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Perl

File:Perl-logo.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ42478· pop 102· linked from 1,751 articles

Also known as Practical Extraction and Reporting Language, Perl/CGI, Pearl

Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language".

AI overview

Perl is a programming language created in the 1980s that's widely used for tasks like processing text and data, as well as system administration and web development. It matters because its flexible design and powerful text-handling capabilities made it influential in early internet development and remain useful for many practical computing tasks today.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Programming language.name
Perl
Programming language.logo
perl-logo.svg
Programming language.paradigm
Multi-paradigm
Programming language.designer
Larry Wall
Programming language.developer
Larry Wall
Programming language.typing
Dynamic
Programming language.influenced
CoffeeScript, Groovy, JavaScript, Julia, LPC, PHP, Python, Raku, Ruby, PowerShell
Programming language.license
Artistic 1.0 or GNU General Public License version 1 or any later version
Programming language.wikibooks
Perl Programming
Programming language.latest release version
5.42.1
Programming language.latest preview version
5.43.8
Programming language.influenced by
AWK, BASIC, C, C++, Lisp, sed, Unix shell
Programming language.programming language
C
Programming language.operating system
Cross-platform
Programming language.file ext
.plx, .pls, .pl, .pm, .xs, .t, .pod, .cgi, .psgi

via Wikipedia infobox

Described at

Link to a page describing this subject · not written by Vinony

Source code

Link to the source-code README · not written by Vinony

Wikidata facts

Instance of
free software
Creator
Larry Wall
Designed by
Larry Wall
Official website
perl.org
Image
Source code in Perl.png
Show 17 more facts
operating system
Microsoft Windows
file extension
pm
Commons category
Perl (programming language)
topic's main category
Category:Perl
Stack Exchange tag
superuser.com/tags/perl
influenced by
Unix shell
programmed in
C
inception
1987-00-00
source code repository URL
github.com/Perl/perl5
media type
application/x-httpd-perl
native label
Perl
different from
PEARL
typing discipline
dynamic typing
software version identifier
5.42.2
described at URL
tapor.ca/tools/1252
publication date
1987-12-18
social media followers
16050
Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~49 min read

Encyclopedic overview

32 sections
Contents
  • Name and logos
  • History
  • Early versions
  • 1990s
  • 2000–2020
  • Perl 6 and Raku
  • Perl 7
  • Design
  • Philosophy
  • Features
  • Syntax
  • Implementation
  • Ports
  • Performance
  • Applications
  • Community
  • Yet Another Perl Conference
  • History
  • Reception
  • Locations
  • North America
  • Europe
  • Israel
  • Russia & Ukraine
  • Australia
  • South America
  • Brazil
  • Asia
  • See also
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language".

Perl was developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions. Perl originally was not capitalized and the name was changed to being capitalized by the time Perl 4 was released. The latest release is Perl 5, first released in 1994. From 2000 to October 2019 a sixth version of Perl was in development; the sixth version's name was changed to Raku. Both languages continue to be developed independently by different development teams which liberally borrow ideas from each other.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Perl” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (6)