The Uses of Perl

Perl is a general-purpose programming language that borrows features from various other programming languages such as C, sed, and shell scripting. What is Perl used for? Commonly, Perl is used to develop data analysis, web applications, text manipulation, batch processing, and command-line utilities; and these are just a few of the basic features. With the capability to run on Microsoft Windows, Linux, Apple, Unix, and many other operating systems, Perl is widely used for web development as well. Here, you will find a list of the most common uses of Perl and how it can benefit your web use.

When Perl was first created in 1987, one of the original goals of the language was to merge and replace the various smaller tools on the Unix operating system. Today, many Unix and Linux systems depend on Perl to stay functional, run smoothly, and perform system management related tasks.

Perl was designed to test any web application, regardless of the original programming language used to create the application. The test framework can be used to test networking devices, desktop applications, web applications, file systems, and databases among others.

Perl can be used in game development as a fast interpreted language because it can be embedded and use C to call non-Perl libraries. Game developers can use Perl to extend already existing games, or even create new games that require high performance. Perl can be used as a client, a server, or for graphics. The heavy amount of community support and extensive libraries make Perl a great choice for game development.

Although it's not as popular as the other languages in the field, Perl has left it's mark in desktop application development. There are three main tool kits in Perl that are used to write cross-platform desktop applications. These tool kits include wxPerl, Perl/Tk and Gtk2 Perl. Remedie is a popular media player that was written in Perl. This program is a desktop application that runs in browser.

Perl has many uses, features, and tools that make it a popular and user-friendly programming language. While it may be difficult to learn Perl, the process is a rewarding experience that can offer many benefits during your many web development encounters.