|
Perl,
the practical extraction and report language, has captured
the hearts and minds of computer users everywhere. So much, so,
in fact, that some people go so far as to write poetry in Perl,
taking advantage of Perl's confusing syntax. (Perl is also called the
pathologically eclectic rubbish lister.)
Perl is a very flexible scripting language. Originally designed for UNIX
system administration tasks, Perl has branched out to
tens of thousands of users and millions of uses. Some of the main
uses include:
- CGI, or Common Gateway Interface, scripts for dynamic Web pages.
- Generating reports on system resource usage.
- Interfacing with databases.
- Cross-platform software development, such as Perl scripts to automate
C and C++ build procedures.
- Client-server applications.
- System administration on UNIX and Windows.
There's more than one way to get things done in Perl, as the
infamous motto states, which forms one of Perl's great strengths
and also one of its greatest weaknesses.
Perl is strong in text-handling and calling system functions.
Perl is definitely weak in its cryptic syntax and use of just
about every punctuation mark as syntax, especially the global
variables like $_ and @_.
|
