Programming PerlThe Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Learn Perl Programming Step by StepTo begin with, we need to understand that Perl is not a programming language by itself, but rather a group of programming languages which are interpreted and dynamic. The family includes Perl 5 and Perl 6 and development of both languages take place independent of each other. While it is said that Perl is not an acronym, some refer to it as 'Practical Extraction and Reporting Language'.It combines the features of languages like C with shell script's ability to execute large sets of commands. It also has elements of awk and sed, which is largely used in command line scripting to manipulate text. Programmers can use Perl for developing a variety of software applications. However, Perl is an interpreted programming language. The code written in Perl is compiled into byte-code. The byte code is converted in the machine instruction when the program is executed. The feature makes it easier for programmers to run and evaluate Perl applications.From my experiences, it is best summarized as how my friend put it: 'Perl is what happens when Python and shell scripting had a child'. Although, to be fair, Perl first appeared in the 1980's and is older than Python, one can't blame the person for thinking like that. Perl was once regarded as the 'Swiss Knife' of programming language, a tribute to it's versatility. It had the ability to attract users who weren't that good at writing code or just starting out in code, as well as the power users who could build powerful programs.One of the biggest challenges in the 1990's was the growth of the World Wide Web and the large amount of text based information during that period. As one of the languages very capable of text manipulation and undergoing rapid development, Perl was suited to the task at hand. As a result it was one of the most popular web programming languages out there, even being referred to as the 'duct-tape of the Web'.