Re: Perl Programming within Debian

["Leonid Grinberg" <lgrinberg@gmail.com>]

OK, several things:

Perl does NOT encourage bad behavior. It simply makes it easier to code poorly.
Perl is not as difficult to learn as people say it is.

The best place to start would be Google. That is how I learned it. The
package ``perl'' will have the interpreter. The package perl-doc will
have the command ``perldoc'' (yes, the package has a dash - the
program does not). perldoc has lots of nice documentation. I suggest
getting ``Learning Perl'' and ``The Perl Cookbook'' if you can. Also,
sign up for the mailing list beginners@perl.org where many nice people
will help you use the language.

Any extension works, but .pl is conventional for command line.
Sometimes, people give it no extension at all. For web servers, either
.cgi or .pl are usually used.

Good luck! Feel free to email me if you have any questions!