What is Perl?

Perl is my first dynamic scripting language, but in fact it can be used as a grandmother in other languages. In 1987, Larry Wall released Perl. That was 20 years ago. In the computer world, the past 20 years have been as long as two centuries ago. The following lists the release dates of some common dynamic scripting languages:

Language	Inventor	Release Date
Perl	Larry Wall	1987
Python	Guido van rosum	1989
Ruby	Songben xinghong	1993
PHP	Rasmus Lerdorf	1994
Lua	3 Brazilian	1993

Many other dynamic scripting languages are not listed above. Dynamic scripting languages are indeed a huge family. So the question is: why are there so many dynamic scripting languages? In fact, the answer is very simple: because there are more special requirements. Every kind of dynamic language is actually born and evolved because of a specific demand, and no language can completely replace the other. It is actually quite wrong to pursue a language that is omnipotent. It is just like saying that "a person can fit all the work in the world". This is a bit arrogant. In fact, as long as there are cultural differences and aesthetic differences in the world, various computer languages must coexist.

For different computer languages, I think there are at least two points worth noting:

• The most appropriate tool is required to solve the problem. If you only have one or two tools in the toolbox, the problem you can solve is very limited.
• There is no distinction between high and low levels of language. If you are a friend of a language, you must first learn to respect them, and secondly, you must understand what is his biggest advantage.

Well, I have no intention of falling into the gossip between different languages. Let's go back to the Perl language itself. What are the greatest features of the Perl language? I think it should be its background. The inventor of the Perl language is a linguistics, so the Perl language is also largely labeled with the human language:

• Perl is highly redundant and highly redundant, which is a feature of human language. In this way, even occasional distortion can fully express the meaning of the language. Generally, the computer language tends to be a simple and direct method. In this sense, Perl is a heterogeneous language, and it pursues the so-called "Rome-based path ", there can be various methods to accomplish the same thing, and there is no such thing as the best method. This also causes the disadvantages that Perl code is difficult to understand each other because of their great differences in style. But no one will deny that Perl can also write clear code. In the end, the key to the problem lies not in the language itself, but in the different aesthetic tastes of programmers.
• In the Context Environment of Perl, human language depends on the context environment. Sometimes, omitting the subject or object does not cause difficulties in understanding. In general, computer languages tend to reject this practice, because it is often difficult to maintain code. In this sense, Perl is not suitable for large-scale software development.
• The singular and plural values in Perl are the same as the differences between singular and plural words in English. Perl uses $ to identify singular variables, @ to identify plural variables, and % to identify hashes, these strange symbols make it more difficult to understand Perl code.
• The purpose of the Perl language. The true meaning of the term Perl is actually some academic "practical report extraction language" (practicalextraction andreportlanguage ), but soon someone called it the pathologically eclectic rubbish Lister ). But in any case, if there is a computer language like poetry, it must be Perl. In fact, it was designed to process all kinds of texts.

To sum up, the Perl language is somewhat too flexible and romantic, just like a poet who prefers to sing in his own small circle. He is not suitable for large-scale encoding models at all, and it does not match his personality at all (if you have to do so, you have to bear all the consequences on your own ). But if you only treat him as a lovely friend, you will surely get a different experience from him.