ActivePerl for ASP and ADO Book

Perl tends to get talked about as a cross between a religion and a programming language. It has a lot going for it: in particular, it's free, and available on most platforms. ActivePerl is Perl implemented as an ActiveX component, enabling its use as an ASP scripting language for IIS. Using ActivePerl rather than Perl with CGI uses fewer server resources.Martinsson's book is aimed at Windows developers, though it isn't obvious why an existing Windows developer would want to use Perl rather than Microsoft's native VBScript. The basics of the Perl language, along with ASP and ADO, are explained, but you really need more than this book if you're going to realise the full power of Perl as an ASP scripting language. On the ASP side, Martinsson provides good explanations of how and why things happen and how to make them happen the way you want them to. He covers statelessness and cookies, simple ASP pages and database connectivity. The final third of the book provides an in-depth discussion of ADO usage, including such esoteric subjects as converting between ActivePerl scripts and command line Perl for more efficient client data presentations. The book ends with the Record object, a hierarchical data structure, followed by appendices--which include a collection of useful scripts. ActivePerl and all the book's code are on the supplied CD.ActivePerl with ASP and ADO is authoritative, and Martinsson clearly expert, but pity the poor beginner who has to master all three at once. Despite the roller coaster ride, the book is well structured and provides a concise source for Windows developers looking to move to a more powerful scripting language. --Steve PatientRead More