This is kind of a loaded question. I don't consider myself
a programmer by any strech of the imagination, however I do
frequently write some very basic and useful programs. I started
with bash and before I was any good started learning perl. I
consider perl to be my first programming language.

If you want start learning perl cheaply and IMHO effectively
There is a website name perltutor.com that I like a lot.
I feel it is complete and will get you up and programming quickly.

learning too! Monk2b