You need to set yourself a task that is a) small and b) gives you feedback for your efforts.

Here's an example.
By small I mean, write a program that takes guest comments from a form.
A guest comments app.
It should store all entries to a simple text file, simply concatenate.
It should have a cli(command line interface) only, forget wui (web user interface) right now.

Write your script to work such as .. # perl ./myscript 'this is my comment'.
It should save the time , the name of the user logged into the terminal, and the comment. It should freak out if there's no comment.

Once *this* "very simple" program is made, *afterwards* you can worry about a grapical interface, different storage methods, displaying the comments, etc etc etc.

Start small and set out to do something that gives you feedback for your efforts, that shows you some functionality right away for your effort.
Start small.

Start small, very small. Be humble- write something very simple. Imagine you *are* brand new to computers.

Gotta tell ya though, your nick doesn't inspire solidarity here.

Hmm, why don't you fix your phone book program?

Anyway, few simple start points could be:

• Chat server/client - socket basics
• Log parser - file and string operations, regexes

Try to use modules from CPAN as musch as possible, re-inventing the wheel is not smart :-). Take a look at the modules also, you'll learn a lot while trying to understand previous art.

i am actually(fixin the phone book) but i just seeking the next step while staying in the current :D

One program I wrote (in BASIC) when I first started learning programming was an "email server". It wasn't actually a server, and there wasn't actually email. It consisted of a login screen, then some commands, like listing users and their profiles, sending messages to those users, and reading your own messages. It stored everything in text files on a single computer, but it was fun for me and my friends to leave each other messages on a school computer that we all had access to.

Another program I wrote was a chat program. It consisted of a single chat room and private messaging capabilities. This one was also fun to write and a great learning experience.

(i am not totally new to computers and programming)

my problem is that i do know the syntax for c and java but didnt implement any good programs or scripts that will help me dive in programming and become a better programmer,so i just want your advices please for tasks that i Should go and implemenet to dive in programming.i will use perl for your advices as i am interested in it ..So please any advices are more than welcomed..Thanks in advance to all replies

There's some good advice in this thread, but if you really want someone to tell you what to program, either take a programming course or get a programming job. ;-}

IMHO, the best way of learing is to scratch your own itch (program something that interests you) for example:

• This site provides plenty of programming exercises every day. You don't have to post answers, just try to work out other people's problems that interest you, and then compare your answer to those posted by others. There's plenty of material, over nine years of Perl problems are posted here.

• Write some personal tools to help do your work. A few examples of mine are:

  • image archiving tools
  • various file parsers
  • calculators

• Create and maintain a directory of reference files with examples of Perl code snippets that you have tested and made notes on. Add to the appropriate file whenever you discover something new, and refer back to them as needed. I currently have over 50 files on subjects such as DBI, modules, file handling, references, pack, regexes, email etc.

• Start a perpetual project - some complex program that you have always dreamed about writing. Don't worry about practicality or or even completing it, just use it as a learning exercise. Break it down into parts and work on one at a time, learning what you need as you go.

My perpetual project is based on an old DOS simulation & strategy game called Seabattl (only 8 characters were allowed in filenames back then). The first version was written in Basic, and the latest in Perl Tk. I've worked on it from time to time for well over 20 years, and it's still not complete because I keep changing platforms, refactoring and adding features, but it has made a nice learning tool.

But, please don't take any notice of their sample Perl solutions. They're just awful :-(

A long time ago, when I was first starting to program, I bought a book called (something like) 101 programming problems, and that's all it was -- problems without any solutions (so no cheating!). That helped me immensely.

Do you have a library near-by? That was another resource that I used extensively when I started out.