I would like to buy Programming Perl, but I'm concerned with its age. Many things must have happened to Perl since 1996, so I thought that there may be a new edition on Larry's desk right now. If so, I better wait for it to come out. Is it wise, or am I just wasting my time in false expectations? :-)

Dear Gustav:

There are so many things on Larry's desk right now that I wouldn't want to touch any of it, for fear of disturbing the pile and causing a cave-in.

Some of that pile undoubtedly contains the seeds of the Third Edition of Programming Perl; nevertheless, knowing what else is there, I wouldn't advise you to wait to buy that edition. I don't expect to see the new edition before late Fall, perhaps even Winter.

Updating this book is a difficult task. The book is comprehensive, so it reflects the continually changing state of the language. Larry and Tom are working on it, but they are also working on Perl itself. O'Reilly likes to get the creator of a technology to write our book when we can, but the downside of that strategy is that the software creator's first duty is to the software. So we twist Larry's and Tom's arms to work on their books, but we have to give way when the development of Perl takes precedence.

As you note, much has been happening since the publication of the second edition; even so, it remains the most authoritative reference to Perl published. You can supplement the information in this book with the official online documentation on the Perl web sites and with the Perl Pocket Reference, which we publish. Also, I recommend the new Perl Cookbook, by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. It's full of recipes for successful Perl programming and is as up-to-date as a book can be.

Good luck,

Frank Willison
Editor-in-Chief, Technical Publising

Return to: Frankly Speaking