipchains and here's the website for the How To (which I had already visited) and in this book we'll explain once again how to setup ipchains (which he just said was being replaced). If you don't have other books on installing and setting up previous versions of Linux this book might do, but if you want information on the new additions to the 7.x versions don't waste your money like I did.

Product Description
Whether you're a Linux newbie looking for goof-proof installation tips or a Red Hat veteran who wants the scoop on the latest networking, desktop, and server enhancements, this authoritative guide delivers all the information you need to make the most of Red Hat Linux 7.1. From customizing a desktop system to troubleshooting a network or setting up a Web server, it's the only reference you'll ever need to become a Red Hat Linux pro. Inside, you'll find complete coverage of Red Hat Linux
* Take advantage of expert tips for fast, painless installation
* Learn your way around the Linux shell, file system, and X Window system
* Master Linux administration, from automating system tasks to locking in security
* Discover how easy it is to set up a LAN and connect to the Internet
* Find expert help on tracking down and fixing typical network problems
* Get the scoop on configuring servers, from Web and print servers to e-mail and FTP servers
Red Hat Linux 7.1 on three CD-ROMs
* GNOME and KDE
* Apache Web Server
* New Linux 2.* Read or download all-new chapters and articles
* Access a searchable online version of the book
Site content available only to owners of this book. See the last page for details.A minimum of 800MB free hard drive space (2.4GB recommended). At least 16MB RAM (32MB recommended).

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