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It is a general purpose language originally written by Larry Wall and currently maintained by Wall and Perl's enthusiastic users. As of the time of this writing, the current version is Perl5 (actually 5.005_02). It is loosely based on the C programming language and usually runs in an interpreter. One nice thing about Perl is it's cross platform support--there are Perl interpreters for UNIX, Windows, MacOS, AIX, OS/2, LINUX, Solaris, VMS, and many other operating systems. About Perl's Name The language is Perl. The interpreter is perl. PERL is an acronym for Practical Extraction and Reporting Language. Others claim is stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister. Perl scripts are usually saved with a .pl extension (although sometimes they are saved with a .cgi extension). What is Perl Good For? Perl excels at processing text files and printing reports based on that information. It's also a good language for many system management tasks (particularly under UNIX). But most people use Perl as a CGI programming language because virtually every web server in the world supports Perl. Because Perl runs in an interpreter (and often within a UNIX/LINUX web server), it is unlikely that a Perl program script will ever crash the web server. For this reason, many web hosting companies allow their customers to write custom Perl scripts, but they do NOT allow them to write CGI Windows executables (because a Windows executable program can easily crash a web server). Is Perl an Ugly Language? Like other languages, Perl programs can be written clearly or they can be difficult to follow. Some programmer's Perl code can be very concise, meaning that a single line of Perl code can do several things. At times, this makes Perl programs difficult for people coming from different programming backgrounds (such as VB, Delphi, or Java) to understand. But there is no requirement that Perl programs be written this way. Look at Perl books to get ideas on good coding style-there is a Perl style guide at www.perl.com. Where Can I Find Out More About Perl? http://www.perl.com/perl/info/documentation.html
Where Can I Download Perl? http://www.ActiveState.com (download ActivePerl) Free Perl Scripts SoftTech Design Has Written Illustrating scalars (variables), arrays, file
access, subroutines, date & time functions, loops, e-commerce
cgi example (Ecommerce.pl and Ecommerce.html).
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