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Questions tagged [perl]

Perl is a portable general-purpose dynamic programming language. It is used in a diverse variety of domains: system management scripting, text processing, web content management, Biology calculations, and others. It has a rich library of free reusable modules - the CPAN and a vibrant community of users and developers.

Perl is a portable general-purpose dynamic programming language. It is used in a diverse variety of domains: system management scripting, text processing, web content management, Biology calculations, and others.

Perl has a rich library of free reusable modules called "CPAN", and a vibrant community of users and developers.

Perl's original description from the Perl documentation:

Perl is a language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information. It's also a good language for many system management tasks. The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal).

The CPAN is Perl's module repository and is where users should turn first for code that implements solutions to already-solved problems.

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Is there any reason to use C++ instead of C, Perl, Python, etc.?

As a Linux (server side) developer, I don't know where and why should I use C++. When I'm going for performance, the first and last choice is C. When "performance" isn't the main issue, programming languages like Perl and Python would be good…
Ehsan
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Is Perl still a useful, viable language?

I know it may have been asked before, but here goes nothing... Is Perl still something that would be considered useful? If someone was a new programmer (either completely new to programming or just a few month/years of experience) would Perl be…
Bob
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Why such popularity with Python?

Other than being annoyed at whitespace as syntax, I'm not a hater, I just don't get the fascination with Python. I appreciate the poetry of Perl, and have programmed beautiful web services in bash & korn, and shebang gnuplot. I write documents in…
Jé Queue
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PHP: when to use arrays, and when to use objects for mostly-data-storing code constructs?

PHP is a mixed paradigm language, allowing to use and return non-object data types, such as arrays. I pose a question to try to clarify some guidelines for selection of arrays vs objects when deciding upon what programming construct to use in a…
Dennis
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How does the GPL static vs. dynamic linking rule apply to interpreted languages?

In my understanding, the GPL prohibits static linking from non-GPL code to GPL code, but permits dynamic linking from non-GPL code to GPL code. So which is it when the code in question is not linked at all because the code is written in an…
ekolis
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How to write a command interpreter/parser?

Problem: Run commands in the form of a string. command example: /user/files/ list all; equivalent to: /user/files/ ls -la; another one: post tw fb "HOW DO YOU STOP THE TICKLE MONSTER?;" equivalent to: post -tf "HOW DO YOU STOP THE TICKLE…
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Should a newcomer to Perl learn both Perl 5 and 6?

I have started playing around with Perl 5 lately, and it seems very interesting. I would like to spend some time learning it more in depth when I can. My question, since Perl 6 is slowly taking place (I believe...) and is said to break backward…
Joanis
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Are dynamic languages always interpreted?

Looking at most (if not all) dynamic languages (e.g. Python, PHP, Perl and Ruby), they are all interpreted. Correct me if I'm wrong. Is there any example of dynamic language that goes through compilation phase? Is dynamic language identical with…
Joshua Partogi
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Why is Perl 5's smart-match operator considered broken?

I've seen a number of comments across the web Perl's smart-match operator is broken. I know it originally was part of Perl 6, then was implemented in Perl 5.10 off of an old version of the spec, and was then corrected in 5.10.1 to match the current…
Sean McMillan
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Is it true that "Real programmers can write assembly code in any language."?

Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. (Larry Wall). As far as I can make out, Mr. Larry Wall is trying to say that to a real programmer any language can have the same functionality as ASM. But I seriously do not understand.…
ApprenticeHacker
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When should I use Perl's DBIx::Class?

DBIx::Class is a popular Perl interface to any database that you can connect to through DBI. There is good documentation for its technical details, but scant information about its proper use (including the situations where you probably don't want…
brian d foy
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Why is Perl so heavily used in Bioinformatics?

What is it about Perl that makes it so useful in Bioinformatics ? Why isn't C++ or Matlab or Python the big language?
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What are the similarities between Perl and Java?

I have my mind set that I'm learning Java as my second language (I am a Perl developer). But just from reading a little of the online tutorials, I really can't find any similarities between the two. What will I have an easy time understanding when…
Dynamic
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Should Perl scripts really have no extension?

I just began reading O'Reilly's Learning Perl, 6th Edition and was surprised when I came across this excerpt. #!/usr/bin/perl print "Hello, world!\n"; Let’s imagine that you’ve typed that into your text editor. (Don’t worry yet about what the…
Jared
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As a young developer, should I be worried about having to use "out-of-style" tech at work?

I'm a recent college graduate (last May!). While I was still in school, I wanted to make sure that I had a job before I graduated, and very early (probably too early) in my job search I settled on one in a region I'd been hoping to move to after…
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