I guess I should actually write something in here. I have no idea what, so a little about me...
How I found Perl...
This is a funny story, and I hope I remember all the details. Around the end of 1997 I had this sudden desire to learn perl (at the suggestion of the system admin of my shell, and a friend). I quickly looked for a windows version, since I was not able to install linux (at least without my parents knowing it) on their computers. I did this so I could play around with it while not connected to the internet, since I could run perl off my shell. I found activestate's ActivePerl, and downloaded it, installed it, and ran perl.exe expecting some whiz bang gui to pop up to help me. To my dismay it did nothing, just sat there, after I waited a few minutes, I became discouraged, and put the thought aside of learning perl till when I had more time.
A few months go by i keep looking perl here and there. As I pick up more unix skills I figure out why just perl with out a script won't work, but don't have the time study it properly. Went through a few non computer related jobs. Then through a friend off IRC I started working remotely for him, doing data entry type stuff. In there, I had to modify a little perl code to do some quick calculations, if necessary (to do with price, and quantity ordered). It was suggested I learn perl in case I needed to do some fancy work, and just for general knowledge.
I went out and committed a mortal sin in the perl world, I bought Perl for Dummies. Before you judge me, it did help me get a quick start, and I quickly repented of my sin and bought myself a copy of Programming Perl and the Perl Cookbook. After the contract job for my friend ran out, I started playing with perl more heavily, being unemployed, and having lots of free time. Being the role-player I am, I decided to write a dice roller. With my new found skills, I began to get fancy with my dice roller, and kept adding features, like color (using Term::AnsiColor). After playing with a command line version of this little dice roller, I decided to look into a GUI version. That is when I found TK, more specifically, perl/tk. I then preceded to write a slick gui dice roller. Looking back at the code it was ugly, but mine. I am too ashamed to admit is mine, and if you look enough, you might find a copy, if you know where to look. I keep telling myself I am going to go back and re-write it. But have I? Not yet. Maybe next week.
After having mastered most of the basics of perl, and being hounded by my parents to find a job, I got one through a friend, doing what I found exciting, writing perl code! Ever since then I have done most of my scripting in perl. I'll admit, I've dabbled in python, java, and php, but always find myself longing for the simplicity of perl.
There are lots of more details I can add, but I'll save those for another day...
