Blazer wrote: > > I have limited experience of programming in C & C++ - I cant claim to > know either of these well, but i do try to keep building on what i > know, when i can. I just kept reading that Perl was a very easy > language to learn. Is this true or is it propaganda??? > > All I know is Larry Wall created it! Is it possible to get to grips > with this language fast - like in two or three months?
I think it's fair to say that, probably like most languages, Perl's easy to learn if matches the way you think. It is unusual in several respects: - It is not statically typed, so that an error due to a variable containing the wrong type of data isn't caught until the program is run - Compile and run time are intermingled, so that the compiler can pause and run part of what it has compiled before finishing the compilation - It handles many cases where your code is ambiguous, and makes its best guess as to what you may have meant So if you are used to something like C you may well get a little confused before you get used to Perl's ways. However I, together with most people on this list, would probably claim that it was worth the effort. It is certainly possible to learn some of Perl within a couple of months- you can learn to write something useful within a couple of days - but comprehensive knowledge of the entire language will take a few years. Of course it makes a big difference how much time you spend on learning and how enthusiastic you are! HTH, Rob -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscr...@perl.org For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-h...@perl.org http://learn.perl.org/
