Randal L. Schwartz (1) (1961–)

Gentle and entertaining introduction to basic Perl programming. It's probably not the most efficient way to learn the language for an experienced programmer since it gets a bit chatty and drawn out at times and does not get into advanced features. Nonetheless, it was worth the time to read.

The "Camel Book", as this book is often called, is the Perl Bible. It's not only an exhaustive reference, but clearly written any *funny* to boot. The humour pervades the text, making a sometimes dry subject much more approachable.

No Perl programmer can afford to be without this book, and anybody considering writing a technical reference should refer to this book to see how it's done.

The original "Llama" book from O'Reilly, this was an outstanding introduction to the mysteries of this powerful programming language. Twinned with Larry Wall's "Camel" book, the pair took many of us from stunned neophytes to halfway competent authors of code that worked.

Read this to review Perl, since it's been 10 years since I'd written any. Don't skip the footnotes, especially if you are an old school UNIX/C programmer, lots of in-jokes to be found there. Great introduction to the language too, at least for those coming from a C or C++ background.