| Perl seems to be used in Bioinformatics, because there are several books out there discussing the application of Perl: - Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics - Mastering Perl for Bioinformatics both are published by O'Reilly (I haven't them, so I can't give a recommendation. Also I don't have any contact with the field of Bioinformatics.). A search on Amazon reveals quite a lot of books on the combination of Perl and Bioinformatics. There is another book which sounds interesting: - Developing Bioinformatics Computer Skills (O'Reilly) http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9781565926646.do It also appears to discuss the question why Perl is used for some things in Bioinformatics. The same author (Cynthia Gibas) has written an introductory article: Computers + Biology = Bioinformatics http://oreilly.com/news/bioinformatics_0401.html I can't tell you if learning Perl will give you a competitive advantage in job applications, but I have enjoyed learning Perl very much :) |