I am starting my son with perl and C. Today is his 8th birthday. Why perl and C? 1) Perl is very good at ad hoc programming, and it;s a very good language f

I am starting my son with perl and C. Today is his 8th birthday. Why perl and C? 1) Perl is very good at ad hoc programming, and it;s a very good language for learning very basic things..... 2) C is simple language for very basic stuff, but it is exacting and makes you think like a programmer. Once he gets half-way decent with simple things in Perl, he's ready for Lego Mindstorms ;-)