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Though it really depends on what kind of system you're trying to make, generally speaking, embedding any serious amount of code into code in a different language often becomes very difficult to maintain. For quick things, it's usually the easiest. For moderately complex things, it's usually a push either way. But for any sizeable website, especially one that is going to be maintained over an extended period of time by multiple people, keeping as much -separate- as possible is a better approach.

Whether you use ASP, JSP, TT, Mason, .NET, or anything else, you likely will have a lot more going on than simply displaying some simple words, maybe wrapped in some kind of if statement or while loop. You'll need to do some kind of data lookup, perform some kind of transformation of that data, apply a few business rules, then, finally, spit it out in HTML. By far, it is easier to maintain code that isn't mixed with html; like wise, it's easier to maintain html that isn't mixed with code. Plus you then have the option of using that same code to manipulate the data differently, perhaps a GUI application, set of command line utilities, or under a different embedding technology. Decoupling presentation from logic is always a win as complexity increases.

Mason is terrific technology, though, and I'm very glad to see a book dedicated to it finally on the market. It is especially good to finally see some quality documentation on application frameworks that run under mod_perl; before now, there wasn't much besides the excellent wrapmod book and the equally excellent mod_perl cookbook.

actually, there is quite a bit of code that was both new and novel when the book was published. for instance...

the recipe for intercepting writes to the error_log

an API for interfacing with Digest authentication

using Apache::RegistryLoader as a PerlRestartHandler

making XBitHack actually useful on Win32

automatically transforming incoming UTF8 charset data

making Apache API functions available outside of a running Apache server

cleaning up stale Apache::DBI connections without killing the child process

and more... useful stuff.

actually, there is quite a bit of code that was both new and novel when the book was published. for instance...

the recipe for intercepting writes to the error_log

an API for interfacing with Digest authentication

using Apache::RegistryLoader as a PerlRestartHandler

making XBitHack actually useful on Win32

automatically transforming incoming UTF8 charset data

making Apache API functions available outside of a running Apache server

cleaning up stale Apache::DBI connections without killing the child process

and more... useful stuff.

actually, there is quite a bit of code that was both new and novel when the book was published. for instance...

the recipe for intercepting writes to the error_log

an API for interfacing with Digest authentication

using Apache::RegistryLoader as a PerlRestartHandler

making XBitHack actually useful on Win32

automatically transforming incoming UTF8 charset data

making Apache API functions available outside of a running Apache server

cleaning up stale Apache::DBI connections without killing the child process

and more... useful stuff.

actually, there is quite a bit of code that was both new and novel when the book was published. for instance...

the recipe for intercepting writes to the error_log

an API for interfacing with Digest authentication

using Apache::RegistryLoader as a PerlRestartHandler

making XBitHack actually useful on Win32

automatically transforming incoming UTF8 charset data

making Apache API functions available outside of a running Apache server

cleaning up stale Apache::DBI connections without killing the child process

and more... useful stuff.

actually, there is quite a bit of code that was both new and novel when the book was published. for instance...

the recipe for intercepting writes to the error_log

an API for interfacing with Digest authentication

using Apache::RegistryLoader as a PerlRestartHandler

making XBitHack actually useful on Win32

automatically transforming incoming UTF8 charset data

making Apache API functions available outside of a running Apache server

cleaning up stale Apache::DBI connections without killing the child process

and more... useful stuff.

actually, there is quite a bit of code that was both new and novel when the book was published. for instance...

the recipe for intercepting writes to the error_log

an API for interfacing with Digest authentication

using Apache::RegistryLoader as a PerlRestartHandler

making XBitHack actually useful on Win32

automatically transforming incoming UTF8 charset data

making Apache API functions available outside of a running Apache server

cleaning up stale Apache::DBI connections without killing the child process

and more... useful stuff.

actually, there is quite a bit of code that was both new and novel when the book was published. for instance...

the recipe for intercepting writes to the error_log

an API for interfacing with Digest authentication

using Apache::RegistryLoader as a PerlRestartHandler

making XBitHack actually useful on Win32

automatically transforming incoming UTF8 charset data

making Apache API functions available outside of a running Apache server

cleaning up stale Apache::DBI connections without killing the child process

and more... useful stuff.

In any case, it's nice to see a new review on one of my favorite web sites. More good reviews over there at amazon and at the book's official web site.

we (the authors) support a companion website where you can find a number of useful items, such as all the code from the book (to save your fingers) and a full-text search engine (to supplement the index).

http://www.modperlcookbook.org/

enjoy

we (the authors) support a companion website where you can find a number of useful items, such as all the code from the book (to save your fingers) and a full-text search engine (to supplement the index).

http://www.modperlcookbook.org/

enjoy

we (the authors) support a companion website where you can find a number of useful items, such as all the code from the book (to save your fingers) and a full-text search engine (to supplement the index).

http://www.modperlcookbook.org/

enjoy

I'd agree that the mod_perl Developer's Cookbook is really good, and you'll have to prise it from my dead hands before I'll give up my copy.

A classic, and no longer the only book in the field. mod_perl Developer's Cookbook is a tremendous tome, and I use it more than the the LDS/DOUGM book. It's well worth looking at.

It's not better than the eagle book, but if I could only buy one, that would be it.

The guild is way off base here. Authors actually can make more money by using Amazon's associates program.

I recently co-authored the mod_perl Developer's Cookbook and we link to Amazon for our sales. I've also sold some of my collection through the Amazon marketplace, so I've seen both sides.

Amazon's commission structure is simply the best. We average about 10% of the purchase price on referals, plus 5% of anything else the customer buys in that session. So far these commissions are almost outpacing actual royalties from total sales.

There have been some used books available for sale, but those have not bothered me one bit. Buying used might save some money, but it is a less convenient option and most people still opt to buy new. (For example you cannot get a better shipping cost for multiple items.)

The Author's Guild should focus it's efforts on getting authors a bigger royalty in the first place, and stamping out the nasty liability clauses in most contracts these days. See this article by Philip Greenspun for why these contracts suck.