Customer comments on this selection.
 Good work
This is good stuff.
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br /It's a book with 256 guidelines about how to write better Perl code that's more accurate, faster, and more maintainable. It takes a courageous stand to declare how you /should/ use Perl, not just how you /can/ use it.
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br /Here are some things I really like about the book:
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br /- It covers a helpfully broad range of topics. Most of the things I've gone hunting for in this book so far, I've found. ...Including performance topics.
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br /- It tells me why. I don't agree with every guideline in the book (but I do agree with most of them). It's probably a mathematical impossibility to write a book like this in which every guideline would please everyone (or even /anyone/!). But Damian Conway explains his rationale, which enables me to make an informed decision for myself about every guideline in the book.
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br /- It's compartmental. It has that fun, "it's ok to read just a page or two" kind of structure that lets me grok a couple of little topics at a time, instead of making me plow through a lot to get a little.
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br /I think that Programming Perl (Wall, Christiansen, Orwant) and Perl Cookbook (Christiansen and Torkington) are two of the best programming books ever written. Perl Best Practices is a worthy member of the set. This book has improved the quality of my programming.
Excellent guide for writing better code
Not only do these practices apply to Perl, but they apply to any language. I have told several people who are not perl progreammers to references several of the practices since they hold true in any language.
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br /This is a purely practical book on how to write code that anyone can read and follow with minmal effort. It covers various aspects of coding styles and gives clear concice reasons for WHY they should be used. You can for example, using this book, give a clear reference why spaces should be used over tabs, or why underscores in variable names are simply easier for humans to parse than CamelCase.
 Write Perl on Purpose
I started reading Perl Best Practices from page 8 and got bored quickly. But that's because I was reading it the wrong way. First thing, the two introductions -- the preface, and chapter 1, are among the best explanations for why you should care how you write code, in any programming language. The preface begins, "This book is designed to help you write ... the best Perl code you possibly can." Chapter 1 starts with simply, "Code matters." So resist any temptation to skip these intros. Meanwhile, the remaining 18 chapters, each with roughly 20 specific items, cover all of Perl -- much more than one confronts in any specific program. So of course it's boring to read it cover to cover -- it's a reference. But don't just leave it on the shelf until you need it. Instead, set aside 10 minutes a day, and each time, open it up anywhere and start reading. You'll probably be pleasantly suprised to learn something new and useful about a construct you've used many times before.
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br /Still, no one book is the answer. I say read this Perl book for the bite-sized details, and pair it with "Effective Perl Programming" by Hall and Schwartz for the big picture.
All good
This a great manual. Instead of being a reference like most books that you may only need parts of, every chapter has some interesting information and is applicable to daily coding. Since at this point you can learn a lot of Perl just on Google, textbook style manuals are on the way out. Best practices, though, is still very applicable. I wish I had read this book years ago looking back at my functional but awkward scripts.
Ruby and Python aficionados, take this!
One of the biggest asset in the Perl community is the people that form it. And Damien Conway is one of its outstanding members. Possibly the best speaker I've ever seen, he injects wisdom and wit in its books, which always take you a bit further in the path of Perl Enlightment. This one, of course, is no exception. Not only it teaches what you should do, but the many things you _shoulnd't_ do.
br /When will we be seeing a novel by Damien Conway? Don't let Charles Stross be the only perl monger that writes novels!
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