It has been many years since I have done homework for school. Back then I worked very hard and was 100% in favor of the "slap them with the fish" comments made by others. Overall, I probably am still in this camp, but there is something to consider that is normally overlooked.

Somewhere in one of my Perl books there is a statement similar to "Almost everything is possible in Perl, and most things can be done many different ways." When learning and confused the "many different ways" can cause books, Internet postings and RTFM to have a divergent effect on the student of Perl. What is easy to see when you know the answer can be very confusing when the books and helpful experts all seem to be going in different directions.

Perl is a great tool. But, it is often necessary to overcome a lot of divergent seeming ideas before converging on a workable solution. Also, the shortcuts can short circuit the confused.

Bruce