''Programming Perl'', best known as the Camel Book among

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

s, is a book about writing programs using the Perl programming language, revised as several editions (1991-2012) to reflect major language changes since Perl version 4. Editions have been co-written by the creator of Perl, Larry Wall, along with

Randal L. Schwartz Randal L. Schwartz (born November 22, 1961), also known as merlyn, is an American author, system administrator and programming consultant. He has written several books on the Perl programming language, and plays a promotional role within the Per ...

, then

Tom Christiansen Thomas S. "Tom" Christiansen (born February 13, 1963), nicknamed tchrist or occasionally thoth, is a Unix developer and user known for his work with the Perl programming language. Christiansen worked for several years at TSR Hobbies before atte ...

and then Jon Orwant. Published by

O'Reilly Media O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates) is an American learning company established by Tim O'Reilly that publishes books, produces tech conferences, and provides an online learning platform. Its distinctive brand features a woodcut of an ...

, the book is considered the canonical reference work for Perl programmers. With over 1,000 pages, the various editions contain complete descriptions of each Perl language version and its interpreter. Examples range from trivial

code snippets Snippet is a programming term for a small region of re-usable source code, machine code, or text. Ordinarily, these are formally defined operative units to incorporate into larger programming modules. Snippet management is a feature of some text ...

to the highly complex expressions for which Perl is widely known. The camel book editions are also noted for being written in an approachable and humorous style.

History

The first edition, which gained the nickname "the pink camel" due to its pink spine, was originally published in January 1991 and covered version 4 of the Perl language. It was the work of Larry Wall and Randal L. Schwartz. The second edition, published in August 1996, included updates for the release of Perl 5, among them

references Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a ''name'' ...

objects Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...

, packages and other modern programming constructs. This edition was written from scratch by the original authors and Tom Christiansen. In July 2000, the third edition of ''Programming Perl'' was published. This version was again rewritten, this time by Wall, Christiansen and Jon Orwant, and covered the Perl 5.6 language. The fourth edition constitutes a major update and rewrite of the book for Perl version 5.14, and improves the coverage of Unicode usage in Perl. The fourth edition was published in February 2012. This edition is written by Tom Christiansen,

brian d foy is the former publisher and editor of ''The Perl Review'', a magazine devoted to Perl and co-author of several books on Perl including '' Learning Perl'', '' Intermediate Perl'' and '' Mastering Perl''. He is also the founder of Perl Mongers ...

, Larry Wall and Jon Orwant. ''Programming Perl'' has also been made available electronically by O'Reilly, both through its inclusion in various editions of ''The Perl CD Bookshelf'' and through the "

Safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...

" service (a subscription-based website containing technical

ebook An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

s). The publisher offers online a free sample of Chapter 18 of the third editio

and the Chapter 1 of the fourth editio

as well as the complete set of code examples in the book (third edition

O'Reilly maintains a trademark on the use of a camel in association with Perl, but allows noncommercial use.

Editions

* First edition (1991; 482 pages; covers Perl 4; ) * Second edition (1996; 670 pages; covers Perl 5.003; ) * Third edition (2000; 1104 pages; covers Perl 5.6; ) * Fourth edition (2012; 1184 pages; covers Perl 5.14; ) The second edition of the book was the best-selling book in the O'Reilly Media catalog in 1996, and one of the top 100 selling books in any category at Borders Group, Borders in 1996.

References

{{reflist

External links

Programming Perl, 4th Edition

Preview or read online (4th edition)
at Safari Books Online (subscription required)
Review of Programming Perl, 3rd Edition
1991 non-fiction books 1996 non-fiction books 2000 non-fiction books 2012 non-fiction books O'Reilly Media books Books about Perl Computer programming books

History

Editions

See also

References

External links