Hey guys,
I have spent quite some time working on my BASH scripting skills. I still have A LOT to learn, but for the most part I can manage to work my way through scripting most task. I still have to take the time to learn sed, awk, regexp's etc. However I feel I am at a point now where I think I would like to start learning perl.

So from reading this you can probably tell I am going to ask for some websites or whatnot that I can reference to begin learning. Well you are right, but before I get to that I think it is best to explain my learning style.

I have never been able to really learn from a hello world style primer. In fact I usually skim over primers and then I find something I want to do and work out a mental flow chart of how to do the script. Once I figure out the flow I basically start looking at code examples and start piecing together code to do what I am trying to do. I learn by doing, not by reading. If you point me to a book of mind numbing talk about how print basic strings, then defining variables etc. I will get bored and just skip it. I understand you have to learn the basics before you can just take off and do something. But I just can not deal with monogamous mind numbing reading material, I need something that will give me real world examples and teach me by having me write realistic scripts and not a text book script.

With all of that said, does anyone know of any resources that I can reference to learn perl, that will fit my learning style?

Hi -

As you know, one learns by "reading" and "writing". Reading code; reading books (or articles). Writing code, asking questions (as in forums like this).

Books, articles and postings are Good (at least when you're getting good information). Code is Good (at least when it's not crap code).

Having said that, I definitely recommend either/both the "Camel book" and/or the "Llama book":

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596520113/

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596000271


IMHO .. PSM

You might take a look at these sites:

• http://perl-begin.org/
• http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2008/04/23...-perl-510.html (First in a series of items...)
• http://learn.perl.org/

Thanks, I will give them a look.

It sounds like your probability of success in learning Perl is high. I believe that people who learn programming [languages] by having practical projects to work on are 1.) able to recognize when a program can/should be used to help them, 2.) motivated to get the program working so that it does help them, & 3.) usually practical about starting with simple objectives. As far as books go, I completely agree with your sentiment about the plethora of uninteresting examples. I usually bail on those after the first chapter or less. I find a really well organized and thorough reference manual is as good as any learning resource. Something that organizes information in ways that demonstrate something about the nature of the language, categorizes similar bits of information, and provides just enough how-to info to get you looking in the right places to find the gory details.
I won't say the O'Reilly book 'Perl in a Nutshell' is exactly that, but is has enough of that style to make it worth recommending. My other standard recommendation is to find questions asked about the language of interest on forums such as this, and try to come up with your own solution. Usually, there will be more that one solution provided for contrast, as well as some narrative about why a certain method was suggested. In Perl, that goes double.

--- rod.

There's loads of practical examples in the official docs: http://perldoc.perl.org/, that's how they explain things. See also the tutorials at perlmonks http://www.perlmonks.org/?node=Tutorials.
Also, the Cookbook http://www.amazon.com/Perl-Cookbook-.../dp/1565922433 is worth it's weight in $resource_of_your_choice ...