DNewPerlguy has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Where can you find the best places to constantly learn and test your level of perl skills? Preferably Free or low cost. There are plenty of places to test C++, SQL, HTML and other skills, but never perl. Of course I have seen the list of companies that you can fly out of town and go to there training. Which man teach only certain aspects of perl like CGI or web training. Any suggestions?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl Online Tutorial/Quizes
by tlm (Prior) on May 12, 2005 at 05:36 UTC

    Honestly, for sharpening your Perl skills, you can't do better than participating in Perl Monks. Fresh new questions every day!

    I am very skeptical of the pedagogical value of quizzes. It is very difficult to write a quiz suitable for automated grading (e.g. multiple choice) without resorting to curiosities and arcana. They may give you some new stunts to pull off at the next golf tournament or obfu contest, but they won't really make you a better programmer.

    In contrast, what you learn from the give-and-take of PM is much richer and relevant to your development as a programmer.

    So, stick around. :-)

    the lowliest monk

      The only downside to that is that unless the HR drone knows about Perlmonks, mentioning one's monkhood on a resume might not be a lot of use ;-)

      Remember rule one...

Re: Perl Online Tutorial/Quizes
by johnnywang (Priest) on May 12, 2005 at 08:00 UTC
    I want to second tlm's point: next to working side-by-side with some great minds in perl, many of whom hang around here, PM is the best place. I've been programming perl, on and off, since the perl 4 days, but I learnt much more in my one year here than all previous years combined. It is also essential that you have a real perl project at hand. So stick around, even just glancing at a couple of questions a day, and with nothing to show on XP.
Re: Perl Online Tutorial/Quizes
by Tanktalus (Canon) on May 12, 2005 at 18:24 UTC

    This seems like a very similar question to the recent What is your opinion in Perl Certified Professional? thread.

    The question is - what are you trying to accomplish? To learn more about perl in general, or to get a buzzword on your resume? For the former, tlm's suggestion is probably among the best. For the latter, getting "BSc" training is probably much more useful ;-)