I would avoid such analogies as dangerous. If you try to say how Perl resembles specific features in other languages which Perl is only superficially similar to, then people will assume a large amount of inappropriate and incorrect baggage. Plus you will invite questions about why you didn't just use VB for your project, which gets into all sorts of dangerous advocacy territory. Remember that nobody likes hearing that the tools they know don't work well, particularly when it is true. (It scares them.) So try to avoid that minefield if you can.

Instead try to find descriptions that stand on their own except where the concepts really are parallel. And then just use words like "object" and "class". As for Perl, introduce it with a quick description of what it is is, and what it is particularly good for. "Perl is a freely available scripting language which is particularly good at things involving text manipulation." Focus on the positive, not the negative.

In reply to Re (tilly) 1: Explaining a Perl project to a VB-bound audience by tilly
in thread Explaining a Perl project to a VB-bound audience by Lasker

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