Prior experience in another language will give you just enough confidence to shoot yourself in the foot with Perl, repeatedly.: Excellent point. I think juggling makes a good metaphor for programming in this case. Juggling small balls (using BASIC), juggling bowling pins (using Java), and juggling chainsaws (Perl) all use some of the same skills, but you had better damned well know something specific about juggling chainsaws before you try it blindfolded.