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Perl Tutorial - Introduction
On the surface, Perl seems very much like any other language. It has its own unique syntax, uses operators, has variables, comes with a wide variety of built-in functions, provides flow control, handles files, and can call on system resources.

But Perl quickly diverges from other major languages.

Perl is an interpreted language. You write lines of code using a text editor, save the code to a file, and then run the program using the Perl interpreter. Perl is not compiled into an EXE. Execution of a Perl program begins with the first line of source code and ends with the last line of code.

Perl programs tend to be very short, perhaps no more than a hundred lines, and Perl has no GUI (graphical user interface). Perl is a command line language - you run the program from a prompt and output is displayed as text.

Viva Le Differences!
It's those very differences which make Perl uniquely suited to the tasks it was designed for - text manipulation and CGI scripting!

A PC programmer can write a Perl program in minutes to read a text file, modify/save the content, and create a report based on what it did.

The same programmer can write a Perl script and place it on a web server, providing site visitors with new web page features in just minutes.

Perl is easy to learn, fast to program, and quick to release - and that's the Perl that these tutorials will teach you to use!

Tutorial Limitations
This tutorial covers most of what a Perl programmer needs to know. However, like many languages Perl has a number of features used by only a few programmers. I've documented the features not covered by this tutoral. If you need to know more about these topics, use the perldoc feature of your installation of Perl, or check out some of my recommendations for other tutorials on the web.

If you have any suggestions or questions, please let me know.