Visitors to EFNET IRC #perlhelp (irc.efnet.org)
are generally told to go read
http://learn.perl.org/library/beginning_perl/,
and they generally resent that.
Okay. You don't want to read a book, even if it's
free.
Or else the material didn't stick, or else it
doesn't suit how they learn, or else they're
eager to get started on their programming
project and need a reference rather than a
tutorial.
This is how I learned Perl.
You can follow this procedure exactly, or
you can extrapolate from it, but regardless,
you need a system.
If you make a concious effort, things will go
much more smoothly and quickly than bumbling
along.
Also, if you don't find a system and you
depend on people in the channel for all knowledge,
you'll accumulate the necessary knowledge
very slowly for the simple reason that
idle IRCers at work are not the
fastest quick reference.
Here's what I did.
I read perldoc perlintro.
I took notes, and I edited and maintained
them as a cheat sheet for the bits I couldn't
keep in my head but often needed.
I also kept a list of things I didn't
understand.
(I discovered the fantastic
usefulness of perldoc perltoc
but not until much later -- it's a summary
of the included documentation and core modules.)
I read the perldoc perlfunc
and perldoc perlop pages and took on
conical usage of things that seemed important.
I read through perldoc perlfaq,
perldoc perlfaq1, etc and learned
lessons by example and at the same time
got a feel for the kinds of questions
answered in there.
In good time, I got a feel for what kinds of
things were operators, what were functions,
what I had to go to the FAQ for,
and which I had to go to the core modules for.
Discovering CPAN and accepting it into my
heart was the final major leg of my journey
through Perl novicehood.
-scott
P.S.: Comments are enabled, but remember, I'm
mean, so post at the risk of provoking me.
That's pretty much what I did. I did have access to the pink Camel book in the early days, and it was a great help. But real mastery didn't start until I made a habit of reading through one page of perldoc documentation (in perltoc order) every day right after lunch.
Then I plugged into the community, and the rest is history.
At some point in time, I wrote a little brain download called "The Path to Perl Mastery" for coworkers, which I've sent around a time or two. Maybe I should post it.
