A basic knowledge of reading and math is necessary to properly learn a programming language. Assuming you have that, Perl is as good a language as any to start with. You don't need to be complicated -

$cash = 10.00;
$chocolate = 1.20;
$bread = 0.99;
$candy = 0.50;
$cash = $cash - $chocolate;
print "I have $cash left.";
[download]

or

for ($i = 1; $i <= 20; $i++) {
    print "I have completed the loop $i times.\n";
}
[download]

My dad tought me BASIC programming at age 9, including use of loops and variable input / output, and it shouldn't be difficult to teach the same thing in Perl.

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.