Here's a short, but interesting article on perl.com about Perl as a first language.

Perl can be a great first language to learn if you're not prone to the "you have a hammer and everything looks like a nail" trap. I have a friend of mine who's a brilliant sysadmin and a Perl guru who is not overly familiar with other programming languages. As far as he is concerned, the entire Web should be HTML3.2 and Perl. He is a Perl Zealot and this is a Bad thing.

I'm not suggesting that you face the same fate, but be forewarned that the advice that jcwren gave about learning other languages is more than just a good idea. If you don't, you only have a hammer in your toolbox. Forget the wrench, the pliers, or any other tool that's useful. Need to get that nut off that bolt? Hand me the hammer.

That being said, another reason I would suggest learning other languages is to appreciate what Perl offers. I've worked in a whole grab bag of different languages, some of them being so obscure I doubt most have heard of them (no, I'm not some computer God, I've just been tossed from project to project). None of those languages allowed me the syntax flexibility of Perl. Most of them didn't offer concepts like regexes, hashes, or $_. But then, they're often designed for different purposes for which the aforementioned tools may not be appropriate (though I think regex should be in virtually every language).

As for your two friends, I am curious as to how well they know Perl in comparison to other languages. I don't think you'll regret Perl as a first language, but you should regret it if it's your only language.

Update: I was thinking about when I first was learning VB (forgive me) and I was so excited about how easy it was to create GUI apps for Windows. Now, I look back and realize that I was actually so excited about being able to create a bug. (bah dum bumm, <cymbal|symbol crash>)

Hmmm... guess that last comment would be my entry into the obfuscated humor contest.

In reply to RE: Disadvantages of Perl? by Ovid
in thread Disadvantages of Perl? by redmist

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