So many excellent and relevant questions, which really do bring enlightenment to perusers, here on Perlmonks , I wish I had joined long ago , but better late than never. Perl and Perl/Tk have been my first language combo for a long time now . I have been very reluctant to learn C or C++ ( I have read and understand the languages in some detail even taken courses, but have not gained a lot of practical experience by writing code in them ), always gravitate back to Perl , maybe in part because it's my impression that the C++ learning curve is much steeper. Perl is multiplatform , can be used on Unix , Linux and Window OS's and Mac's . I found it was easy to buy a book in the beginning , O'Reilly "Perl Tk" , and begin writing powerful code almost immediately. My applications are of a more scientific nature, the most elaborate to manipulate large arrays in every imaginable way , while viewing results in a canvas and reading out the instantaneous data analyses , all based on user input manipulation parameters via great GUI's. Perl allowed me to create a tool based on the mental picture I had of that tool , so I am extremely content with Perl and I believe it will only get better due to the commitment of people like you and others posting here . Nova