How to help someone is often defined by what they need it for. If I was going to help a fellow programmer, I would go into more detail and relate it to common programming theory rather then teaching from the ground up.
If I am teaching a beginner who is not a programmer, nor do they have the desire, love, or time to learn perlt hen sometimes I cheat and teach them what they need to know with a very blackbox approach. More cause & effect then how & why.
I have also found it is sometimes a little harder to teach programmers who are glued to C++. Sometimes it takes abit to understand that perl's TIMTOWTDI can sometimes be an asset over the structure of C++.