Learning Perl, 7th Edition

Chapter 1. Introduction

Welcome to the Llama book, our affectionate name for our book covering Perl 5.

This is the seventh edition of a book that millions of readers have enjoyed since we released the first one in 1993. At least, we hope they’ve enjoyed it. It’s a sure thing that we enjoyed writing it. At least, that’s how we remember it after we’ve turned in the book and waited the months it took to see it show up on shelves. And, by shelves, we mean online.

This is the first edition of our popular Perl 5 book after the release of Perl 6, a language that started its life as something based on Perl but has now taken on a life of its own. Unfortunately, that bit of history means both languages have “Perl” in the name even though they are only lightly related. It’s likely that you want Perl 5 and this book unless you know that you don’t. And, from this point, “Perl” means Perl 5, the same Perl that’s been getting work done for a couple of decades.

Questions and Answers

You probably have some questions about Perl, and maybe even some about this book, especially if you’ve already flipped through it to see what’s coming. So, we’ll use this chapter to answer them, including how to find answers that we don’t provide.

Is This the Right Book for You?

This is not a reference book. It’s a tutorial on the very basics of Perl, which is just enough for you to create simple programs mostly for your own use. We don’t cover every detail of every topic, and we spread out some of the topics over several ...