Brian Cryer's Glossary of IT Terms with Links

Perl

Perl

Practical Extraction and Reporting Language.

A common scripting language used on both Windows and UNIX platforms. It was originally popular on UNIX platforms but is now common on Windows systems, particularly for server scripting. Commonly used for creating CGI programs to generate dynamic pages on web servers.

Perl was first developed back in 1986 by Larry Wall, and first released the following year. Other names were considered before "Perl" was adopted as the name (including his wife's name "Gloria", and Pearl). The definition "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language" came after the language was first developed.

For more information see:

• www.perl.com - For all things Perl, including Windows and UNIX downloads.
• www.activestate.com/ActivePerl/ - Perl download for Windows.