As sister Jane says in the recent "Pride and Prejudice" adaptation, "everyone is not the _same_, Lizzie." The reason I wrote this book is well summed up by the earlier commenter, a non-programmer who was uncomfortable when reading the Llama (from which I also learned Perl, and was similarly uncomfortable) with the notion that the book was assuming a lot of things about my background that weren't true.

Granted, you didn't like the book. Stipulated: It was not suitable for someone like you. That's not that same as it not being suitable for anyone.

Yes, if I were writing it again knowing what I know today I would certainly write a different, and arguably a better, book. There are things that make me cringe when I read it again today (things that are well-summed-up by the notation Damian Conway put inside the front cover of my personal copy when I was collecting signatures like a lovestruck teenager at an O'Reilly book signing: "Oh, how I wish I'd written this book." Ouch.)

But experienced programmers like the me of today (and presumably, you) aren't interested in writing a book for that particular audience. Explaining all that basic stuff (what is a subroutine? how do regexes work?) in simple terms that assume _zero_ programming background is a lot of work. That's why those beginners get really crappy books written for them that teach them bad habits and leave them floundering.

I set out to write a better book for that audience because I related to them, because I _was_ one of those folks, and wanted to help them along the first few steps of the path. That's all the Ugly Monkey tried to do, and I think it did an okay job of it.

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