Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. It is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including system administration, web development, network programming, games, bioinformatics, and GUI development. It is known as one of "the three Ps" (along with Python and PHP), the most popular dynamic languages for writing Web applications.
Perl is implemented as an interpreted (not compiled) language. Thus, the execution of a Perl script tends to use more CPU time than a corresponding C program, for instance. On the other hand, computers tend to get faster and faster, and writing something in Perl instead of C tends to save your time.
The overall structure of Perl derives broadly from C. Perl is procedural in nature, with variables, expressions, assignment statements, brace-delimited blocks, control structures, and subroutines.
Perl is one of the three powerful web development languages besides Python and PHP. It is derived chiefly from C and Shell. Perl has convincingly established itself as a multi purpose programming language, being used for network programming, GUI development, and system administration. Its major advantages of automatic memory management, built-in text processing and the ability to handle large data sets has made it the preferred language for numerous applications including applications for finance and Bio-Informatics.
Perl is implemented as a core interpreter, written in C, together with a large collection of modules, written in Perl and C. The interpreter has an object-oriented architecture. All of the elements of the Perl language—scalars, arrays, hashes, coderefs, file handles—are represented in the interpreter by C structs. Operations on these structs are defined by a large collection of macros, typedefs, and functions; these constitute the Perl C API.
