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April 2004
Book Review: Mastering Perl for Bioinformatics
Mastering Perl for Bioinformatics
by James D. Tisdall
O'Reilly & Associates, 2003
ISBN: 0-596-00307-2
377 Pages, $39.95
Even though I'm not a biologist (nor do I play one on TV), I found this book to be an interesting read. As you'd expect from the title, Tisdall explains advanced Perl features that are of interest for biologists. Specifically, Tisdall covers features of Perl that can be used for DNA sequencing and similar applications.
The book does not go into great detail about bioinformatics. Tisdall assumes that the reader wants to learn Perl, not bioinformatics. It's a shame that there aren't more books of this nature for folks in other fields who want to learn Perl or other languages. It's much easier to grasp the specifics of Perl when the examples used apply directly to the problem that you're trying to solve. I prefer titles that demonstrate how to solve real-world problems rather than simply explaining features of a language in a way that is abstract rather than applied.
What the book covers
Mastering Perl for Bioinformatics picks up where Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics leaves off. Chapter 1 covers Perl modules. It covers all the basics of using and creating a Perl module, as well as some gotchas to be aware of when working with CPAN. Chapter 2 gives a quick review of Perl data types.
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