What is Perl?

Perl is short for &Practical Extraction and Report Language&. It is a language that is available free over the web and is used for a variety of things. From writing CGI scripts to assisting administrators in maintaining their systems. Perl was created and is still maintained by Larry Wall. It is slower than C but faster than a normal interpreted language. Instead it is compiled when executed and then interpreted. A perl compiler does exist but it is still under development. If you wish to get more info on compiled Perl go the Perl Home Page.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the nice things about Perl is that it is free. Yes! it is free. It is distributed under the GNU license and the source is available from the Perl Home Page. This helps make it a popular languaage along with the fact that is very flexible and has very little constraints. It is also very portable since it has been ported to a great deal of many different platforms like Unix, Windows, and even DOS. Code modifications can be minor or major depending on any system specific functions that are used.

Other factors that make perl very popular is that you can find support in a variety of places. A ver popular place is the Perl Newsgroup (comp.lang.perl). This group is monitored by many perl experts and it is a place where you can get many ideas and answers.