I don't know about alot of that, but I do know that Perl allowed me to ( literally ) come down out of the woods, put away my axes and chisels ( tools of the trade when you build log houses for a living ) and slide right into a coding job without feeling like my day to day tasks have changed. Shaping wood and coding Perl are just about the same.

With raw materials and simple, time-tested tools most anything is possible.

I might also add that if either the raw materials ( large data stores || large, rough timber ) or tools ( Perl || Axes, chisels, chainsaws ) are not handled with the proper respect, the materials may crush you and the tools will tear you to shreds!