I think that the most important attribute of someones first programming language is that it sparks their interest and holds it--not bore them to death with CS theory nor machine level arcania.

For me, BASIC(+) was my starting place, and despite all the critisism that can be levelled against it, it was simple to learn, productive to use, and easily to learn the basics(sic) of.

Once someone has gained an interest, has had their spark ignite so to speak, there is plenty of time for them to be damped down with CS formality. But unless that spark is lit, there's nothing to dampen.

I think Perl has what it takes to ignite the spark.

I wish my second langauge had been Q though, and I think it would be interesting to see the programmer that would result from someone starting with that.