:santagrin: Thanks to Neil A. Smyth for suggesting the 2nd Edition.

This is a freely redistributable tutorial book for the Perl language. It does not assume any prior knowledge of Perl. However, a reader familiar with standard computer science concepts such as abstraction, stacks, queues, and hash tables will definitely find her way through this book with ease. In other words, anyone with a knowledge equivalent to a first-year of college computer science courses should find this book very basic. Those of less experience may find this book challenging.

The material covered in this book is designed to prepare the reader to enter the world of Perl programming. This book covers the basic data and control structures of Perl, as well as the philosophies behind Perl programming. The native search patterns used in Perl, called regular expressions, are introduced and discussed. These concepts are introduced through the use of examples. It is hoped that readers find these examples fun.