2004.05_Books-Template Toolkits and Programming by Examples.pdf

REVIEWS

Books

Book Reviews

Perl Template Toolkit

This book deals with the Template

Toolkit which is probably the easiest and

most powerful tem-

plating system, and

gets around the prob-

lem of mixing Perl

code and HTML mark-

up code on websites.

Any Perl monger

worth his salary will

have already heard of

templating, as this

can produce a simple

method allowing you

to create a code snip-

pet that can easily be

changed by someone

who has never come

across Perl before. Real Perl mongers will

already be using template toolkit and

this book is aimed at proving the system

is perfect for all templating needs.

The layout and sections of the text are

nicely collated. The first half of the book,

with easy to follow examples, takes you

gently through all of its features. The

second chapter is a complete tutorial for

building a website.

Showing some of the

power that the system

allows. Following on

from this are chapters

that build on directives

and filters. Midway

through the book we

are shown the insides

of the toolkit so we

understand how it

works.

The latter half of the

book deals with

extending function and

features of your toolkit,

as well as the all important accessing of

databases. This is really aimed at those

who know a little Perl beforehand. The

final two chapters on Advanced static

web page techniques and Dynamic web

content deserve to be made into a book

in their own rights. These prove to be a

compulsive read and re-read and contain

many useful techniques to put into prac-

tice.

If I have one criticism, it would be the

lack of tests and problems at the end of

each chapter. The book makes you want

to try things straight away. This is due to

the building enthusiasm that the authors

put into the text. Although other books

on the subject exist, this one benefits by

having some of the main developers as

authors.

It is clear in its examples and possibly

the best buy for anyone wanting to pro-

duce useful and more importantly,

maintainable websites for clients. Now if

only I could find a book by the same

authors on security techniques, life

would be far simpler.

■

D Chamberlain, D Cross & A Wardley

592 pages

O’Reilly, 0-596-00476-1

£28.50, US $39.95, EUR 38.00

Linux Programming by example: The Fundamentals

The best way to learn is by example, and

this book seeks to teach Linux program-

ming in this way. All major topics are

covered – files, directories, permissions,

interfaces etc. – and each topic has

numerous example programs to give a

good feeling of what is possible, using

genuine sections of source code from

popular Linux programs.

Each chapter then ends with a series

of exercises to work through to give fur-

ther practice. Particularly tough

questions are labeled, so that you know

you are not just being a little stupid, if

you have difficulty working through the

question. The book is aimed at those

new to Linux programming but requires

a good working knowledge of C pro-

gramming skills. It would be useful to

anyone making the switch from Win-

dows programming or contemplating

their first Open Source

project.

It is not designed for

the complete novice.

The book concluded

with a useful section on

debugging – which, as

everyone knows, is what

really takes the time. If

something you have

spent ages crafting fails

to work, you need to find

out why, and this section

contains a number of tools and tech-

niques to help. Most aspects covered by

the book are relevant to Unix, as well as

Linux, and apply to all flavors of Linux.

Any exceptions should be noted as such.

A section in the book asks why you

would want to learn in a short space of

time, and explains that you need time to

learn from your

mistakes. Short

cuts are not avail-

able.

Appendix B is a

printed copy of the

Caldera Ancient

Unix license, thus

letting you see the

Unix sources used

as examples in the

book. This is a

good primer for

learning programming, although maybe

not as clearly set out as some similar

titles have been.

■

Arnold Robbins

752 pages

Prentice Hall, 0-1314-2964-7

£31.99, US $39.99, EUR 53.07

May 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

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