PERL

A cute little scripting language, easy to learn but powerful. Its interpreter is Open Source software and comes with a special "Artistic Licence," basically "a kinder and gentler version of the GNU license - one that doesn't infect your work if you care to borrow from Perl or package up pieces of it as part of a commercial product."

It is readily available for the various Unix flavors, Windows32, and Macintosh (it is included in Mac OS X), but ports to many other operating systems exist, not all of them very well done. Be aware that every version of Perl has about 5-6Megs; it might not really be an option for older computers.

Perl has often been recommended as a first language if you want to begin programming, with reason, I would say.

Larry Wall's Perl Page: Larry Wall is the guy who invented Perl. Unfortunately, his favorite color is chartreuse.
Perl FAQ
Introduction to Perl
Robert's Perl Tutorial for Win 32 is an aging document, obviously not maintained any more, but still useful. It contains help for installation. There are some mirrors (Version 4.1.1, 1999-04-20), the server where it was originally located does not exist any more:
- sthomas.net
- Gabriel Kotliar
There is also a Greek translation, I found some corrections, but they have vanished into the ether by now.
Perl.com is something like the official homepage, run by O'Reilly. Here you can always download the latest source code.
ActiveState is the place to go if you want Perl for your Win32 machine.
CPAN/ports: Here you can find Perl in ports for more operating systems than would be convenient to list here, already in binaries.
Write in Perl by Jason Robert Culleton. This is not a tutorial. This is a song.

Last modified 2004-07-28