Many of us here are learning Perl too. I’ve found hanging around on perlmonks is a very good start, there are many experienced monks that are willing to help. Have a look at the very marvellous Tutorials, do a bit of super searching.
So, sign up for an account and start writing code. :-) If you get stuck show us your code. If you get an error message show us that too. Show us any input the code needs and any output you get and show us what output you expected.
Write your code so that monks can download it and run it. Make sure it compiles and use strict and warnings.
If you try to follow these guidelines you’ll almost certainly get helpful responses. When I’ve done this I’ve had answers, suggestions and advice from experienced monks that have helped me, kicking and struggling, along the path to getting at least a faint grip on Perl. I’m sure you will too, welcome to the monastery.
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Look for a Perl Mongers group in your area. Attend a few of the meetings. Get to know the people there. Maybe you'll meet someone who is at a similar level and who wants to form a small study group.
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Check your local community college and see if they offer it as a class. That's how I got my start in Perl. It's a great way to go.
To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable - Barry Goldwater
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On top of what was mentioned (Perl Mongers probably being your best bet) find a friend or co-worker is interested in learning with you. If they don't know what it is. Explain to them the power and simplicity of the language (although if you're a beginner you may not know this). I wish I had someone who was learning with me when I started working with Perl. I hope you have some luck.
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I think trying to learn programming with someone else is great but of course you also need some books to get you started and do your homework with. Read a few chapeters of something like "Programming Perl" or something that is geared more towards what you actually want to do, e.g. in my case it was bioinformatics, for which "Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics" is the best way to start.
For social coding (best way to learn from and with others), find or start a little project on github. There's nothing like seeing other people's code to learn how things are done, somthing that a book will never be able to teach you. A small Perl module, maybe one for a simple system admin task or something that collects some stuff off of web pages is always a good start. In my experiencce, the idea for a project should come first because that gives you the motivation to learn the techniques you will need to make it work. | [reply] |
