Appendix A. The Essential Guide to Perl

In Chapter 1, we briefly explored the history and culture of Perl without examining the language itself in any detail. In this appendix we'll describe just enough of the language to allow you to understand how Perl DBI works and how you can take advantage of the Oracle applications described in this book. We'll focus on the following:

• Getting information about Perl

• Running Perl scripts

• Variable types

• Program context

• Program and subroutine parameters

• References

• Object orientation

We'll also briefly describe how to get information about Perl and how to invoke it. This will be a roller coaster ride, so hang onto your bitmaps!

Of course, there is much more to learn about Perl. Consult the online and offline references listed in Chapter 1 for additional and much more complete resources.