On Fri, 6 Jul 2001, Robert Omatsu wrote:
> As others, I am attempting to learn Perl. I have enrolled into a local
> Community College class, but from reading up and talking with the
> instructor, all I'll get out of it is a very basic overview. Now I would
> like to try and get a head start on learning Perl. Can anyone recommend a
> good book/Website...something that could point me into the correct
> direction.
Have you looked at www.perl.com, www.perl.org, learn.perl.org, etc? There
are definitely plenty of good books out there. _Learning Perl_ from
O'Reilly seems to be the most recommended for beginners. Is Perl your
first language or have you done programming in other languages before?
> Also I am a old Dos/Windows kid and I have found that a lot of Perl people
> use Unix and Linux. Is this a true concept? I have recently downloaded
> Redhat 7.1 and intend on installing that on a old AMD400 I have. Again is
> learning Linux also the best thing to do in regards to Perl programs?
While a Unix-like environment is preferred by many in develop in Perl, it
is not required. There are some very nice ports of Perl to Windows,
namely ActiveState Perl and CygWin Perl (the latter requires the CygWin
environment to run). Trying to learn a new platform AND trying to learn a
new programming language on that platform at the same time may not be
ideal. I would go ahead and learn Linux first, while learning Perl under
Windows, then learn how to transfer your skills over to Linux. Perl is
very cross-platform, so nearly everything you do under Windows will easily
port over to Linux, and vice versa.
-- Brett
http://www.chapelperilous.net/btfwk/
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Horngren's Observation:
Among economists, the real world is often a special case.
