What is Perl?
"Perl is a language for getting your job done" - Larry Wall from "Programming Perl"
Perl is a scripting language that excells in text processing and manipulation. Originally designed as a reporting language and as a glue language between two other incompatible scripting languages or programs it has found itself as the most used programming language for CGI scripts and programs.
Developed by a linguist, Perl's structure is very flexible, making it ideal for quick guestbook scripts right through to application frameworks. It works with most languages and tools (like Tk - the GUI toolkit).