in reply to Assume that Perl has what you need
There is value in reinventing the wheel when it comes to learning.
For newbies in particular, it is sometimes a good idea to understand the mechanisms behind what they are trying to do. The depth of understanding that results increases their PERL expertise overall and will make them a better user of whatever the feature/package is which has already been written.
Additionally, it is often only near the end of writing some code that you realise that there was a better way to do it.
Rather than start by loading lots of packages, I often start with a top down approach, and then look for a package/function/feature when I get to a point where it looks 'obvious' that there is a suitable wheel to reuse.
Even when I have found a suitable package, I will then look through some of the keys pieces of the package so I can understand how it is achieving the functionality I am looking for.
This leads to an overall better understanding.
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Brovnik
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