Perl, a feature-rich computer programming language, runs on more than 100 computer platforms and is applicable to a wide range of applications, from mainframes to portable devices, and from rapid prototyping to large-scale scalable development.
The Perl language has a wide range of applications. In addition to CGI, Perl is used in graphics programming, system management, network programming, finance, biology and other fields. Due to its flexibility, Perl is called the Swiss Army Knife of scripting languages.
Perl is a programming language designed by Larry Wall and is constantly updated and maintained by him.
Perl has the power and flexibility of a high-level language such as C. In fact, as you will see, many of its features are borrowed from the C language.
Perl is the same as a scripting language. Perl does not require a compiler or linker to run the code. All you have to do is write the program and tell Perl to run it. This means that Perl is ideal for quick solutions to small programming problems and for creating prototypes for larger events to test potential solutions.
Perl provides all the features of scripting languages such as sed and awk, plus many features they don't have. Perl also supports sed to Perl and awk to Perl translators.
In short, Perl is as powerful as C and as convenient as scripting languages such as awk and sed.
Compared with "high-level" languages such as C and Pascal, the Perl language directly provides more convenient programming elements such as generic variables, dynamic arrays, and Hash tables.
Perl has the powerful and flexible characteristics of a dynamic language, and also borrows grammar rules from C/C++, Basic, Pascal and other languages, thus providing a lot of redundant grammar.
Perl does a better job than other high-level languages (such as Python) in unifying variable types and hiding operation details.
Because it borrows a lot of syntax from other languages, programmers who switch from other programming languages to Perl can quickly start writing programs and complete tasks, which makes Perl an easy-to-use language.
Perl is extensible, and we can find many of the modules we need through the central repository of CPAN ("the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network").
Perl's mod_perl module allows the Apache web server to use the Perl interpreter.
It is precisely because of Perl's flexibility and "excessive" redundant syntax that it has gained the "write-only" reputation, because Perl programs can be written very casually (for example, variables can be written without declaration) Use it directly), but you may get unexpected results (without reporting an error) by writing a few less letters. The code of many Perl programs is difficult to read. The length of the program code that implements the same function can vary ten times or hundreds of times, which makes the program Difficult for maintainers (or even writers) to maintain.
Likewise, because of the arbitrary nature of Perl, some Perl programmers may forget syntax and have to consult the Perl manual frequently.
The suggested solution is to use use strict; and use warnings; in the program, unify the coding style, and use libraries instead of using "hard coding" yourself. Perl can also write code as elegantly as languages such as Python or Ruby.
Many times, the perl.exe process will occupy a lot of memory space. Although it is only temporary, it feels bad.