Introduction

“Learning the fundamentals of a programming language is one thing; learning how to design and write effective programs in that language is something else entirely.” What Scott Meyers wrote in the Introduction to Effective C++ is just as true for Perl.

Perl is a Very High Level Language—a VHLL for the acronym-aware. It incorporates high-level functionality like regular expressions, networking, and process management into a context-sensitive grammar that is more “human,” in a way, than that of other programming languages. Perl is a better text-processing language than any other widely used computer language, or perhaps any other computer language, period. Perl is an incredibly effective scripting tool for UNIX administrators, and it is the first choice of most UNIX CGI scripters worldwide. Perl also supports object-oriented programming, modular software, cross-platform development, embedding, and extensibility.