[SASAG] Reviews of Minimal Perl

[Tim Maher]

Holiday Greetings from the speaker at the November SASAG meeting!

As you may have heard by now, my "Minimal Perl" book is currently
available from all major book sellers. What you might /not/ know
is that reviewers are saying nice things about it too!

So, to help you make informed gift-purchasing decisions during
this holiday season :-), I've collected together summarizes of
the book's reviews below.

Of course, these reviewers only represent a small portion of the
target population, so if you would like to write your own review
of this book, we'd be delighted to have you do so. And if you're
reasonably well known in the UNIX, Linux, or Perl community--or
affiliated with a web-site that is--the publisher (contact:
oldi at manning.com) will help you out by sending you a free copy
of the book.

Best wishes,
-Tim Maher
************************************************************************
                             Reviews of
              Minimal Perl: for UNIX and Linux People
                                 by
                             Tim Maher

                       author at MinimalPerl.com
                       http://MinimalPerl.com
                      http://manning.com/maher

>From the book's back cover:

  Damian Conway, Author of Object Oriented Perl:
  * You could have chosen no better primer than this book.

  Dan Sanderson, Software Developer, Amazon.com:
  * No-nonsense and practical, yet with wit and charm. A joy to read.

  Jon Allen, Maintainer, perldoc.perl.org:
  * Brilliant, never tedious--highly recommended!

>From Amazon.com

  Jeremy Mates, Programmer/Analyst, Amazon.com
  
  * Great Unix Data Wrangling Cookbook and Reference
  
  * I consider myself adept on the Unix command line, though
    I learned several new commands and best practices from
    this text.
  
  * Recommended to those who do, or want to, spend time wrangling
    data on Unix.
  
  * may obviate the need for 'Learning Perl' or a similar
    introductory Perl text.

  William Julien, HPC UNIX Performance Analyst,
                      at a Fortune 100 Company
  
  * Perl is a powerful language. [but] It provides little guidance on how
    the programmer can effectively make well-written programs. The
    goal of the book is to teach an effective programming approach.
  
  * clear and concise writing style
  
  * the book leverages on the reader's capabilities
  
  * Minimal Perl provides survival skills that one needs to meet 
    office deadlines as well as techniques to improve even the most
    experienced Perl programmer

>From The Perl Review, December, 2006

  Peter Scott, author of Perl Medic
  
  * Minimal Perl shows how to construct numerous useful programs
    without even having to open an editor; it's the ultimate homage
    to the one-liner.
  
  * unique value: listing useful clusters of options so you don't
    have to learn the rules of how they should be ordered.
  
  * If you want to know about Perl's paragraph mode, this is the
    place to come.
  
  * items I found of special value:
  
    + Coverage of the author's Shell::POSIX::Select [a Perl
      implementation of the POSIX shell's select loop];
  
    + advice to put the main program in a naked block of its own;
  
    + using -i.$SECONDS on the command line to avoid clobbering
      your only backup.

  * That last example is one of many in this book of a synergy
    between Perl and the shell that you will not find elsewhere.
  
  * Bottom line:
  
    + shell veterans will find an easy bridge to Perl that speaks
      to them in their own language;
  
    + shell neophytes will find a tour de force road map for
      getting useful stuff done.


*-------------------------------------------------------------------*
|  Tim Maher, PhD  (206) 781-UNIX   (866) DOC-PERL  (866) DOC-UNIX  |
|  tim at ( Consultix-Inc, TeachMePerl, or TeachMeUnix ) dot Com    |
*-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-*
| Seattle Classes;  12/11 Shell Prog.   12/14: UNIX/Linux Utilities |
|  * Download free chapters from my new book at MinimalPerl.com *   |
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