Perl The World is Your Oyster with Perl

Perl The World is Your Oyster with Perl By Hans Chen Computer Science 356 Fall 2002

What is Perl? Perl stands for Practical Extraction and Report Language n High Level Scripting Language n Written in C, can compile to C in native form n Open Source and freely available to all users and developers n Supported on all platforms n

Advantages of Perl Low Cost, it’s free n Very flexible n Easy to Learn, very intuitive and natural use of language n Requires few little system resources n Cross-Platform compatibility n Large community of developers n

What Platforms Run Perl?

What Platforms Run Perl?

Who Uses Perl?

Who Uses Perl?

Perl Applications : A few examples Biotechnology n Finance and Economics n Web Design n Speech Synthesis n Cryptography n Electronic Commerce n Server Control n

This is why Perl is called “The Duct-Tape of the Internet!

Development History of Perl 1987 – Perl 1. 0 created and released by Larry Wall to usenet n 1989 - Perl 3. 0 released under GPL (“GNU Public License”); n 2002 - Perl 5. 8. 0 is a widely adopted language with strong support and future viability. Over 1 million users! n

Design Methodology Quick Programming n Easy to learn n Able to manipulate many files n Searching capability n Easy to interface with other languages n Fast programming n – Looser structure than C

Similarities with Other languages C n BASIC n UNIX scripts n RN n Designed to take advantage of the best elements of each of these languages

Example: Hello World! Print “The World is Your Oyster with Perl!n”;

Perl Native features All Variables are global unless in subroutines or modules n Variables do not have to be declared, come into existence when used n Native and Easy to Use File I/O n Native Pattern Matching n Arrays can be treated as stacks very easily n

Perl Features (Continued) Text-based code n Able to be compiled to executable or C code on Operating System of choice n Support for Object Oriented Programming, able to interface with a large number of languages to extend its capabilities n

Limitations of Perl Lack of Access to very low OS features n Very loose controls n – May be problematic to find errors – All scalar values are treated the same, potential type mismatch n Lack of formal structure – Dynamic Stacks

Future of Perl n Perl has significant advantages over languages in terms of support and maintenance needs – Very low maintenance than other languages (Reason: It uses a lot of other languages to support itself) – Corporate Support – Easy to Learn – Free!

Future of Perl n n n Despite the lack of large financial support in R&D and Marketing, Perl’s viability will remain strong Future maintanence costs are expected to remain low compared to other languages Perl’s flexibility will allow it to be adopted for a large number of special purpose applications.

Conclusion n Perl is a highly flexible multi-purpose tool It fits into large computer companies technology portfolio as they transition from proprietary systems to selling services, so the future corporate market is strong Questions and Answers

Remember: 3 Important Lessons of the Day n The World is Your Oyster With Perl!!! GOTO Perl. org and try it out!!! Easier than C, More Powerful than Basic, and it’s free!!!