[silentbicycle]

My experience is almost identical to yours. Taught myself BASIC from library books as a kid, then C++ as a teenager. When I started using Linux and discovered Perl, it was an amazing spike in productivity. I eventually switched to Python (and then a bunch of other languages), but Perl got me out of a C++ rut.

Nowadays I'd rather use C than C++ (typically with Lua), and have learned quite a bit from Lisp, Prolog, Forth, ML, etc. as well, but the sheer immediacy of Perl and vi was a revelation to a kid used to Borland Turbo C++ and its IDE.