Programming Parrot in a Nutshell

Full Description

Parrot is a new, dynamic programming language, intended to merge the indubitable strengths of the twin Open Source scripting giants, Perl and Python. Stemming from the Open Source conferences, and culminating in the unprecedented meeting of minds at the new ActiveState Technical Advisory Board, Parrot was conceived jointly by Larry Wall, the original creator of Perl, and Guido van Rossum, the inventor of Python. By uniting the unparalleled flexibility of Perl with the simplicity and maintainability of Python, Parrot is destined to become the premier application development language of the twenty-first century.

Perl is a powerful programming language that has grown in popularity since it first appeared in 1988. Since then, Perl has grown with the times. Python, another powerful programming language, has evolved from an emerging language of interest primarily to pioneers, to a widely accepted tool that traditional programmers use for real day-to-day development tasks. With either Perl or Python, you can do almost anything you can do with C++; and both are interpreted languages designed for rapid application development and deployment. As development progressed on each language, however, both Van Rossum and Wall found themselves alternately solving the same sorts of problems, and looking to each other's solutions for inspiration. The convergent evolution of Python and Perl culminated in the birth of Parrot, a hybrid interpreted programming language intended to derive its strengths from the very best of its parent languages.

Programming Parrot is the definitive resource for beginner and advanced Parrot programmers alike. Written together by Parrot's creators, Programming Parrot covers the basic features and syntax of this powerful new hybrid language, and provides reference material for many of its most important interfaces and tools, including Internet scripting, systems programming, ParroTk, C integration, Jarrot, Active Scripting and COM extensions, Gnope (GNU/Zope), PSP server pages, restricted execution mode, the Comprehensive Parrot Archive Network (a.k.a. the Vaults of Madagascar), the HTMLgen and SWIG code generators, thread support, Unicode, EBCDIC and Baudot support, JAPHs, and more.

But Programming Parrot is not just a book about Parrot. It is also a unique introduction to the language and its often-fractious culture, as one might expect only from its authors. Larry Wall is the inventor of Perl, and provides a unique perspective on the evolution of Parrot from its parent languages, and its future direction. Guido van Rossum is the original designer of Python, and brings a pragmatic and detail-oriented approach to the coverage of Parrot's features. Any Parrot book can show the syntax of its functions, but only this one is a comprehensive guide to all the nooks and crannies of the language.

Programming Parrot includes a platform-neutral CD-ROM with book examples and various Parrot-related packages, including the full Parrot 1.0 source code distribution.