There's some good advice in this thread, but if you really want someone to tell you what to program, either take a programming course or get a programming job. ;-}

IMHO, the best way of learing is to scratch your own itch (program something that interests you) for example:

• This site provides plenty of programming exercises every day. You don't have to post answers, just try to work out other people's problems that interest you, and then compare your answer to those posted by others. There's plenty of material, over nine years of Perl problems are posted here.

• Write some personal tools to help do your work. A few examples of mine are:

  • image archiving tools
  • various file parsers
  • calculators

• Create and maintain a directory of reference files with examples of Perl code snippets that you have tested and made notes on. Add to the appropriate file whenever you discover something new, and refer back to them as needed. I currently have over 50 files on subjects such as DBI, modules, file handling, references, pack, regexes, email etc.

• Start a perpetual project - some complex program that you have always dreamed about writing. Don't worry about practicality or or even completing it, just use it as a learning exercise. Break it down into parts and work on one at a time, learning what you need as you go.

My perpetual project is based on an old DOS simulation & strategy game called Seabattl (only 8 characters were allowed in filenames back then). The first version was written in Basic, and the latest in Perl Tk. I've worked on it from time to time for well over 20 years, and it's still not complete because I keep changing platforms, refactoring and adding features, but it has made a nice learning tool.

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