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For C/C++ programmers the last three chapters of this book are probably the most interesting as they cover the process of writing perl extensions in other languages and embedding perl in programs written in other languages. The final chapter provides an overview of the internals of perl itself that further supports the information on extending and embedding perl.

The first seventeen chapters are not uninteresting however, especially to anyone with an interest in understanding perl. They also provide support for the later chapters by describing how perl works from the viewpoint of a user but at a more advanced level than most books on perl would.

Topics covered in these chapters include the construction of complex data structures using references, use of subroutine references and closures, networking, using object oriented techniques in perl, persistence, and using tied objects to invoke user functions when a variable is used. There are also several chapters on using perl with the Tk extension to write simple GUI programs. This book lives up to everything I have come to expect of the O'Reilly Nutshell series, being both technically accurate and highly readable.

Anyone with an early revision of this book should refer to the extensive errata athttp://www.ora.com/-- WebmasterI would recommend it to anyone needing to extend or embed perl as well as to those wishing to move to more complex perl programming than they might be doing at the moment.