I am a computer science student and just started learning Perl this summer. It seems to me ( from a novice point of view ) that the only programmer that can *see* what's going on is the assembler programmer with plenty of experience on whatever system they are programming on. I really doubt whether that CS student can *see* what is going on under the hood of his C++ compiler any more than you or I can see what is going on behind the scenes of Perl. there are no disadvantages to commonly accepted programming languages as long as you use them for what they were designed for. It all comes down to the right tool for the right job. The problem you are attacking is simply to learn how to program. Is there a better way to do that than with Perl that teaches you to *see* what is really going on? Who cares. As long as you can learn the basics you will be able to apply them in other languages. Nobody *sees* everything that is going on when they are just learning how to program. I have been learning for two and a half years now and I still don't think I can *see* what is going on like I am some kind of human pentium.