What you need to know
You need to be able to differentiate between a PC and a toaster. No programming experience is necessary. You do need to understand the basics of PC operation. If you don't understand what directories and files are then you'll find this difficult. You might find it difficult even if you do :-)
You do need to exercise the brain cells, and you need time.
What you need to have
- A PC which can run a Win32 operating system. That's Windows NT 3.5, 3.51, 4.0 or later, or Windows 95 or Windows 98. Not Windows 3.1. Sorry. Now, you finally have a reason to upgrade.
- You need to get hold of a copy of Perl, so for that you might need an Internet connection. But if you can get it some other way, you don't.
Note: You don't even need a Win32 PC if you are comfortable installing Perl under other operating systems like Linux, but not all the information here will be relevant.
You don't need a complier. Perl is an interpreted language, which means you run code directly, not compile it then run it.
