It was required as a textbook at Rogue Community College (Grants Pass, Oregon) for the Illustrator course. The course was probably more helpful, and we're likely more enamored of the program itself, but the book has a permanent slot on our reference shelf. Not very readable, but packed full of information highlighting the improvements since the previous version of the program. The authors realize the importance of keyboard shortcuts, for which we are grateful.

This accessible and practical book can make a Non-Programmer into a Proud CGI Guru, given that the beginner understands some basic logical structures, and is willing to meet the authors halfway.

PROBLEM 1: The book assumes a fairly extensive Unix background, so doesn't always explain itself where that's concerned. SOLUTION: Just ignore the bits that don't apply to you and keep going.

PROBLEM 2: The first chapter can be intimidating. SOLUTION: Understand it to be an overview: "Here's what you can do with perl." Run its programs to see how they work, experiment with them, but don't freak out if you don't understand them completely. Alternately, just skip on to Chapter 2.

We enjoyed Learning Perl, and found it a good beginner's book for this language or for programming in general. The touches of humor could be annoying to some, but we thought they added readability and interest.