11.2 Perl

Perl is an acronym for Practical Extraction and Report Language. Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including system administration, web development, network programming, GUI development, etc. It borrows several ideas from natural languages:

  • Learn it once, use it many times
  • Learn as you go
  • Many acceptable levels of competence
  • Multiple ways to say the same thing
  • Style not enforced
  • Cooperative design

The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). Its major features are that it is easy to use, supports both procedural and object-oriented (OO) programming, has powerful ...

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