The only two languages I know with any proficiency are perl and C. I started with perl (after shell scripting and html/javascript stuff) and then decided to learn C, which is probably common (I imagine it is also common the other way around, but I bet the desire to "move downstream" is a More Significant Factor).

?"vs."?: I might guess that they are in fact as different from one another as you could get, despite all the similarities. Perhaps this is why you see such a proliferation of perl variants (php, ruby) alongside the proliferation of C variants and stuff grounded in C, like perl itself. But "the ground" of C is really memory management, which is fundamental to everything; learning perl, it is not much of an issue initially; learinging C it is the issue initially.

Anyway, thanks Grandfather for those two cents :) The only phrase that gave me pause is "no I/O at all", which seems oxymoronic no matter what (intuitively speaking), tho I won't argue the point further.

ps. I just noticed the rest of the thread! I have not been using this forum in a while and got confused...so I will leave it at that and start reading, it is a topic close to my heart :)