The question here is a little like the question ``Is Math difficult to learn?'' I suppose the answer depends a little on what you are trying to accomplish. There is no question that Perl is an extremely powerful (and pervasive) scripting language, and generally what you as a WeBWorK user need to know of it is quite small. On the other hand, Perl is well-known for giving meaning to virtually any random (short) collection of keystrokes one can type on a keyboard. Before getting serious, consider two amusing quotes regarding Perl:
The first is an amusing quote extracted from a <#72#>http://www.perl.com1/pub/doc/manual/html/pod/perlfaq1.html<#72#><#73#>Perl FAQ<#73#>.
Is Perl difficult to learn?
No, Perl is easy to start learning -- and easy to keep learning. It looks like most programming languages you're likely to have experience with, so if you've ever written an C program, an awk script, a shell script, or even BASIC program, you're already part way there.
...
Things that make Perl easier to learn: Unix experience, almost any kind of programming experience, an understanding of regular expressions, and the ability to understand other people's code. ...
The second quote is joke published by <#76#>http://www.bbspot.com/News/2001/03/perl_test.html<#76#><#77#>BBspot<#77#>.
Test Shows 99.99of High School Seniors Can't Read Perl
San Francisco, CA - Recent results from the standardized Perl Fluency Test showed that 99.99of US high school seniors can't read Perl. This disturbing statistic shows that American students are painfully unprepared for life after graduation.
``This shows that there is a real need for a Perl Monk in every classroom,'' said Perl Monk Kelly Adrity. ``We've got computers in every classroom, now we need our kids to be able to use them, and what better way to learn about computers than to learn how to read and write in Perl. I'm glad the budget proposed by President Bush sets aside millions for Perl Monks. America will lead the way in Perl literacy.''
The four hour test had 2 sections, a simple translation section and a project section. The first part asked students to translate easy Perl phrases into their standard English equivalent, and the second section required students to produce a simple MP3 player in Perl. ``I didn't know what the hell any of it meant,'' said one Senior, ``it had lots of slashes and periods and brackets. It was so confusing. I'm feeling rather nauseous.''
Perl experts were astounded by the results. ``I was amazed that none of the students were able to read this simple sentence:
<#509#>
verbatim40#
<#509#> I mean, come on, that's so easy,'' said Paul Chen, Chairman of the Learn Perl or Die Association, which administered the test nationwide. ``Teachers need to start with simple phrases like $RF=~tr/A-Z/a-z/; and work up from there. We really need to start teaching this in first grade if kids are ever going to understand this by high school.''
Not everyone shared Mr. Chen's view about the necessity of adding Perl to early elementary curricula. Programmers Against Perl (PAP) spokesperson, Keith Willingham said, ``There's no better way to scare students away from computers than exposing them to Perl.'' Even experienced programmers are frightened and confused by it. The Perl lobby is just getting too powerful, and they need to be stopped.''
Okay, enough with the problems with education in America; we'd better get down to some Perl basics.