Jugal Kalita publishes - On Perl: Perl for Students and Professionals

Jugal Kalita, published his first book in January 2004. It is a product of more than 6 years of work. The book has 660 pages and is dense in content. It is available both in paperback and in electronic format. Go to www.amazon.com and search for “Jugal Kalita” if you want to peruse the table of contents of the book. Dr. Rod Moten of Colgate Univeristy, NY writes:

Four words describe "On Perl: Perl for Students and Professionals" by Jugal Kalita: comprehensive, through, clear and concise. Kalita thoroughly explains many of the intricate constructs in Perl in a clear and concise manner. As a result, I think "On Perl" would be an exceptional book for students with as little as one semester of programming in another language such as C++ or Java. More advanced programmers can benefit from the comprehensive presentations of advanced concepts such as interprocess communication with sockets, higher-order functions, modules and security. For each advanced programming concept, Kalita gives clear and concise overviews that give a reader insight into the background for which the advanced programming concept originates. Therefore, readers with little or no knowledge of the advanced programming concept could gain the knowledge to create Perl programs that uses these concepts.

Kalita's writing style reflects his experience of teaching students Perl in the classroom at the college level. "On Perl" reflects the insight of a person who has extensive knowledge of Perl and computer science, experience using Perl, and experience that his knowledge to others. I believe Kalita successfully conveys his knowledge and experience clearly and concisely in "On Perl".

In my opinion, "On Perl" is the best book on Perl I have read. Other books on Perl only present the features of the language. "On Perl" presents these features and teaches you how to write Perl programs that employ these features. The books that do try to teach you how to write Perl programs do so with large examples that distract the reader from the topic they are intended to illustrate. Kaltia skillfully uses the right level of detail in relevant examples to adequately illustrate Perl's capabilities.

(Babul Gogoi, Guwahat)

New Website: www.onperl.net