Despite
being implemented as an interpreted language, Perl is being used by
programmers for a variety of purposes. Many writers have even compared
Perl to a Swiss army chainsaw due to its powerful, dynamic and
easy-to-adapt nature. At present, each developer also has option to
choose from Perl 5 and Perl 5. Both versions of the programming
languages belong to the same family. But each version of the Perl can be
used for entirely different purposes. If you are yet to migrate to
Perl, it is a good idea to have a look at some of its most prominent
features that make it popular among programmers.
5 Special Features that Make Perl Popular Among Developers
1) Borrows Features from Several Programming Languages
The
overall structure and features of Perl resembles that of many other
widely used programming languages. For instance, the overall structure
of the programming language is broadly derived from C. Likewise; it also
borrows features from both Shell and Lisp. Perl supports a number of
built-in functions that are used in Shell programming. It also allows
programmers to use features like lists, hashes and regular expressions
in a manner similar to Lisp programming. The combination of these
features makes Perl usable as a high level language from a wide variety
of tasks.
2) Supports Complex Data Structure
Along
with the object-oriented programming model, Perl also supports complex
data structure and several functions. For example, the Perl programmers
have option to use references, class-based method dispatch, lexically
scoped variables and packages. At the same time, they can further
package the code to create the reusable models. The features make it
easier for developers to save both time and effort through the enhanced
code reusability.
3) Does Data-Typing and Memory-Management Automatically
Often
developers have to write additional code for memory-management and
data-typing. But the Perl programmers can easily accomplish these tasks
by availing the automatic memory-management and data-typing feature of
the programming language. For instance, legal-type conversions like
converting a number to string can be done automatically at the runtime.
Further, the interpreter knows the storage and type requirement of each
data object in the program. Thus, it can easily allocate and free memory
space using the reference counting, without any manual intervention.
4) Usable for both Scripting and General Purposes
In
addition to being a general purpose programming language, Perl is also
used widely by developers in scripting context. As the Perl syntax is
similar to Java, C++ and C#, it can be used by web developers familiar
with these programming languages. Further, Perl enables programmers to
accomplish certain tasks in a number of ways. So they are not required
to follow any standard way or coding practice to accomplish specific
tasks.
5) Comes with Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN)
The
Perl programmers have option to access the Comprehensive Perl Archive
Network (CPAN) to avoid writing complex code. CPAN is a centralized and
well-maintained repository of a variety of Perl modules. Each Perl
module can also be used in a manner similar to C libraries. Thus, the
developers can integrate these modules seamlessly in their programs and
scripts according to their programming requirements. At the same time,
the Perl Regular Expressions make the programming language more
effective in manipulating and processing text. The built-in support for
text processing further optimizes the performance of Perl as a dynamic
scripting language.
As
noted earlier, you can choose from Perl 5 and Perl 6. But you must
remember that Perl 6 is designed as a completely new language
specification without backward compatibility. That is why; you also need
to understand the key differences between the two distinct versions of Perl. You can get in touch with a perl web application development companies who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.
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