I should mention an excellent multiplatform Graphical Pod Viewer that installs as a module: Tk::Pod. Despite you have to previously install some CPAN's dependencies (like perlindex Text::English that let's you search every pod in your system after feeding it well) it is worth the effort. It works, at least like win32 ActivePerl's pod, but this one scans all your system for any pod that it could show, hyperlinks it all, and is a bit clearer in the tree classification (uses colors to show the origin, shows repeated modules at the command line, etc.). Yet, it hasn't arrived to version 1! But you can just call tkpod to see it all screen.

I found that it is easier to learn with a physical book: mine, was the great Perl 5 by Example.

IDEs: allthough I prefer one multiplatform, I found this one for windows that is very programer friendly (simple and organized): http://enginsite.com/Perl.htm . SCIte http://scintilla.sourceforge.net/SciTEImage.html is multiplatform and very popular (big comunity of users and SF.versions- see http://notepad-plus.sf.net) and solid (never breaks).