intro to BioPerl and R

Hilmar, Chris, et al-
I need to bite the bullet and integrate R into programs. I realize this 
a process that is imperfect and in flux at the moment, with several 
threads devoted to this topic already. Could someone back up 
one notch and describe (with a link or whatever is easy) how a 
novice (e.g., me) would begin. 
I'll make a Scrapbook entry out of the responses-
thanks as usual -
Mark