| This book is a reference guide for the programming language called Perl. This book does not describe how to install Perl on your computer; if you do not already have Perl installed, this book will not be very useful!
Perl has many uses, especially in UNIX system administrative tasks, which is where Perl was born and grew up. The name stands for "Practical Extraction and Report Language." Nowadays, Perl is seen by many as the ideal development language for Web server scripts.
People use Perl because it is quick, efficient, and easy to maintain when programming a wide range of tasks, in particular those involving the manipulation of text files. Also, there are many others also using Perl who are prepared to share their code. |