Perl is an acronym for Practical Extraction and Report Language. The language, which was authored by Larry Wall in 1987, is designed to scan text files, extract information from those files, and print out reports based on the extracted information.

Following its 1987 release, new versions appeared almost yearly, culminating in the 1995 release of a Perl version for the Macintosh computer. Versions also exist for DOS- and Linux-based operating systems. Because of its strong text processing capabilities, Perl has become one of the most popular languages for writing so-called CGI scripts. CGI, or Common Gateway Interface, enables Web servers to react with users in a dynamic and responsive way. Other scripting languages are Python and Eiffel.

Perl is an interpretive language—it executes instructions by translating the instructions into an intermediate form, rather the conversion directly into machine language (called compiling). An interpreted language can be beneficial...