Perl is the best language here around and Perlmonks is the sweetiest community.. but ask here is like to ask to the innkeeper if the wine is good..

Perl is a multipurpose language and with Perl you can do many many different things. It is somehow a very succint language: few keystroke to get a big effect.

Perl can run almost on every calculator you can normally have access to: it is preinstalled on most Linux distros, can run on windows (ActivePerl or even the by far preferable StrawberryPerl), mac ...

CPAN contains a big big number of Perl modules and is one of the biggest software community here around.

Take a copy of the old but still usefull Perl Cookbook to see many different complete applications presented in a recipe style.

Take your free copy of Modern Perl to have a fres look to the language.

A dedicated website perldoc.com offer you an introduction called perlintro

The main Perl site hosts also a first steps tutorial

Also see a note about case: Whats-the-difference-between-perl-and-Perl ie no more PERL..

L*