how long does it take to learn perl?

Perl is increadably forgiving when compared to languages like Java or C. It's the first real language I learned and it's actually really easy. The nicest thing, I think, is that it's big on context. Variables aren't strongly typed like in Java. Their values are used as whatever type makes sense in the context they're used. If you make a variable like so: $x=2, then you can simply say "$y=$x+1" and "print $x" and "if ($x) { ... }" and not have to cast to another type or anything like that. If the variable is used in a context where a number is expected, it's interpreted as a number, if it's used where a string is expected it's interpreted as a string, if it's used where a boolean value is expected, it's interpreted as a boolean, etc. As I understand it, the guy who created it was a linguist so he developed it to be as close to a spoken language as possible. Things are evaluated in the context they are used. One of my favorite sayings about Perl is that it's supposed to "make the easy things easy and the difficult things possible". All that being said, I will point out that it can become very slow when asked to do things it's not really designed to do, however, for things like parsing text it's wonderful. I don't know of any sites to recommend but I'd say that if you've got lots of programming experience already, I'd just go buy one of the cheap "Learn Perl in 10 Minutes" type books. Your biggest obstacle will most likely be the syntax, which, once you can read it, is quite basic.