[Mister B.]

Okay, here we go. I am new to web design, and have tried some asp, some php, HTML (duh), flash, and similar integration. So really the next logical step seemed to be perl... So I have three big questions, (the more english, and less jargon the better) 1. What is perl? 2. What is it mainly used for? 3. what tools do I need to use it? (okay I lied 4) 4. Where can I see a good tutorial on it?

[Chas]

Hi Mister B.,

I'll see if I can't answer some of your questions:

1. What is perl?

Perl is just another programming language. It just so happens that it works very well for CGI scripting. The best way to explain it is to point you to the main documentation:

http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/p...ml#DESCRIPTION

2. What is it mainly used for?

That's one of the beauties of Perl; you can use it for damn near anything. I primarily use it for the web but I also use it for systems tasks with it from time to time.

3. what tools do I need to use it?

A text editor (vi or gvim work best ) and a Perl interpreter are all you need. There are a few Perl IDEs out there but they are not needed. Check out http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/ for a Windows distribution of the Perl interpreter.

4. Where can I see a good tutorial on it?

Hmmm, good question. I'll give you a few links, not really tutorials though:

1) http://learn.perl.org/
2) http://learn.perl.org/library/beginning_perl/
3) http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.8.0/pod/perlintro.html
4) http://www.perl.org/
5) http://www.perlmonks.org/
6) http://www.cpan.org/ & http://search.cpan.org

That's somewhat in order. Definitely check out #2 and #3, that will get you well on your way if you want to learn Perl. Another site I use all the time is http://www.perldoc.com/. That's the entirety of the Perl documentation online and searchable. That makes for a very handy reference.

Hopefully this will help get you started

~Charlie

[Mister B.]

thanks chas... looks good.