(Apparently the:

print "Foo...\n" if $verbose;
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The good thing about these similarities is that it encourages coders with some familiarity.

The bad thing is that they might not realise that compared with the 'strand' of coding they are familiar with from before, the 'braid' which is perl often has better ways to do a given task.

e.g. a C coder starting at perl might loop through an array like this:

my @array = ( "foo", "bar", "baz" );
my $i;
my $array_size = scalar( @array );
for( $i = 0; $i < $array_size; $i++ ) {
  ...do something with $array[$i]...including assigning to it
}
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my @array = ( "foo", "bar", "baz" );
foreach my $value ( @array ) {
  ...do something with $value...including assigning to it
}
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Lastly, top tip for every perl coder is *ALWAYS* use the '-w' switch. It basically stops you shooting yourself in the foot in many ways. (You can include it on the first line of your script:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
...your script here...
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Even more lastly, and especially if you are coming from C, consider always putting:

use strict;
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And honestly, definitely lastly, try looking into CPAN (and/or the PPM modules if you use ActiveState perl on Win32). One of the key reasons to use perl is the useful amount of library code which is there to interface to practically everything and its toaster's pet dog.

Good luck and have fun

Once a novice approached the master and said:

- I think I understand the Perl-nature. It is like the C-nature, but w
+ith built-in regexes and hashes.

The master smiled and said:

- For the Wolf to survive in the mountain, she must be able to fight. 
+For the Eagle to survive in the mountain, she must be able to fly. Fo
+r the Salmon to survive in the mountain, she must be able to swim. Th
+e Wolf, the Eagle, the Salmon; these are all good at what they do.

However, there is another species which survives in the mountain: the 
+Man. The Man does not have a strong bite, or wings, or gills. Indeed,
+ the Man is poor at all of these things, and would lose in a fight ag
+ainst the Wolf, or in a swim against the Salmon. However, the Man doe
+s all those things, and therein lies its power - by doing all things,
+ and by knowing what to do, the Man not only survives in the mountain
+, he also builds a monastery to teach his disciples to be like the Wo
+lf, or the Hawk, or the Salmon.

Perl is like the Man. It thrives where other languages perish, not by 
+being the best at any given thing, but by being able to do it all, an
+d by knowing to take advantage of this ability. Like the Man, Perl is
+ a generalist. And so must be the Perl programmer, for the only way t
+o achieve the Perl-nature is to become one with it.
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