[SWLUG] Programming language for a dummy

[Edward Prendergast]

  On 30/07/2010 15:59, matt at matthewmoore.org.uk wrote:
> 1 - I do a lot of fiddling with spreadsheets and text files with lots of
> networking stuff in them, to produce stats and the like.  It would be nice
> if it's easy to read in, combine and filter stuff like that.  Scripting
> stuff basically.

Perl has a huge quantity of modules available through CPAN for almost 
anything and a great community (see #perl on freenode).

> 2 - I'd like to do some web dev stuff, so again it would be nice if it's
> easy and convenient to get started.

Perl is popular for web too - check out Catalyst the perl/cgi MVC framework

> The more handholding in terms of hiding annoying things (eg stuff like CPAN
> modules and the like) the better really.

The community is very helpful, as close to handholding as you're going 
to get IMHO (not too smart questions but usual rules apply, don't ask to 
ask etc)

Do you have any experience with other languages?