[ocicat]

Final comment (on this subject...).

I am not aware of any awk-specific mailing lists or help sites, but then, I have never had need of one myself, so I haven't done extensive searching.

However, if you choose Perl and/or Python, consider the following.

• For Perl:
  • The Perl Cookbook is indispensable:
    
    http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003135/
    
    Other books, such as Programming Perl is a good resource:
    
    http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596000271/
    
    One of the better beginning Perl books is Learning Perl:
    
    http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596520106/
  • No connoisseur of Perl should progress without knowledge of the Perl Monks Website:
    
    http://perlmonks.org/
• For Python:
  • As for books, Learning Python is a good choice for newcomers:
    
    http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596513986/
    
    Note that Dive into Python is available online:
    
    http://www.diveintopython.org/
    
  • http://python.org/ has lots of documentation -- even oriented to the newbie.
  • The python-help@ can be of great use to newcomers. Information on subscribing can be found at the following link:
    
    http://www.python.org/community/lists/
  • A site previously mentioned:
    
    http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/
    
    ...happens to have a number of good Python articles written by some influential members of the Python community.

Although this partial/simple book list is O'Reilly-centric, O'Reilly cornered the market when it comes to Perl titles. Other good non-O'Reilly titles exist, but when starting out with the language, staying with the animal books is a reasonable choice.

As for Python, O'Reilly has some good titles, but they did not capture the Python book market as they did with Perl. Python came out after Perl, & the industry was at a different point in its maturation. These may be contributing factors as to the difference.