What is Perl?

Introduction to Perl

Perl is a language of programming that can be used to perform many different tasks. A typical easy-to-use Perl application would be to extract information from a text file, print a report, and convert a text file. Yet Perl provides a great many methods, including machine programming, for rather complicated problems. Perl execution tends to use more time for a CPU than, for example, the corresponding C program. On the other hand, computers tend to get faster and faster, and writing something in Perl instead of C saves time.

What is Perl?

To understand Perl, first, understand what Script is – it’s a program (or steps) which are processed or interpreted by another program. If we execute a program, then the corresponding system executes the commands; likewise, in the script, the corresponding system does not have any control over programs, but a different program works and executes the script.

Perl stands for Practical Extraction and Report Languages.

It is a scripting language that has a syntax similar to C/C++. Web developers use it to create scripts for web servers. It is really good at parsing text, so programmers often use it for reading and searching text files. Perl as a language does most of the work behind the scene (as they run on the server computer)

Understanding Perl

• Perl variable – Variable has two types of values, namely integers and strings. Integers mean 1, 2, 3……..-10 (any +ve or –ve values). Strings are the sequences of characters (represented as ‘ ’ or “ ”).
• Perl Operators – These are of two types, namely – arithmetic or assignment operators. Arithmetic operators include +, – *, /, %, ** (means exponents) whereas the assignment operators include =,+=, -=, *=, /=, %=, **=
• Conditional statements – Conditional statement helps to execute more complex scenarios. If conditional statement –

If (comparison){
Statement;
Statement;
…………..}

• Loops – Loop statement is to execute particular scenarios multiple times (as asked by the value given).

While loop – while (comparison){statement; statement; }
For var (setup; cond; inc) {statement; statement; ……}

Working with Perl

Working with Perl as your first programming language has a mixed opinion among the user community. There can be multiple reasons to back their opinions. Here we will see what can be the possible reason for their feedbacks –

• According to most developers, the combination of Perl is not compatible with Python, Ruby, or Scala.
• Weird syntax
• The simple code structure and the complex work alike; it’s just the way you execute them.

Perl has a shallower learning curve (means easy to learn) and long (you can dig deep to know more and more about its possibilities). In addition, it is an interpreted language; a user can write multiple programs and test them with no or minimal requirement of compilation steps; this behavior of Perl helps in experimenting with the language and also test and debug quickly and easily.

Below we have listed some more crucial points that hold value–

• Regular expression
• Hashes
• Memory management
• References and Complex Structures
• Modular Programming

Possibilities with Perl

With Perl, a wide range of tasks can be accomplished –

• System Administration
• Web Development
• Network Programming
• GUI development

Advantages

• With Perl archive CPAN, it becomes easy to install modules written by different users.
• It fills the gap between traditional shell programming and conventional compiled programming language like C and C++.
• Good to work on programs with simple and fewer lines of code, as it is good for text manipulation.
• It is a highly portable platform for scripting.
• Cost and licensing are available on most of the platforms, like Most UNIX variants/ MS-DOS/ Windows NT/ Windows 95 series/ OS/2 and Macintosh.
• Easy and efficient – we will see the way to compare syntax written in C and Perl.
• In C, we will write something like this –

void main()
{
printf("Hello World!");
}

And with Perl

print 'Hello World!'

Right Audience to learn this Technology

There is no pre-requisite for learning this technology. But definitely, there are some crucial things to note and understand –

If you have a brain and you know to type, half of the task has been accomplished.

If you have an interest in learning this technology, than this behavior can definitely help you

• Learn to think and understand the algorithms. Understanding is very crucial as it is a scripting language and has multiple lines of codes in it. So understanding will be a game-changer in the long run.
• Try to read logical thinking books.
• Read more of programming blogs and articles, these will increase your vocab in technical understanding, and you may be in a better position to know how to understand things better. Programming books will also be helpful.
• As we all know that ‘practice makes a man perfect, so practice more by installing the Perl application on your system. We suggest our readers have multiple text editors available on their laptops like Notepad, Notepad++ or TextPad.

Scope and Career Growth

We always try to give genuine information’s to our readers as we believe in maintaining trust. So, before we move ahead in this section and deal with salary stats and career growth, we would like to say that ‘do not limit yourself to any particular language. The more you know, the better the position you would be.

Pros of Career in Perl –

• Higher than average earnings, once you have good command in Perl, you will be entitled to have a good amount of salary. Link
• Since it’s an open-source the application and training are available free of cost (mostly)
• Widely accessible for troubleshooting work available

Conclusion

So, readers, what do you think is Perl worth reading and worth making a career. The decision is up to you, but as a responsible knowledge partner, we would say that if a technology has survived, then definitely it has met all the fulfillment. In the 1990s majority of dotcoms were working and primarily based on Perl. It happens with all the technology; as time passes, things get better. As of today, the Perl language has developed tremendously (look at version 5 and 6). This tool has an interesting Toolset available.

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