Average Customer Review:  
| Should be on every Web developer's desk | |
I can't help but wonder, as I read some of the other reviews here, whether everyone's talking about the same book! While this book is not without its flaws, which I'll get to in a second, the scripts are wonderful in their diverseness, their utility, and the fact that each line truly is explained. Contrary to what one reviewer claims, I haven't found any of these scripts available on the Web for free (some have similar ones available, but not with all the features these ones offer) and I have no idea what the reviewer who complained about the lack of descriptions was talking about...the authors do an excellent job of breaking each script down, line by line, and explaining what's going on. Whether or not you end up using any of the scripts (and you will), these explanations alone are worth their weight in gold as far as helping you to understand how to write CGI scripts. As far as flaws are concerned, it's true that the book could do with a few more examples of how to configure some of the scripts, and the beginner also needs to look elsewhere for instructions on how to upload the files to their server (a process that varies from platform to platform and server to server, making it almost impossible to explain in a way that applies to everyone). There are definitely bugs in several of the scripts, but the authors have posted fixes on the accompanying Web site and have also set up an extremely helpful mailing list for readers to help each other get the scripts up and running (I found it to be very useful and got some great ideas from other readers...thanks everyone!). I have yet to buy a computer book that is perfect as it comes, and I have also yet to buy a computer book that comes with as much support as this one. So while it may not live up to all the promises the authors make, I do think it belongs on every Web developer's desk, if for no other reason than as a "cookbook" for your own CGI development.
| A terrific resource for Web developers | |
I almost didn't buy this book after reading some of the negative reviews, but decided to take a look at it after noticing that none of the negative reviews went into much detail...making me wonder if the reviews were accurate or just the result of some kind of grudge against Mr. Patchett or Mr. Wright. I'm glad I took the time to look at, and subsequently buy, the book.With a few exceptions, I think most of the other reviews for this book do a good job of pointing out its imperfections. There are some inevitable bugs (corrected at the book's Web site), I wouldn't recommend it to someone who doesn't have any interest in learning at least a little bit about Perl, and it could use some additional detail on the installation process for the scripts in some places. That's the bad news. The good news, on the other hand, is that it is an invaluable resource for learning CGI scripting with Perl, especially for anyone who, like me, likes to learn by looking at actual code and having someone explain it. I've already used several of the scripts as is, modified one other, and borrowed code from several places to start building a custom script of my own. I think I got my $40 worth the first day I had it! Having spent some time with the book, I feel that somebody should address some of the issues brought up in some of the other "hit and run" reviews posted here. While it's true that the scripts are written in Perl 4 (which is backwards compatible with Perl 4), the authors have pointed out that this was a conscious choice on their part because Perl 4 is easier for the beginner to learn. I agree. As for the comments about security issues, I am familiar with the problems that were inherent with Mr. Wright's older scripts and these problems, as far as I can see, do not exist in the scripts presented in the book. Either Mr. Wright has learned from his previous mistakes or Mr. Patchett had a hand in removing security holes. Searching through the archives for the book's mailing list, I only came across one reported security problem in the last two years of posts to the list and a solution to that problem was promptly posted by the authors. One last thing that I really like about this book is the support for it that the authors provided by setting up a private mailing list for book owners. Not only do members of the list help each other out with any questions about the book's scripts (whether simple or complex), but there are also some great discussions on enhancing the scripts and adding additional features to them. How often have you bought a book and been stranded without any support? That the book's mailing list is going strong two years after the book's release is a testimony to its value. In short, I feel that this book makes a great addition to any Web developer's library, and is particularly useful to anyone developing CGI scripts of their own.
| Educational and always useful | |
This volume is not for the absolute beginner Perl programmer, nor is it for anyone who wants to just plug ready-written software into a web site.If, however, you understand some Perl and are prepared to follow along with the explanations of the thousands of line of Perl in this book you will have a marvellous resource. One of the authors, Matt Wright, is famous for his archive of free scripts written in Perl and the book builds on this material. It includes a CD-ROM with over 10,000 lines of Perl code that give you a large number of complete scripts and some useful subroutines. The book gives line by line explanations of all of this code. I've used both snippets of code and complete CGI programs from this book as starting points for my own work many times. More than enough times to justify the cost of the book. Once you've worked through a few of the more complex examples you should improve your understanding of Perl and CGI enormously, I certainly did. Some reviewers have mentioned that they thought the scripts were difficult to install or not enough effort was given to explaining the install process. I felt the opposite, I had little problem in getting the scripts to work and the problems I did have tended top be because of my lack of total understanding of CGI, web servers and Perl, solving them was an education in itself. There is also a web site with corrected (yes, there are some typos and bugs) and upgraded copies of the examples and an email list for installing and modifying the examples, an excellent resource on top of the book. I would recommend this book to almost everyone.
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