Perl Programming for the Absolute Beginner Book

Sum up: A true gem if you are learning to program, but a bit too slow-paced if you already are a proficient programmer.

I had been programming for several years when I wanted to get more into the functional way of solving programming problems which had begun to receive more attention towards the end of the noughties with the success of new programming languages such as F#, Clojure and Scala. After researching a whole lot I found that this book had received a lot of positive critique, as a sort of more noob-friendly alternative to Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (by Abelson and Sussman). To me, SICP seemed to have a certain shroud of high-brow elitism to it that scared me away from reading it, so this seemed like what I was after.

And it kind of was. This text seemed perfect for an academic learner like myself, building knowledge stepwise, with a lot of emphasis on how to solve things, thinking before you type, and to my great enjoyment; a kind of test driven development attitude. Really a wonderful way to teach (functional) programming and program design to a newcomer.

The problem was only that I am no newcomer to programming, and as such, the pace of the text was a bit too slow. I intended to finish the text before starting a functional programming class, but never got past chapter six. The content was great, the pedagogical angle was superb, but it simply went too slow for me and I did not finish it.

My functional programming class actually used SICP, which turned out to be the best technical book I have read. It was simply an enjoyable read, once you got into it. If you already know your way around branch structures and the basics of programming, just delve into Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. It has the same content, but progresses at a much higher pace and demands a whole lot more of the reader. But if you are new to programming and is not the type of person that just likes to learn from examples, this text is great and truly recommended.