I was just wondering how many Perl programmers are in this forum and what they do for a living?
I guess there's no Perl programmers in here then!
I fiddled with Perl scripts before but learning it has given me a huge amount of understanding of what I was configuring.
I have found Perl rewarding and interesting so far.
Littleman has just proved to me that Perl is VERY useful, I shall be spending my holidays learning it!
it's very important IMHO that you leave yourself very open minded when it comes to learning how to code. I don't have that much experience with any language, but I remain open minded and try and stay easy-to-teach.
I have learnt a lot of stuff from the guys on WMW in the short time that I have been in here. Maybe I digress, but this - I think - is important to remember: Take advice, never throw it back!
The beauty of this forum is that if the advice is bad someone is always happy to say so ;)
Back to the question I'm a
"Perl and Php and Linux and HTML and Javascript and Oracle and Sybase and MySQL and XML and Graphics and Solaris and VB and Java and SEO and Windows (NT+98) and blah blah blah and way too many hats ;)"
programmer, jack of all trades master of none... getting closer though with a few ;)
Perl has been the route too all of the mischief above - talk about the ducting tape of the Internet ... it holds the whole thing together.
<edited - spelling - not a master>
My favorite resource for learning perl was the CPAN [cpan.org] website. I have bought several perl books, but none were as helpful as simply browsing through module documentation. I also enjoy checking out the #perl IRC channel.
I love perl and use it every day to make my life easier and more efficient. I've coded log analyzers, web page submitters, E commerce engines, shopping carts, opt-in mailing lists, cloaking scripts, keyword analyzers, Goto bid trackers/databases, website cloners/mirrors, a SE traffic ROI analyzer, an automatic insult generator, a script encrypter, a commercial linkfarm program... but I don't do contract work any more.