[TriLUG] Looking tutorials Perl and Python

[Aaron S. Joyner]

T. Bryan wrote:

>On Thursday 31 August 2006 18:13, Roy Vestal wrote:
>  
>
>>I'm in a position at work where I'm going to need to learn Perl and
>>Python. Yes, I've been a linux admin for a LONG time and never had to
>>learn these until now.
>>
>>I'm looking for recommendations online if possible or in book form.
>>    
>>
>
>You could join the local Triangle Zope/Python User Group 
>(http://www.trizpug.org/) and ask the other members for their favorite books.  
>We have an active group, and you might want to come out and hang out with 
>some other Python users.  :)
>
>It kind of depends on what style of intro to a language you like.  A lot of 
>people seem to like Dive into Python.  There's an online tutorial if you just 
>want to get a quick overview of basic syntax.  I liked O'Reilly's Learning 
>Python; it wasn't terrific, but it wasn't bad.
>
>---Tom
>
>  
>
You've probably made a decision and read half the book by now (yeah, I'm 
a bit behind on email), but I'll throw in my two cents in case it 
benefits anyone.

T. Bryan's statement couldn't be more true.  If you want a classroom 
text-book style Perl learning experience, then "Learning Perl" is the 
way to go.  If you're more of the "give me a reference manual with witty 
descriptions and I'll dive in and go" kind of guy, then "Programming 
Perl" (the Camel book) is the classic you want.  For reference, I fall 
into the latter category, so my other recommendation is skewed that 
way.  For Python, I've recently done the crash course (last year), and I 
read a lot of reference material in the process.  I went through the 
first half a dozen chapters of so of "Programming Python", and it was 
*quite* a chore.  I don't recommend it.  It's a reasonable class 
reference, and I've used it for that occasionally, but it's not my first 
choice (but it is on my bookshelf at work).  I much preferred "Python in 
a Nutshell" [1].  I don't typically like the "Nutshell" books, but this 
one was a refreshing change.  As someone with solid programming 
background in other scripting languages, it was just the right amount to 
get me up to speed on what I needed to know about Python's general 
language conventions, it's object model, what's provided in the standard 
modules, etc.  It also provides a very handy and thorough reference of 
the builtins and the standard modules.  It's one of the few books I have 
two copies of, one for work and one for home [2].

Best of luck in learning Perl and Python, they're both really useful 
skills to have!
Aaron S. Joyner

1 - Friendly disclaimer, I also work with the author of said book (Alex 
Martelli, interesting fellow), and was given a copy by my employer, 
which is why I started reading it.
2 - Okay, this is just because I work from home too much.