Gents,
I have been working in a Solaris/Unix environment for about 9 months. I took some linux classses online before getting the job. But, I am not very good at scripting. I want to learn how to script. Do you think that I should start with Shell scripting or Perl? I wanted to continue with Perl, but in my Linux certificate class, I got introduced to Perl programming. But, I am wondering if I would be able to do everything I want to do with Perl in a Unix environment, or if for something I would have to know shell to get them done? Can you please advise?
You should probably learn both. Shell scripting is easier to learn and can do lots of stuff. It takes longer to learn Perl but Perl can do everything that can be done via shell scripting and lots of stuff that would very hard or even impossible with a shell script. I suggest you learn shell scripting first then learn Perl. Lots of people have Unix/Linux jobs without knowing Perl, but not knowing shell scripting is much more of a handicapp. I personally would not hire anyone who could not write basic scripts. In the interest of full disclosure, some people call me "old school".
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That was good advice and I really appreciate it.