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I bought Learning Perl and Programming Perl and read them from cover to cover and did all of the presented exercises. Then I purchased the Perl Black Book and the Perl Cookbook to see other options.

I think that my strongest reading tool was the PerlDocs, though. Learning gave me the syntax and the rest gave me different options for solving different problems in Perl.

The hands-down best way that you can learn to program Perl is to sit down and get your hands dirty with coding.

If you are completely new to programming (I had come from a C/C++ world), then I would strongly recommend Python as a starting point. It will teach you the programming logic that you need, as well as Regular Expression support so that you won't be lost when you see them in Perl...plus it will teach you how to program for readability and support.

Once you have that, pick up Perl, learn the syntax and develop your own style from what you have learned from Python and from the code that you will be reading in Perl. You'll discover that everyone has their own style, and you will have your own as well. You just need to learn to develop it as you learn rather than becoming entrenched in another's style.

If you're not new to programming, then Learning Perl is a great starting point to get the syntax down. Next, check out the PerlDocs and as much code as you can stand to sort through. Take simple concepts and code them. Work your way up.

I wouldn't recommend videos, though. They are rather useless when it comes to problem solving. Perl is too robust for a 6 series videoset.

In reply to Re: How did you learn Perl? by iamnothing
in thread How did you learn Perl? by venimfrogtongue

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