Perl

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A high-level programming language known for its text processing capabilities and flexibility in handling various tasks including system administration, web development, and network programming
2. A versatile scripting language favored for rapid prototyping, manipulation of strings and files, and automation of repetitive tasks in computing environments
3. A dynamic programming language that integrates features from other languages, allowing concise and expressive coding especially suited for report generation and data extraction

Etymology: Perl was created by Larry Wall, who first released it in 1987, and its name was originally "Pearl." Wall was reportedly drawn to the word because of Matthew 13:46 in the King James Bible, where a merchant finds "one pearle of great price" and sells everything he has to buy it. The name was later respelled as "Perl," and a popular backronym, "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language," was devised afterwards to justify the spelling. The language's reputation for flexibility grew out of that practical origin. Wall built it to handle text processing and report generation, and its loose, pragmatic syntax made it a natural fit for the system administration and web scripting work that followed. By the time it appeared in publications such as Wired in 2000, the language was already associated with the "glue" code that holds other programs together.

Synonyms: programming language