Why Perl?

I'm fairly unfamiliar with Perl and was just wondering if anybody could explain to me what it's selling points would be, above other similar languages. I'm uncertain as to why anybody would take it up in the first place, as despite it's portability and relative ease of understanding, it seems to be in decline. In our current climate of falling investment in IT, I can't currently envisage many beginners in this field. I may be way off track here and I'd appreciate any opinions on this (supporting or contradictory) or stats as to how popular it really is.

Thanks,

Michelle

Comments


  • Michelle,
    I have been a freelance Perl Programmer for last 3 years and have implemented it for web applications. Other uses include systems administration on *nix systems, as well as some Windows systems.
    One way to determine how active it is to see what kind of demand there is for it. Check out the project requests on sites such as elance.com and guru.com and it would seem if there is any decline, it would be minimal.

    Dale
    Perl Moderator


    : I'm fairly unfamiliar with Perl and was just wondering if anybody could explain to me what it's selling points would be, above other similar languages. I'm uncertain as to why anybody would take it up in the first place, as despite it's portability and relative ease of understanding, it seems to be in decline. In our current climate of falling investment in IT, I can't currently envisage many beginners in this field. I may be way off track here and I'd appreciate any opinions on this (supporting or contradictory) or stats as to how popular it really is.
    :
    : Thanks,
    :
    : Michelle
    :

  • : I'm fairly unfamiliar with Perl and was just wondering if anybody could explain to me what it's selling points would be, above other similar languages. I'm uncertain as to why anybody would take it up in the first place, as despite it's portability and relative ease of understanding, it seems to be in decline. In our current climate of falling investment in IT, I can't currently envisage many beginners in this field. I may be way off track here and I'd appreciate any opinions on this (supporting or contradictory) or stats as to how popular it really is.
    :
    : Thanks,
    :
    : Michelle
    :

    Hi there,

    IMHO q:), Perl will never die, nor will it ever be lost in the multitude of languages that now sit on the shelves gathering dust for several reasons.

    1. Perl has the highest string manipulation functionality than any other language. The RegExp engine that Perl ran in 5.003 was still higher than most languages. If there is a need to process data, no other language can do as much as Perl with as little effort!

    2. Aside from running on over 80 platforms, Perl is nearly a 100% "write once, run anywhere" language. This is a real bonus for companies who are transitioning between *nix to Windows and vice versa, saving the company thousands.

    3. With the advent of Perl6, all the benefits of a strongly-typed language plus the flexibility that Perl has makes for an extremely powerful and easy to use language.

    4. Microsoft aren't stupid. Perl.NET is getting to the final release stage and will become a standard inclusion in the near future (I believe Microsoft are waiting for Perl6 so to allow for the data type conversions).

    5. Perl is free, Perl can run on a 386 with 4MB of RAM (I know from personal experience) and Perl has a MULTITUDE (word of the day!) of Modules / Libraries that makes Perl the most "plug-n-play" language you'd ever need.

    6. Perl has a HUGE community and sense of itself. Perl is more than just a language, for some people, it's a way of life!

    7. Perl has been integerated with the Worlds most popular web server, Apache (stats show that 63% of the worlds web servers are Apache) to make it an even more "native" language for use with Apache.

    I could go on, but being a BIG Perl supporter, I'd just bore you. I do believe tho, that I have given some great points about Perl. I guess it's up to your experience to determine whether or not it'll serve your purpose.

    HTH
    Bradley q:)

    PS. Comments by EVERYONE are welcomed! q:) (* be gentle *)
  • Hi,

    Well, I agree with all that Bradley said. :) Another good thing about Perl is the huge range of modules that are created for you to do things with. These are also freely available, and are hugely diverse, making tasks from database connection to image manipulation to most other things you want to do relatively easy.

    This is an opinion, but personally I find Perl is the language I most like working in.

    Jonathan


    -------------------------------------------
    Count your downloads:
    http://www.downloadcounter.com/
    And host your site:
    http://www.incrahost.com/
    Don't say I never give you anything... ;-)

  • I certainly agree. I use Perl more than any other language (more than C,C++,Java,MATLAB) because of its powerful text
    processing capabilities. Its also THE easiest way to go for server-site web scripting. On the downside it can be a little tricky
    to read, especially if the programmer likes to use obscure idioms, but that problem is normally located between the monitor
    and the keyboard.

    : : I'm fairly unfamiliar with Perl and was just wondering if anybody could explain to me what it's selling points would be, above other similar languages. I'm uncertain as to why anybody would take it up in the first place, as despite it's portability and relative ease of understanding, it seems to be in decline. In our current climate of falling investment in IT, I can't currently envisage many beginners in this field. I may be way off track here and I'd appreciate any opinions on this (supporting or contradictory) or stats as to how popular it really is.
    : :
    : : Thanks,
    : :
    : : Michelle
    : :
    :
    : Hi there,
    :
    : IMHO q:), Perl will never die, nor will it ever be lost in the multitude of languages that now sit on the shelves gathering dust for several reasons.
    :
    : 1. Perl has the highest string manipulation functionality than any other language. The RegExp engine that Perl ran in 5.003 was still higher than most languages. If there is a need to process data, no other language can do as much as Perl with as little effort!
    :
    : 2. Aside from running on over 80 platforms, Perl is nearly a 100% "write once, run anywhere" language. This is a real bonus for companies who are transitioning between *nix to Windows and vice versa, saving the company thousands.
    :
    : 3. With the advent of Perl6, all the benefits of a strongly-typed language plus the flexibility that Perl has makes for an extremely powerful and easy to use language.
    :
    : 4. Microsoft aren't stupid. Perl.NET is getting to the final release stage and will become a standard inclusion in the near future (I believe Microsoft are waiting for Perl6 so to allow for the data type conversions).
    :
    : 5. Perl is free, Perl can run on a 386 with 4MB of RAM (I know from personal experience) and Perl has a MULTITUDE (word of the day!) of Modules / Libraries that makes Perl the most "plug-n-play" language you'd ever need.
    :
    : 6. Perl has a HUGE community and sense of itself. Perl is more than just a language, for some people, it's a way of life!
    :
    : 7. Perl has been integerated with the Worlds most popular web server, Apache (stats show that 63% of the worlds web servers are Apache) to make it an even more "native" language for use with Apache.
    :
    : I could go on, but being a BIG Perl supporter, I'd just bore you. I do believe tho, that I have given some great points about Perl. I guess it's up to your experience to determine whether or not it'll serve your purpose.
    :
    : HTH
    : Bradley q:)
    :
    : PS. Comments by EVERYONE are welcomed! q:) (* be gentle *)
    :



  • : I'm fairly unfamiliar with Perl and was just wondering if anybody could explain to me what it's selling points would be, above other similar languages. I'm uncertain as to why anybody would take it up in the first place, as despite it's portability and relative ease of understanding, it seems to be in decline. In our current climate of falling investment in IT, I can't currently envisage many beginners in this field. I may be way off track here and I'd appreciate any opinions on this (supporting or contradictory) or stats as to how popular it really is.
    :
    : Thanks,
    :
    : Michelle
    :



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