Re: Good way to start learning Perl?

[Sherlock]

drewboy,
The other monks have definitely given some great advice as to how to learn Perl. I don't think you really need to have any prior programming experience to learn it (of course, it doesn't hurt, either). I would recommend picking up either Learning Perl (if you're very new to programming) or Programming Perl (if you feel more confortable with programming).

One thing I'd like to point out to you, though, is that you shouldn't forget about the Monastery. This is an incredible resource of code snippets, thoughts, and Q&A for everyone from beginning programmers to experienced coders. I only urge you to try to learn things on your own at first. If you run into problems, try to solve them and, if you can't, come to PerlMonks. I'm sure everyone would be more than happy to help you out. The only bad thing you can do would be to use PerlMonks like a crutch. If you come here and ask about every little question, some of the monks might become rather unresponsive to your plight (to put it gently). Take a look at yBic's home node. He has some excellent resources that will teach you about how to use PerlMonks and how to get the most out of your visits here.

Good luck learning Perl and I hope to see you around more often.

- Sherlock

Skepticism is the source of knowledge as much as knowledge is the source of skepticism.