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in reply to What 'should' a professional PERL programmer know?

"...my current job as a C language software Engineer."

As i started relatively late with programming in general and with Perl (my second programming language) i feel qualified to put in my two cents.

Some bros gave some more detailed advice above - so i'd like to add some general hints:

You mention that you got some knowledge in C: that is IMHO a good background.

As you may have noticed there are three basic things that work in Perl as in any other imperative language:

You know this already, no need to worry about - Perl isn't so different ;-)

Some say one of the worst things one can do is writing Perl and thinking C (in your case).

I think this is only partly right. No one can live down his roots.

For example: a Java programmer writing Perl will have a Java accent for years a.s.o.

Compare this to learning a real language: it may take years to get rid of an accent. Most learners have one all their life.

There are some things you can do to get around this problem:

  1. Write your own Perl code
  2. Read other peoples Perl code
  3. Start over with step one

There are some other perlish things to become accustomed with like magic, context, scoping, refs, the idea Perl has about data types a.s.o.

A source of wisdom is CPAN. Study code made for real problems, see how things are done perlish and try to get a feeling for the language.

The idea is: Try to understand some ideas and concepts of Perl instead of learning a kind of a "canon" of Perl basic skills or so called "required techniques".

And being able to answer as many as possible questions from some books doesn't IMHO help you in real life. This is just tab knowledge. You need ideas, creativity, some patience and the man pages for the modules you use.

Best regards, Karl

P.S.: And as you are not a beginner in programming, you should really read the Camel Book, best in parallel to your studies.

«The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe»

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Re^2: What 'should' a professional PERL programmer know?
by perloHolic() (Beadle) on Jan 12, 2015 at 16:46 UTC

    Thank you very much for your input Karl, and those thanks also extend to everyone else who has given input throught this meditation. It always helps to talk these things out, and as I have no one else to discuss these kinds of issues with, I really appreciate everyone being here and giving there honest opinions and experiences

    There are points here made especially by Athanasius, Your Mother, Chroba and karlgoethebier that have added real value toward my enlightenment, as well as other honourable mentions of which I cannot upvote I'm afraid as I am only allowed two votes. Of course this does not solve my problem by any means and any more comments are of course welcome!!

    In a short and intermediate conclsuion - It would appear that many suggestion of what one should know and how one should go about learning have highlighted my naivety as I expected they would, so this has at the very least pointed me in the right/next direction of studies and I couldn't ask for more from you guys and gals, so thank you all.

      "...I am only allowed two votes."

      Stay on board and you will get some more votes ;-)

      "...I couldn't ask for more..."

      I don't see any serious reason why you shouldn't ask for more. PM is made for asking.

      Thank you very much for your kind reply and best regards, Karl

      P.S.: When worse comes to worse see Is guessing a good strategy for surviving in the IT business? ;-) For some more serious inspiration see intuition and Zen in the Art of Archery. And keep in mind that intuition grows out of repetition (AKA practicing). This applies for any skill.

      «The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe»