<p><span style="font-size:18px16px">The Perl languages borrow features from other programming languages including&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="C (programming language)">C</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_script" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Shell script">shell scripting</a>&nbsp;(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourne_shell" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Bourne shell">sh</a>),&nbsp;<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWK_(programming_language)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="AWK (programming language)">AWK</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sed" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Sed">sed</a>.^{<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#cite_note-perltimeline-8" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; white-space: nowrap; color: rgb(11,0,128)">[8]</a>}&nbsp;They provide powerful text processing facilities without the arbitrary data-length limits of many contemporary&nbsp;<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_commandline_tools" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Unix commandline tools">Unix commandline tools</a>,^{<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#cite_note-programmingperl-9" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; white-space: nowrap; color: rgb(11,0,128)">[9]</a>}&nbsp;facilitating easy manipulation of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_file" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Text file">text files</a>. Perl 5 gained widespread popularity in the late 1990s as a&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Gateway_Interface" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Common Gateway Interface">CGI scripting</a>language, in part due to its unsurpassed^{<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; white-space: nowrap; color: rgb(11,0,128)">[10]</a>}^{<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; white-space: nowrap; color: rgb(11,0,128)">[11]</a>}^{<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; white-space: nowrap; color: rgb(11,0,128)">[12]</a>}&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Regular expression">regular expression</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_(computing)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="String (computing)">string</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Parsing">parsing</a>&nbsp;abilities.^{<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#cite_note-roderick02-13" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; white-space: nowrap; color: rgb(11,0,128)">[13]</a>}</span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px16px">In addition to CGI, Perl 5 is used for&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_graphics_(computer_science)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Computer graphics (computer science)">graphics programming</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_administrator" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="System administrator">system administration</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network_programming" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Computer network programming">network programming</a>, finance,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioinformatics" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Bioinformatics">bioinformatics</a>, and other applications. It has been nicknamed &quot;the Swiss Army chainsaw of scripting languages&quot; because of its flexibility and power,^{<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; white-space: nowrap; color: rgb(11,0,128)">[14]</a>}&nbsp;and possibly also because of its &quot;ugliness&quot;.^{<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; white-space: nowrap; color: rgb(11,0,128)">[15]</a>}&nbsp;In 1998, it was also referred to as the &quot;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Duct tape">duct tape</a>&nbsp;that holds the Internet together&quot;, in reference to both its ubiquitous use as a&nbsp;<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glue_language" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" title="Glue language">glue language</a>&nbsp;and its perceived inelegance.^{<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#cite_note-leonard98-16" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; white-space: nowrap; color: rgb(11,0,128)">[16]</a>}</span></p>