Advanced Perl Programming

So you've learned Perl, but you're getting frustrated. Perhaps you've taken on a larger project than the ones you're used to. Or you want to add a user interface or a networking component. Or you need to do more complicated error trapping.Whether your knowledge of Perl is casual or deep, this book will make you a more accomplished programmer. Here you can learn the complex techniques for production-ready Perl programs. This book explains methods for manipulating data and objects that may have looked like magic before. Furthermore, it sets Perl in the context of a larger environment, giving you the background you need for dealing with networks, databases, and GUIs. The discussion of internals helps you program more efficiently and embed Perl within C or C within Perl.Major topics covered include:

• Practical use of packages and classes (object-oriented programming)
• Complex data structures
• Persistence (e.g., using a database)
• Networking
• Graphical interfaces, using the Tk toolkit
• Interaction with C language functions
• Embedding and extending the Perl interpreter

In addition, the book patiently explains all sorts of language details you've always wanted to know more about, such as the use of references, trapping errors through the eval operator, non-blocking I/O, when closures are helpful, and using ties to trigger actions when data is accessed. You will emerge from this book a better hacker, and a proud master of Perl.

Sriram Srinivasan ("Ram") is an expert on distributed object technologies, and develops Java middleware at WebLogic, San Francisco, for fun and profit. He actively pursues his interests in programming languages, databases, transaction processing, networking, and meaningful user interfaces. Sriram has been an enthusiastic user and teacher of Perl for the last six years, and currently teaches a course on advanced Perl programming for the extension program at the University of California at Berkeley. In his spare time, he dabbles in Indian classical music, charcoal drawing, cooking, and biking, and dreams of the day when he can say, "In his spare time, he dabbles in programming languages, ...".