Hi,
there are "millions" of ordinary PHP web developers out, but just "thousands" of very-good Perl programmers.
So if you are an "ordinary" programmer, with little experience and skills, maybe fresh from highschool, college / university, you MIGHT get a badly paid web designer job if you can do the "job" ( creating a website application,.. ) with PHP,
and become better-paid expert after some years,
but you won´t get one of the few jobs for "urgendly wanted" Perl programmers.
There are no learning-curve jobs for Perl programmers.
Python is an in-between,
on one hand, Python had a little community as Perl,
you might to the same with Python than with Perl,
but in the last 2 years, Python was #1 as first programming language at US unversities and especially free MOOC online courses ( I passed such a free course at Coursera, it was GREAT ).
The number of website projects is VERY limited,
but there is a life in the ( German ) automotive industry as
test and script language for HIL systems - so the #1 language to communciate with CAN-bus drivers on a Windows PC.
And on Raspberry Pi microcontrollers with Linux, it is the #1.
There are no learning-curve jobs for Python programmers, if there are any at all.
Java and C# are standards, on its own business fields.
Now the message:
The whole Perl education changed in the last 2 years, with the movement of "Modern Perl" and true object oriented Perl, especially the rising of object oriented programming based on the MOOSE and MOO modules
Please go to this website
http://www.perl-tutorial.org/
I met the owner personally, he is a true Perl expert from my town.
So just read the books and tutorials he recomends, as these teach NEW STYLE of "Modern Perl".
Among his recommendations there is one to-be-paid-book
Beginning Perl
by Curtis Poe
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/1118013840/hemmerling-21
- you might even read that for free at Archive.org :-) -,
but the rest of the recommended documents is free,
especially the PDF book
Modern Perl
http://onyxneon.com/books/modern_perl/
See details about Perl on my link webpage
http://www.hemmerling.com/doku.php/en/perl.html
Btw, I concentrate on Python, but have a look at Perl too.
Though I am such an "ordinary" guy too, with little true work experience in programming. But I don´t wanna go into competition with "millons" of ordinary PHP guys...
Sincerely
Rolf