Higher-Order Perl: Transforming Programs with Programs

“It's well written...everyone who claims to be an expert ought to read it...these techniques allow programmers to accomplish far more than they're used to." Gregory V. Wilson, Dr. Dobb's Journal, November 2005 "It is, quite simply, one of the best books on programming I have read for a long time." Martin Schweitzer, Computing Reviews, Association for Computing Machinery, July 2005 "Mark Jason Dominus has hit his mark with Higher Order Perl. It is a very informative book that is a must read for Perl programmers who want to take their skills to the next level. Mark Rutz, Linux Journal, November 2005

“Higher-Order Perl is one of the Perl books that should have a place on the bookshelf of every Perl programmer. It offers an in-depth understanding of important programming techniques and fundamental concepts. The chapter on parsing alone is worth the price of this book. I do not know a better text about parsing in Perl. Reinhard Voglmaier, Unix Review, November 2005

“Higher-Order Perl is the most exciting, most clearly-written, most comprehensive, and most forward-looking programming book I've read in at least ten years. It's your map to the future of programming in any language." Sean M. Burke, Leading Programmer, Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) "There are lots of book that teach you new Perl modules or techniques. This book goes beyond that and teaches a new way to think about Perl programming. Peter Norvig, Google Inc.

“As a programmer, your bookshelf is probably overflowing with books that did nothing to change the way you program. . . or think about programming. You're going to need a completely different shelf for this book. While discussing caching techniques in Chapter 3, Mark Jason Dominus points out how a large enough increase in power can change the fundamental way you think about a technology. And that's precisely what this entire book does for Perl. It raids the deepest vaults and highest towers of Computer Science, and transforms the many arcane treasures it finds--recursion, iterators, filters, memoization, partitioning, numerical methods, higher-order functions, currying, cutsorting, grammar-based parsing, lazy evaluation, and constraint programming--into powerful and practical tools for real-world programming tasks: file system interactions, HTML processing, database access, web spidering, typesetting, mail processing, home finance, text outlining, and diagram generation. Along the way it also scatters smaller (but equally invaluable) gems, like the elegant explanation of the difference between 'scope' and 'duration' in Chapter 3, or the careful exploration of how best to return error flags in Chapter 4. It even has practical tips for Perl evangelists. Dominus presents even the most complex ideas in simple, comprehensible ways, but never compromises on the precision and attention to detail for which he is so widely and justly admired. His writing is as always lucid, eloquent, witty, and compelling. Aptly named, this truly is a Perl book of a higher order, and essential reading for every serious Perl programmer. Damian Conway, Co-designer of Perl 6

“Higher-Order Perl is a terrific book targeted at the advanced Perl programmer with a significant computer science background. The tone, content, and code make Higher-Order Perl memorable; the knowledge, wisdom, and intuition it provides make it a book any Perl programmer should aim to understand and digest in full. . Teodor Zlatanov, Programmer, Gold Software Systems