perl - Stuck on something that seems simple.

[darkside]

OK, im following some random guide thing on the net, just out of curiosity more than anything. I wanted to see how perl worked, and how different it was to other stuff that ive dabbled with.

Anyway, on the first 'chapter' it wants me to..
# Write a program that prints its own source code using a back-quoted string.

Now, it gives an example
print "dir *.txt";

Which is supposed to list all the text files in the current directory i assume. When i tap this into bash, it works just fine. but it doesnt work in my perl script. It literally returns 'dir *.txt' but without the 's.

Ive tryed a few different commands, and all i get is the same thing. it prints what im typing. Now , as the risk of sounding like an idiot, what is a back quote? All i have on my KB is " and '.

Im stuck for ideas now so have come you you guys for some help, anyone know what im doing worng here? Its bugging me now lol.
Nathan

[Force Flow]

The backquote is on the tilde key (the one below the escape key that you never use).

So, I'm guessing what you want looks like this:

print `dir *.txt`;