I started with Perl AFTER I graduated with a CS degree. I graduated one year and eight months ago, and I have had three jobs (including my current one) that allowed me to use Perl.

I was first exposed to Perl about 1996, when I was busy learning C++, Unix, and basic OOP stuff. I really wanted to learn Perl at that time - but I was not ready. What I mean is that I could write Perl like a second semester C++ student would attempt, but the serious stuff did not come until after I did it the hard way with other languages.

Now I am trying to piece together all the little puzzle parts that were taught to me in my CS courses. This is something I will (hopefully) never finish, becuase the point of the journey is not to arrive - it's to keep learning. The more languages you understand, the more you understand about the essence of what a language is. In our case, it's just ways of arranging one's and zero's to get little chips to work in harmony with each other.

I read from my Geek books everyday, even if I only have time to look at one page. I go back over the books that I have already read and try to engrave that knowledge permanantly into my head. The doctor says I should be out in a couple of months, but that's another story . . .

So where am I now? Not too much further away from were I was 4 years ago. One day at a time . . . :)

Jeff

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