If you'd like to be a network admin on a linux system (and maybe do a little bit of hacking once you know how to exploit the system), then Perl is your language. As it isn't really cross-platform (confined to the *nix realm, and possibly some Unix-based Mac OS's), and because of it's lax rules in defining types (a string is an integer is a something else, etc.) I wouldn't recommend it as your first language. It'd be like students learning ebonics before proper english, but that's a debate for social scientists.


C++ is awesome! Want to code software for business? C++ can do that. Want to design video games? C++ can do that. Want to make hardware drivers? You get the idea... I seem to have let my enthusiasm overrun.

My suggestion? Learn C++, move on to MS C# (unless you really want to code your own GUI classes), and from there, maybe some assembly or Cobol, though the latter seems to be on the way out.