Here's my take on it. Perl is a very large and flexible language. Any language that boasts TIMTOWTDI as a feature means that there is no 'one true way'. This may make it a hard language for someone without any programming experience. Perhaps a more B&D language is a better choice for a first. Perl as a first language has been discussed here.

But I think it's fine for a casual programmer up. It is very easy to write Perl code, and probably repeating something merlyn said, it's very easy to write bad Perl code.

What this means is that you can pick up Perl and start using it immediately. But it's very flexibility means you aren't going to be forced to do things 'right'.

Personally, based on how I learned, I effectively learned a subset of Perl that didn't include many things people consider good practice - use strict, modules, etc. I didn't omit these because I was a bad programmer, I omitted these because I was unfamiliar with them and I knew (heavy irony) enough Perl to do what I need to. I still wince at the mess my early programs were.

However, I think that Perl is mature enough to avoid that - there are innumerable resources, web, book, and people, to allow one not to hurt oneself with the chainsaw if one takes the time to check them out. And past that it's just practice, like any language.

=Blue
...you might be eaten by a grue...

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