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Higher-Order Perl Available For Free Download
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Dec 09, 2008 07:56 PM
from the virtual-special-shelf dept.
from the virtual-special-shelf dept.
Christopher Cashell writes "As noted on Perlbuzz, Mark Jason Dominus's amazing book, Higher-Order Perl, is now available for free download. This is a great book that goes way beyond your normal programming reference. This will change the way you look at programs, and make you a better programmer in any language. It sits on that special shelf reserved for books like Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, The C Programming Language, and The Practice of Programming."
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amazing (Score:5, Interesting)
It is truly awesome that mjd is making this available for free.
It's still worth buying the dead tree version, though.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Particularly since the links on the site go to Powell's.
Powell's is freaking cool. And independent, if you care about such things. (And, for that matter, even if you don't.
How *do* they do that? (Score:2, Insightful)
Funny, I would have thought it sat on a hard drive or a usb key or something ...
"You have downloads on my bookshe
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Nope, sorry -unlike peanut butter and chocolate, downloads don't mix with bookshelves.
Interestingly, they can both be measured in the same units. (meaning Libraries of Congress, of course.)
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metaphor (noun) - a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable / a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, esp. something abstract. The Oxford American Dictionary
Ah! Their deception is obvious! (Score:2)
They give the book away for free, but neglect to mention the metaphorical bookshelf you need to sit it on?
A clever ruse, and the fools almost got away with it. But they failed to realize that Slashdot has a Sicilian in it's ranks!
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, they sell the book in the dead tree form that would sit on the book shelf.
This story is about them giving that book away free of charge in electronic form.
Astounding coincidences (Score:2)
I just got this book from the library for the first time two weeks ago. I'm pleased that I will only have to have checked it out once.
Kudos and thanks, mjd.
COBOL Zombies (Score:3, Funny)
He's just welcoming our new Zombie Overlords [perlmonks.org]
.
Higher Order Perl (Score:2, Funny)
#!/usr/bong/perl
Perl Jobs (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Perl Jobs (Score:4, Informative)
Perl has, in some small way, kept me continuously employed for the last 14 years. It's really pretty surprising the utility and longevity it has.
-B
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Perl Jobs (Score:4, Insightful)
Python isn't a very good language for quick-and-dirty scripting, and it's often not installed at all by default. It's a pretty good general-purpose programming language, but that's a different matter entirely. Perl, in comparison, is ubiquitous on pretty much all Unix-like platforms, and is well adapted for things like one-off one-liners.
More relevantly to this thread, Perl is a better language for FP than Python is. Perl has full support for anonymous closures (Python's lambdas are very weak by comparison), and Perl has proper predictable lexical scoping (Python's scoping rules are rather strange). This all reflects the different design goals of the languages. Python is built on the principle that there should be only one way to achieve any goal -- and in practice that's usually objects. Perl is built on the principle that the programmer should have loads of options to choose from -- and hence it supports several programming paradigms equally well.
Parent
too late (Score:3, Funny)
FP without the syntax hurdle (Score:2)
I run a web site that catalogs free books and accepts user-submitted reviews (see my sig). Reviews of this book would be welcome.
I read a couple of chapters online, and it seemed pretty cool. I'm interested in learning FP techniques, and it was really nice to be able to learn about techniques like memoization in the context of a language whose syntax I already know. I can glance through the code examples and say, "Aha, I get it!" instead of laboriously poring over code listings in lisp or haskell and say
Re: (Score:2)
First of all, Perl is the ultimate syntax hurdle, and I say this as a fan of Perl.
Second, if you're interested in functional programming, don't shy away from the languages you mention. Neither Common Lisp nor Scheme is particularly difficult (especially Scheme, whose syntax is almost nonexistent) and neither is purely functional.
Finally, read SICP [mit.edu].
Re: (Score:2)
If you speak Greek, English is the ultimate syntax hurdle. And vice versa if you speak English.
wiki? (Score:3)
From TFA:
You may remember I wanted to turn the book into a wiki. That would have been awesome. But the book's fourth anniversary is coming up this spring and I have to admit to myself that I'm not gonna get the wiki together. So I'm posting the thing already.
So, perhaps if he put a bare wiki up, everyone could c&p a page at a time?
Re:The origin of PERL (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
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If you can tell me why Perl is so popular, I think I can answer your question. It seems pretty clear that there is a large intersection between "people who love Perl" and "people who never had exposure to functional programming".
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It's interesting you mention FP. One of the most interesting parts of Higher Order Perl, in my opinion, is the parser generator Dominus builds up. In response to an email about it, Dominus told me he'd adapted it from Structured ML for the Working Programmer.
Re: (Score:2)
It's interesting you mention FP.
Yes, what a strange coincidence that functional programming has something to do with "higher order".
Re: (Score:2)
Don't call me Shirley!