For Immediate Release 
January 31, 2002 
For more information, a review
copy, cover art or an interview with 
the authors, contact:  
Kathryn Barrett (707) 827-7094 or kathrynb@oreilly.com


FROM TK NEOPHYTE TO TK EXPERT--
O'REILLY RELEASES "MASTERING PERL/TK"


Sebastopol, CA--Like the pairing of fine wine and food, some things are
just meant to go together. Early Perl users who had to be content with
command-line interfaces or full-screen interfaces using Curses or
similar systems, were delighted with the splitting off of the Tk widget
library from the Tcl language, because it opened a whole new world to
Perl. Using Tk's flexible and friendly widget set, Perl programmers
could now create graphical interfaces for their programs. Buttons,
menus, dialog boxes, scrolled text areas, and more could be used to add
a little flair and professionalism to Perl applications. In "Mastering
Perl/Tk" (O'Reilly, US $44.95), veteran authors and Perl/Tk users,
Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh, introduce Perl/Tk and show how to build
attractive, intuitive interfaces for Perl programs.

Written for novices and seasoned Perl/Tk programmers alike, "Mastering
Perl/Tk" begins with a fast-moving tutorial that covers the basics on
how to use Perl/Tk, including a discussion of all the basic widgets and
the geometry managers that determine how each widget is laid out. The
book then branches out into advanced applications of Perl/Tk, with a
series of extensive program examples that will take even experienced
programmers to the next step in learning how to program elegantly and
effectively in Perl/Tk.

"This book evolved from my earlier book "Learning Perl/Tk," explains
Walsh. "The response to that book made it clear that there were many
avid and loyal Perl/Tk users, but readers also let us know that they
wished the book showed advanced techniques, covered some nonstandard
widgets, and included more extended examples of Perl/Tk programming."
Walsh and Lidie worked together to double the size of the book and
change its title to reflect the new expansion, and the baby emu on the
cover of the earlier book grew into the adult emu on the cover of the
current book.

Although Perl/Tk is very popular, the lack of a complete, comprehensive
book on the topic has made it difficult for programmers to locate a
central source of information. In "Mastering Perl/Tk," Lidie and Walsh
go into detail on creating custom widgets, working with bindings and
callbacks, IPC techniques, and offer many examples of nonstandard
add-on widgets for Perl/Tk, including Tix widgets. This book is sure to
be the definitive guide that every Perl/Tk programmer will need.

Additional Resources:
An article by coauthor Steve Lidie, "A Drag-and-Drop Primer for
Perl/Tk" may be found at:
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2001/12/11/perltk.html

Chapter 15, "Anatomy of the Main Loop" is available free online at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk/chapter/ch15.html

For more information about the book, including Table of Contents,
index, author bios, and samples, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk/

For a cover graphic in jpeg format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/1565927168.jpg 

Mastering Perl/Tk
By Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh
January 2002
ISBN 1-56592-716-8, 746 pages, $44.95 (US), $67.95 (CAN)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
http://www.oreilly.com

About O'Reilly 
O'Reilly & Associates is the premier information source for
leading-edge computer technologies. We communicate the knowledge of
experts through our books, conferences, and web sites. Our books, known
for their animals on the covers, occupy a treasured place on the
shelves of the developers building the next generation of software. Our
conferences and summits bring innovators together to shape the
revolutionary ideas that spark new industries. From the Internet to the
Web, Linux, open source, and now peer-to-peer networking, we put
technologies on the map. For more information: http://www.oreilly.com

# # #

O'Reilly is a registered trademark of O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. All
other trademarks are property of their respective owners.