Being fairly new to Perl, I am constantly searching for quick references, tutorials, books etc. which might make the learning easier.

One of the best methods I've found is to "decode" existing Perl code to see what the programmer is trying to accomplish.

I was recently thumbing through "Perl and CGI For The World Wide Web" by Elizabeth Castro, and while a little too elementary for me, I found her teaching technique extremely easy to read through. And it got me thinking.

Since Perl was originally designed to manipulate text, how easy would it be to design a program that takes a Perl construct and returns an english explaination of what it is trying to accomplish or doing? Something like you type the following into a form: 

@classes = split(/,/, $class);

[download]

and the program returns an explanation such as:

"@classes" is an array being built from splitting the scalar variable "$class" into individual items separated by the argument between the "//", or in this case a "'".

Has anyone seen anything like this? Or is it even practical? Seems like it would be a great resource for beginners like me when trying to learn.

I have used the MAN pages and perldocs, but it is easier for me to learn when seeing application in different instances.

Any thoughts?

In reply to Idea for Perl Learning Tool by belize

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