First of all, if you have Perl properly installed on your computer, use the built-in documentation. It comes in a format called POD (Plain Old Documentation). The `chapters' are files that are called perl*, such as perlfaq, perlintro, perldata, etc. The main index is called simply `perl'. You can access it by typing perldoc perl If it doesn't work, you may try running man perl if you're on a Unix machine. If you're on a Windows machine with ActivePerl, go to Start -> Programs -> ActiveState ActivePerl -> Documentation. If you still can't find it there try these websites: http://www.perl.com http://www.activeperl.com (click on "support", then "documentation") http://www.perlmonks.org (an online Perl community) Useful chapters include: perldata - defining variables perlfunc - built in functions (called perlfun in older versions) perlsyn - syntax (mostly flow controls -- if, for, while, etc.) perlsub - defining your own subroutines (functions) perlre - using regular expressions (a must-read if you want to unleash the trrue power of Perl's string processing) perlstyle - coding conventions And of course there is perlfaq, which you should read from the beginning to the end. In addition to POD, there are books about Perl. I personally recommend books published by O'Reilly, such as the famous "Programming Perl" (also known as "The Camel Book"). You will read it eventually, if you are serious about Perl. It must be one of the greatest books about programming ever. There are also: "Learning Perl", which is easier to comprehend if you are a beginner "Perl Cookbook", which includes a lot of examples "Advanced Perl Programming", which talks about stuff like data structures, Perl's internal memory management, GUI programming with Perl/Tk, etc. Good luck! P.S.: The most important thing to remember is that Perl is not just a programming language, but also a culture, with its own heroes, jokes and slang. Learning this culture is as rewarding as learning the language itself.