''Programming Perl'', best known as the Camel Book among programmers, is a book about writing programs using the

Perl Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offic ...

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

, 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 Larry Arnold Wall (born September 27, 1954) is an American computer programmer and author. He created the Perl programming language. Personal life Wall grew up in Los Angeles and then Bremerton, Washington, before starting higher education at ...

, along with Randal L. Schwartz, 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, 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 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 Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offic ...

, among them references,

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 Package may refer to: Containers or Enclosures * Packaging and labeling, enclosing or protecting products * Mail, items larger than a letter * Chip package or chip carrier * Electronic packaging, in electrical engineering * Automotive package, ...

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 Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

usage in Perl. The fourth edition was published in February 2012. This edition is written by Tom Christiansen, brian d foy, 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" service (a subscription-based website containing technical ebooks). 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)
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Safari Books Online 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 import ...

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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