In this smooth, carefully paced course, leading Perl trainers and a Windows NT practitioner teach you to program in the language that promises to emerge as the scripting language of choice on NT. With a foreword by Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, this book is the "official" guide for both formal (classroom) and informal learning. Based on the "llama book," Learning Perl on Win32 Systems features tips for PC users and new NT-specific examples.

Perl for Win32 is a language for easily manipulating text, files, user and group profiles, performance and event logs, and registry entries, and a distribution is available on the Windows NT Resource Kit. Peer-to-peer technical support is now available on the perl.win32.users mailing list.

The contents include:

• An introduction to "the Perl way" for Windows users
• A quick tutorial stroll through Perl in one lesson
• Systematic, topic-by-topic coverage of Perl's broad capabilities
• Innumerable, brief code examples
• Programming exercises for each topic, with fully worked-out answers
• Access to NT system functions through Perl
• Database access with Perl
• CGI programming with Perl

Erik Olson is director of advanced technologies for Axiom Technologies, LC, where he specializes in providing Win32 development solutions. Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen have also written Programming Perl, co-authored with Larry Wall and published by O'Reilly & Associates.