[techtalk] Perl for idiots?

[Nancy Corbett]

Lori,

I am not a programmer and have never taken a programming class, but I've
had lots of jobs where I've had to learn to troubleshoot perl scripts.  I
found tons of tutorials on the web and found a guestbook in my html book,
so I hand coded it and placed it on my web page as an exercise.  The
darned thing works, too!!!  Perl is not that difficult.

Of course, it depends on what you'll be using it for.  It's great for
handy little cgi scripts for a web page, but I've worked at companies
whose entire business ran on a foundation of perl scripts.

I would suggest getting the Camel book and Learning Perl, both published
by O'Reilly, and there's another book called Perl in 21 days...it's
written by a woman.  I can't remember her name off the top of my head, but
I have the book at home.  I'll find out and send it to you.

Anyway, if the job does not require that you are already proficient in
perl and is offering to let you learn on the job, I think that's
great!  Opportunities like that are rare.  Usually they want you to have 5
years of experience in a product that's only been out for 3.  I'd probably
grab it.

Nancy