Resources for Learning Perl
One should note that in order to get help with Perl code, you should first make a minimal effort to learn it. Perl is a relatively easy language to learn, and most programmers can easily get the hang of it, and become productive with it. If you don't want to learn it, then there are many Perl consultants who will be happy to help you for a fee. But the Perl gods only help those who help themselves.
From what to Learn?
- Tutorials
- A list of recommended online tutorials for learning Perl and getting up to speed with it. Normally they don't teach everything you can possibly know, but they should be OK to start with, if you're impatient. As such they are optimized for starting to write code, not reading that of much more experienced Perl programmers, or those that use a different style from you.
- Books
- A list of online and offline (or otherwise books that require pay to view online or download), for learning Perl.
- IDEs and Development Tools
- Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and other Development tools for Perl.
- Core Documentation
- The core documentation of Perl, which has been improving. Contains several tutorials for getting up to speed with many subjects.
- Article Collections
- Collections of short, in-depth articles.
- Training
- Take courses for learning Perl.
- Exercises and Challenges
- Collections of exercises and challenges to be solved by writing programs. Learn how to program by programming.
How to Get Help?
Suppose you've read one of these resources and encountered a problem. Now what should you do?
- IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
- Internet Relay Chat is probably the fastest way to receive answers to most common beginner questions. Please visit the link to learn more about it, and see where it is best to ask, what to avoid doing, and what to expect.
- Mailing Lists
- Mailing lists allow you to ask questions by E-mail and also learn from similar discussions. They are the best solution for more obscure questions, or if you're not short on time and want less interactive, but more in-depth discussions.
- Web Forums
- Web forums are similar to mailing lists, but all interaction is done through a web-browser, and one can use web feeds to monitor them. We have concentrated a selection of Perl-related web forums on the Web Forums page.
Resources for Reference and Enlightenment
- General Reference Resources
- Reference resources that did not fit elsewhere, including those from the core Perl 5 documentation.
- Wikis
- Wikis are dynamically editable web-sites that allow for collaborative editing of useful information. Perl has many wikis with active contributors, that help write useful knowledge.
- Blogs
- Blogs, Weblogs or Online Journals where people write about Perl.
