What is Perl?

Perl is a high-level programming language that was created in the late 1980s for text processing and quick scripting tasks. It combines features from many other languages, making it flexible for both simple one-liners and large applications.

Let's break it down

  • High-level: You write code that is close to human language, not machine code.
  • Programming language: A set of rules and symbols you use to tell a computer what to do.
  • Created in the late 1980s: It’s been around for over 30 years, so it has a long history and many libraries.
  • Text processing: It’s especially good at reading, changing, and generating text files.
  • Quick scripting tasks: You can write short programs (scripts) that run fast without a lot of setup.
  • Combines features from many other languages: It borrows ideas from C, shell scripts, and more, so you get a lot of tools in one place.
  • Flexible for one-liners and large applications: You can write a single line to do a simple job, or build a full-scale software system.

Why does it matter?

Perl’s strength in handling text makes it ideal for tasks like data cleaning, log analysis, and automation, which are common in system administration, bioinformatics, and web development. Knowing Perl can save time on repetitive jobs and give you a powerful tool for quick problem solving.

Where is it used?

  • System administration: Automating backups, parsing log files, and managing servers.
  • Bioinformatics: Processing DNA/RNA sequence data and generating reports.
  • Web development: Building dynamic websites with frameworks like Dancer or Catalyst.
  • Finance: Parsing and transforming large CSV or fixed-width data feeds for trading systems.

Good things about it

  • Excellent built-in support for regular expressions and string manipulation.
  • Vast collection of CPAN modules (libraries) that cover almost any task.
  • Works on almost every operating system without major changes.
  • Allows rapid development: you can get a script running in minutes.
  • Strong community and extensive documentation.

Not-so-good things

  • Syntax can become cryptic (“write-only”) in very complex scripts, making maintenance harder.
  • Performance may lag behind compiled languages like C or newer interpreted languages such as Python for CPU-intensive tasks.
  • Declining popularity means fewer new developers are learning it, which can affect long-term support.
  • Inconsistent coding style across projects can lead to readability issues.