Introduction to Perl Programming:
Hands-On

What is this course about?

This course provides an introduction to the code syntax of Perl, an interpreted programming language. Perl combines the flexibility of general-purpose programming languages such as C or C++ with many of the features of popular UNIX tools such as grep, tr, sed and awk. The result is a language especially suited to performing complex searching and manipulation of text or of data stored in text format.

The flexibility and extensibility of Perl via add-on modules allow it to be readily used to access and manipulate many kinds of non-textual data just as easily.

What background do I need?

We assume that participants have some previous programming experience, with either a procedural or object-oriented language such as Visual Basic, Delphi, C, C++, Java, or a UNIX shell. No previous familiarity with Perl is required.

Who will benefit from this course?

The course is for those who want to learn to write scripts and applications using Perl. Perl has a very rich set of operators, regular expressions and built-in functions, in addition to a terse syntax.

This course is especially designed for people who need to start from very little knowledge, learn the language, and become productive quickly. It's designed to help you over the syntax hurdle by exposing you to that syntax with real-world examples. The course also provides an introduction to Perl's key built-in and library functions and how to use object-oriented features.

Do I need to understand object-oriented programming?

No. Although we demonstrate how to use Perl's object-oriented calling mechanism, we provide a short inline introduction to OO techniques and terminology neccessary to make use of OO Perl modules written by others. This course does not cover writing OO Perl modules or code, but rather how to benefit from existing OO code.

What is Perl used for?

Perl is a programming language whose constructs encourage the rapid development of small, reusable tools. This makes it a perfect language for scripting but it's also often used as the basis for complete applications. Indeed, there are more than 7,700 add-on modules available on the Internet for Perl, covering almost every area of computing!

System administrators in both UNIX and Windows environments can create Perl scripts to automate repetitive system administration tasks such as compiling and manipulating log files, doing nightly backups, or creating customized software loads. Individuals can also write Perl scripts to enhance their productivity in performing tasks such as automatically processing incoming mail, performing large search-and-replace functions across multiple documents, or converting data from report format to the formats required for various spreadsheet applications. Perl is also particularly used to write CGI scripts for Web sites and for producing client/server networking scripts. It is also popular for processing HTML, XML and even binary files.

I don't work in a UNIX environment. Will this course be helpful to me?

Absolutely. While it's true that Perl originated in the UNIX world, Perl can now be found on other platforms including Windows. If you need to use a scripting tool to improve your productivity and you're working in a Windows environment, Perl can serve you well. It provides easy access to the Registry and other Win32 system functions, along with support for sockets and the most powerful text parsing engine of any language. This makes Perl a great choice for scripting across platforms.

The course itself teaches Perl in a platform-neutral way, so we don't specifically cover Win32 extensions or UNIX shared memory functions, for example. Hands-on exercises run identically on both UNIX and Windows, and you have the opportunity to choose your platform or even switch platforms during the course.

How much time is spent on each topic?

How much time is spent on exercises?

This course stresses hands-on practice as the best method for learning Perl syntax, and 30% of the 4-day course is spent on exercises and practical material. Throughout the course concepts are presented and then immediately reinforced in "do now" examples. Additionally, larger exercises let you integrate the concepts you are learning to create scripts of increasing complexity.

I already know Perl 4. Is this course for me?

This course is designed for complete newcomers to the Perl 5 language. Even if you already know Perl 4, many changes and additions were made between Perl 4 and Perl 5. Although you may already be conversant with some of the material in the course, it's a good place to learn about powerful Perl 5 features, including:

• References and multidimensional data structures
• A modified and richer regular expression syntax
• Using object-orientation and modules

I'm hoping to develop entire Web applications in Perl. Is this course for me?

As an introduction to the Perl programming language, this course devotes all its class time to covering language and syntax fundamentals. The topic of Web development is too advanced to be included in this course, although later exercises cover some related items such as parsing HTML files, building an LWP web client proxy and creating web pages from template files as real-world examples.

Which text editor is used in this course?

Attendees are not obligated to use a specific text editor in the course. Instead, they may choose the text editor of their preference from the following list: Windows notepad, vi, emacs or the Open Perl IDE. For those using Linux, kwrite, vi, emacs or the Glimmer IDE would be suitable.

How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses?

Systems administrators interested in using Perl to create productivity tools may also be interested in systems administration courses for their chosen platforms, including:

• 144: Linux® Administration and Support: Hands-On provides the knowledge and skills to install and configure Linux servers for reliability, functionality and performance.

Web developers interested in using Perl to create CGI scripts for their sites may be interested in our Internet-oriented courses, including:

• 470: Developing a Website: Hands-On in which you gain the knowledge and skills to develop a well-designed Web site.

Other courses that may be of interest include:

• 434: Shell Programming: Hands-On 
• 542: XML: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 
• 471: Java Programming: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 

US Dates