Think Perl 6: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

Want to learn how to program and think like a computer scientist? This practical guide gets you started on your programming journey with the help of Perl 6, the younger sister of the popular Perl programming language. Ideal for beginners, this hands-on book includes over 100 exercises with multiple solutions, and more than 1,000 code examples so you can quickly practice what you learn. Experienced programmers—especially those who know Perl 5—will also benefit.

Divided into two parts, Think Perl 6 starts with basic concepts that every programmer needs to know, and then focuses on different programming paradigms and some more advanced programming techniques. With two semesters’ worth of lessons, this book is the perfect teaching tool for computer science beginners in colleges and universities.

• Learn basic concepts including variables, expressions, statements, functions, conditionals, recursion, and loops
• Understand commonly used basic data structures and the most useful algorithms
• Dive into object-oriented programming, and learn how to construct your own types and methods to extend the language
• Use grammars and regular expressions to analyze textual content
• Explore how functional programming can help you make your code simpler and more expressive

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Way of the Program
Chapter 2 Variables, Expressions, and Statements
Chapter 3 Functions and Subroutines
Chapter 4 Conditionals and Recursion
Chapter 5 Fruitful Subroutines
Chapter 6 Iteration
Chapter 7 Strings
Chapter 8 Case Study: Word Play
Chapter 9 Arrays and Lists
Chapter 10 Hashes
Chapter 11 Case Study: Data Structure Selection
Chapter 12 Classes and Objects
Chapter 13 Regexes and Grammars
Chapter 14 Functional Programming
Chapter 15 Some Final Advice
Appendix A Solutions to the Exercises