You asked, and we (eventually) delivered.
Modern Perl, the book, is now available in ePub format as well as A4- and letter-sized PDFs.
There is no DRM and there are no special licensing terms. Please redistribute this book far and wide and tell everyone that they too can write great Perl 5 code that takes advantage of all of the hard-earned wisdom and effort we've put into improving the language in the past several years.
Of course, you can always tell people to buy the printed copy—I'm a fan of paper—but the important part is spreading the word, whether through reviews on Perl Monger lists, web sites like Slashdot and Ars Technica and LWN, and of course booksellers. You're also very welcome to upload and seed torrents, post it on ebook sites, or just hand around USB sticks whenever you get together.
Bilingual Perl hackers have already begun translations into other languages, and we're very happy to see this and help in any way possible.
If we're going to show off how great Perl programming can be, let's make sure everyone has a chance to read a good book about it.
The epub has some problems when viewed on an iPod touch. While not an ebook reader by any means, epub files are readable without a problem using Apple's iBooks application. You can change fonts, font size, etc.
With this epub the only way to see the content is going to the index and click on a chapter (e.g "The Perl Philosophy" and not "Perldoc" beneath which is empty). The text is shown in a kind of preview screen, but -sadly- the font size can not be changed.
@nxadm: iBooks on a 3GS iPhone crashed repeatedly on me trying to open Modern Perl. Eventually deleted it (Modern Perl) from the iBooks bookshelf unopened.
Stanza (a free ePub ebook reader) opened it fine, and "Perldoc" and other sub-headings were perfectly functional, pages turned normally, etc. The font-size can be changed (with a slider, no less, not Kindle-for-iPhone's comparatively limited pick-one-of-five).
I guess it's all in the right reader.
Maybe all the @#$% confuse poor little iBooks. ;)
@chromatic: Thanks for this format, really appreciated!
I can't get it to display on my Kindle 3, it doesn't show up in the list of documents. Did anyone succeed?
Thanks for your efforts to provide an ePub, much appreciated!
Oops, forget my previous comment - the Kindle doesn't read ePub natively.
Michael Schubart made a Mobi file. I'll upload that as well.
Reading it with great pleasure on a kindle 3. Kudos to the author and all involved, the rendering is awesome (especially when compared to "Effective Perl Programming" which is hideous on kindle 3). Only (small) gripe is with links hiccuping, e.g.
All four exhibit short-circuiting behavior (Short Circuiting(short_circuiting)).
It's a bit distracting but not serious.
So far it's well worth the money I didn't spend, so definitely expect that paypal tip shortly. Thanks again for making this available.