One of the best methods I've found is to "decode" existing Perl code to see what the programmer is trying to accomplish.

I was recently thumbing through "Perl and CGI For The World Wide Web" by Elizabeth Castro, and while a little too elementary for me, I found her teaching technique extremely easy to read through. And it got me thinking.

Since Perl was originally designed to manipulate text, how easy would it be to design a program that takes a Perl construct and returns an english explaination of what it is trying to accomplish or doing? Something like you type the following into a form:

@classes = split(/,/, $class);
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and the program returns an explanation such as:

"@classes" is an array being built from splitting the scalar variable "$class" into individual items separated by the argument between the "//", or in this case a "'".

Has anyone seen anything like this? Or is it even practical? Seems like it would be a great resource for beginners like me when trying to learn.

I have used the MAN pages and perldocs, but it is easier for me to learn when seeing application in different instances.

Any thoughts?