This is really basic stuff, and you should really grab a book...
You need to re-read the documentation…
Again, read the docs that come with…

While I agree that people should pick up a book to aid in learning Perl, and look through the documentation for answers as their first course of action, the above lines could imply that the question asked was a waste of the posters time (This was a very gentle implication, mind you, as most posters did give answers in the ensuing lines.) I've seen this on a few occasions to prod new users to get users familiar with the docs, but I’m not sure if it is a prod or a provision.

It reminds me of, say, a serf asking a Lord for a shilling. Instead of just handing the shilling over, the Lord must first expound on how rich he is, and how trivial this shilling is to his vast estates, and that the serf could have estates like him if he were smarter and knew how to read, and had some very fashionable tights and a 20 pound medallion…

Or is it more like a Monk saying, “here’s a fish, and there is a stash of fishing rods over behind those rocks for next time…

I prefer to think it is the latter.

I guess what I'm asking is: Are there questions that are too basic? Should a newbie be required to pour over the docs for answers that we can provide in 5 seconds?

I just remember being really green, and not even knowing how to get at the docs to review them. After a couple of big slams about reading the docs, I didn't feel comfortable asking easy questions before spending hours reading the documentation.

I did learn to use the docs, though...