Re: Is it just me...?

[mattr]

Don't worry, it's not just you!

While the basic concepts of programming are something you should understand, there is a lot that is just experience. There is a lot of good documentation but I'd also recommend going to the book store and skimming the Tables of Contents of as many seemingly relevant books as you can find (after reading the ones people recommend here, they seem just what you need really).

If you try to solve real problems and learn a bit at a time, you can teach yourself. Even something simple like trying to do a simple thing in a program of maybe 5-10 lines and trying a few ways to do it. When you wonder why something doesn't work, try and find out by experimenting and by looking for where relevant info may be. The best weapon I could recommend is reading voraciously until you find something that speaks to you. That's when you start having fun.

By the way you will find there is an idiom that fits perl thinking just the way there are ones for electronics engineering. The author of Perl recommends laziness as a programmer's friend, so I wouldn't worry about agility. Another great motto of perlfolk is TMTOWTDI (There's More Than One Way To Do It) which you may have heard. Much of learning is looking at a problem from a few perspectives to get a handle on it. Much of experience is making a heck of a lot of mistakes (I know). Peace!