One of the best things about “Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web” is the seamless way the author incorporates terminology into her explanations. Elizabeth Castro, author of “HTML 4 for the World Wide Web”, understands the intermediate user: someone who would be bored by a beginner’s guide, but isn’t ready to step up to heavy-hitting programming texts either. In “Perl and CGI”, she explains basic concepts–such as the difference between a compiled and an interpreted script–within the text, so there’s no need to keep flipping back to the glossary. Readers should be familiar with HTML and comfortable with technical explanations, diagrams, and general vocabulary. Anyone trying to get a grasp on something as complex and powerful as Perl will appreciate Castro’s relatively straightforward technique. For example, in the first chapter, Castro explains some basic Perl concepts sensibly: that the “$” stands for the “s” in “scalar”; the “@” sign stands for the “a” in “array”; and that the “%” that labels a hash or associative array indicates two circles on each side of the slash as parts of a pair. This granular, logical way of building Perl knowledge will get new Perl users started. More experienced users will want to use this book as a workbook and refresher. “–Jennifer Buckendorff”
Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web
