Perl and its demand in the software industry

Perl is one of the oldest languages on the earth. It was developed in 1987 i.e. around 30 years back!! Larry Wall created this programming language that is heavily inspired from C. Perl is a procedural language when it was born just like C. Later on, as per the industry demand it get reformed with time and become an Object oriented programming language. When it was born, it was aimed to write programs for UNIX that was the boom at that period. With time, it modified itself to develop other applications including the modern era web applications. Perl programming is extremely interesting and the perl programmers love to develop applications that are not only efficient but also beautiful.

Perl is widely known as a CGI Scripting language i.e. Common Gateway Interface language. Hence it has a terrific potential for web development applications; because, Perl can be used in any web application that needs connection with database. In simple word, it works as an interface between the Frontend and backend database. It can be integrated with many programming languages like PHP, Python etc. The best part is a web developer can use any database like Oracle, Postgres, MySQL etc for his web application through Perl. That is not the end; you can also use Perl application for your fully fledged websites! I mean you can develop a full website using Perl. You can write an enterprise standard web applications using Perl.

Web development can give you more mileage: Yes! When you develop web applications in Perl, you can get an increased efficiency of around 2000% than before! Can you imagine this power in your website! It will make your application up to 20 times faster than before!! Hence Perl is highly recommended for large scale web applications that need more speed and efficiency. Applications having frequent database interactions can get adequate performance boost through Perl. You will be astonished to know that web applications like imdb.com, Priceline.com, LiveJournal and ticketMaster etc are developed in Perl and we need to say that these web applications need more speed while connecting with huge database on the backend. So, you can also get similar speed and power through your websites that will definitely give an awesome experience to your users.

Perl can be used for e-commerce web applications without any security holes: Well, we have already discussed about the power and efficiency of Perl for large scale web applications and that is why it is also called as “The Duct Tape of the Internet”. It is unbelievable that Perl is highly stable when we think of web server applications. A Perl programmer can build much more reliable secure web application than the same developed by any other programmer like PHP, Java etc. This is because, Perl makes the query to run much faster than other programming languages maybe Open Source or Proprietary. Perl has the ability to resolve complicated file management, process management and text manipulation in a much simpler way than others. Hence in the industry there is extremely high demand for a Perl developer for every reason.

We provide Perl web development services. If you would like to hire Perl programmers for your web development needs, please contact Mindfire Solutions.

Few basic tips about Perl programming

Perl is a programming language on UNIX or Linux operating systems. It is a family of powerful, mature, stable and portable programming and feature rich languages. Originally Perl was developed in the form of a general UNIX scripting language for making it easier to process reports. It has undergone various revisions and changes since its initial development. Perl languages usually borrow features from different programming languages like shell scripting (sh), C and many others.

Always Benchmark the Code

It is important to assess the performance of a program. Such performance assessing can be done by timing a piece of code. The process of timing can be performed using certain Perl modules that are available and is simple to perform.

Necessary to Benchmark Modules

There are a number of useful modules in Comprehensive Perl Archive Network. The code present in the CPAN is thoroughly tested as well as improved by the Perl development community. While focusing on the performance aspect of an application, it is essential not only to benchmark code but at the same time go for benchmarking the modules that are being used. While using the modules, care needs to be taken on the part of the programmers.

Use my function to localize variables

Perl consists of ‘my function’ that is used to create lexical variables. The programming language only manages memory usage on the part of the Perl programmers and it does not see if he uses the variable later. Therefore, in case of variable creation in a particular subroutine, it is necessary to declare using ‘my function’. In doing so, variable memory is reclaimed at the end of the subroutine.

Always stay away from Slurping

Whenever the coding process is done, the input record separator remains undefined. This results in slurping or read in the entire file. The slurping process is inefficient with large files. Processing a line at a time requires the use of the while loop. There are situations when processing a line at a time is not possible and the slurping is unavoidable. Benchmarking the code enables to see the penalty imposed by slurping process.

The use of undef versus ( )

Reusing an array in shell requires clearing them instead of not defining them. Undefining an array in order to clear it makes Perl to deallocate the space having the data. Populating the array with data requires reallocating the space again. This slows the programming process.

The utility of Self Loader module

It is a module that hides subroutines and functions. It is because of this the interpreter associated with the language does not compile them to operation codes (opcodes) upon loading a PERL application. Compiling is done only when it is necessary. This process makes the programming very efficient.

Use the auto use feature

When external modules are used in the application then the atouse feature delays the loading process unless a particular function from a module is used.

Need to Avoid the Shell

It is preferable to avoid the shell unless it is absolutely necessary. There are other functions for different UNIX commands. These functions need to be used instead of the shell, whenever required.

Refer to Existing Solutions for Your Problems

With respect to Perl web development, it is quite natural for the programmer to get stuck with an issue. In case somebody faced similar issue earlier, the programmer can then simply borrow the code instead of spending time in developing the solution.

It is also important for IT professionals using the software to refer to certain books on the topics, learn useful algorithms, tricks as well as tips.

Use Regular Expressions when required

Regular expressions need to be used as these are the fundamental aspects of the language. CGI applications often use them.

Programming using PERL is nothing much complicated and becomes more convenient if one follows certain tips and tricks associated with it. These tips basically increase the efficiency of the programming language. A proficient programmer is able to identify the right method at the right time for developing a solution making use of the language.

We provide Perl programming services. If you would like to hire a Perl developer for your web development needs, please visit Mindfire Solutions.