Programming Perl [4th edition, blue camel]

by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, brian d foy, Jon Orwant, Randal L. Schwartz

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Adopted as the undisputed Perl bible soon after the first edition appeared in 1991, Programming Perl is still the go-to guide for this highly practical language. In this much-anticipated update to "the Camel," three renowned Perl authors cover the language up to its current version, Perl 5.14, with a preview of features in the upcoming 5.16.

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9 reviews
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.
I would say that this is THE BOOK for learning Perl. Funny and easy to read.
A classic. I own two copies, at work and at home. Sometimes I pick a page at random, I'm sure it will make me laugh in a page or two.
½
Absolutely essential for the Perl programmer. I learned Perl using this book and still refer to it from time to time.
Extremely useful, still. Especially now that search engines have gone to shit, I pulled this old book back off my shelf.
Jan 11, 2026English (UK)
Indeholder "Preface", "Part 1: Overview", "Chapter 1: An Overview of Perl", "Part 2: The Gory Details", "Chapter 2: Bits and Pieces", "Chapter 3: Unary and Binary Operators", "Chapter 4: Statements and Declarations", "Chapter 5: Pattern Matching", "Chapter 6: Subroutines", "Chapter 7: Formats", "Chapter 8: References", "Chapter 9: Data Structures", "Chapter 10: Packages", "Chapter 11: Modules", "Chapter 12: Objects", "Chapter 13: Overloading", "Chapter 14: Tied Variables", "Part 3: Perl as Technology", "Chapter 15: Unicode", "Chapter 16: Interprocess Communication", "Chapter 17: Threads", "Chapter 18: Compiling", "Chapter 19: The Command-Line Interface", "Chapter 20: The Perl Debugger", "Chapter 21: Internals and Externals", "Part 4: show more Perl as Culture", "Chapter 22: CPAN", "Chapter 23: Security", "Chapter 24: Common Practices", "Chapter 25: Portable Perl", "Chapter 26: Plain Old Documentation", "Chapter 27: Perl Culture", "Part 5: Reference Material", "Chapter 28: Special Names", "Chapter 29: Functions", "Chapter 30: The Standard Perl Library", "Chapter 31: Pragmatic Modules", "Chapter 32: Standard Modules", "Chapter 33: Diagnostic Messages", "Glossary", "Index", "Colophon".

Glimrende introduktion til Perl programmeringssproget. Der er små jokes rundt omkring, men også nyttige småprogrammer.
Desværre var det her en paperback udgave og den går i stykker i ryggen, når der har været brugt et stykke tid.
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Indeholder "Preface", "1. An Overview of Perl", " Getting Started", " Natural and Artificial Languages", " A Grade Example", " Filehandles", " Operators", " Control Structures", " Regular Expressions", " List Processing", " What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You (Much)", "2. The Gory Details", " Lexical Texture", " Built-in Data Types", " Terms", " Pattern Matching", " Operators", " Statements and Declarations", " Subroutines", " Formats", " Special Variables", "3. Functions", " Perl Functions by Category", " Perl Functions in Alphabetical Order", "4. References and Nested Data Structures", " What Is a Reference?", " Creating Hard References", " Using Hard References", " Symbolic References", " Braces, Brackets, and Quoting", " A Brief show more Tutorial: Manipulating Lists of Lists", " Data Structure Code Examples", "5. Packages, Modules, and Object Classes", " Packages", " Modules", " Objects", " Using Tied Variables", " Some Hints About Object Design", "6. Social Engineering", " Cooperating with Command Interpreters", " Cooperating with Other Processes", " Cooperating with Strangers", " Cooperating with Other Languages", "7. The Standard Perl Library", " Beyond the Standard Library", " Library Modules", "8. Other Oddments", " The Perl Debugger", " Common Goofs for Novices", " Efficiency", " Programming with Style", " Distribution and Installation", " Perl Poetry", " History Made Practical", "9. Diagnostic Messages", "Glossary", "Index", "Colophon".

Glimrende bog, der både formår at være referencemanual og appetitvækker på alle de mange ting, som den ikke kan nå at dække.
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Programming Perl [Third Edition] is the most authoritative book on Perl, and the authors' prose is a joy to read. While it may not be the best book for learning Perl, it's certainly worth having on your bookshelf.
Eugene Eric Kim, webtechniques
Jan 1, 2001

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Samela, Juha (Translator)
Zundel, Jean (Translator)

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Programming Perl [2nd edition, blue camel]; Programming Perl [pink camel]; Programming Perl [4th edition, blue camel]
Original title
Programming Perl
Original publication date
2012 (4th edition) (4th edition); 1996-08 (2nd edition) (2nd edition)
First words
Perl is a language for getting your job done.
Disambiguation notice
This is the pink camel book. Do not combine it with the blue camel. The contents are drastically different. It covers Perl 4 and not Perl 5 (which is covered by the blue camel book). The language (and hence the book) cha... (show all)nged significantly between the two. Also the pink camel contains a number of sections which were removed in later editions.
This is the 4th edition of the blue camel book, which covers Perl 5.14. Do not combine it with the pink camel book.

In addition, please do not combine it with different editions of the blue camel book. Th... (show all)e various editions cover different versions of Perl, cover changing material, and have different co-authors.
This is the 2nd edition of the blue camel book, which covers Perl 5. Do not combine it with the pink camel book.
This work consists of copies that cannot be determined to be either copies of the blue camel book or the pink camel book, and should not be combined with either.

Classifications

Genres
Technology, General Nonfiction, Nonfiction
DDC/MDS
005.133Computer science, information & general worksComputer science, knowledge & systemsArtificial Intelligence/Virtual RealitySoftware developmentComputer programmingSpecific programming languages
LCC
QA76.73 .P22 .W35ScienceMathematicsMathematicsInstruments and machinesCalculating machinesElectronic computers. Computer science
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Members
1,575
Popularity
14,485
Reviews
8
Rating
(4.01)
Languages
7 — English, Finnish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
19
UPCs
1
ASINs
2