“Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short–term need, and then being a real problem in the longer term. Basically, a lot of the problems that computing has had in the last 25 years comes from systems where the designers were trying to fix some short–term thing and didn’t think about whether the idea would scale if it were adopted. There should be a half–life on software so old software just melts away over 10 or 15 years.” — Alan Kay
PERL stands for Practical Extraction and Reporting Language. Its creator, Larry Wall, once said of PERL, “In general, if you think something isn’t in Perl, try it out, because it usually is.”
PERL can be used for just about everything, from just about anywhere. It is often referred to as the programming language equivalent of Duct Tape, and has been called the “Swiss–Army Chain–Saw”.
While broadly derided for its many facets (lets just say it isn't hard to write ugly PERL), PERL is nonetheless available to solve many problems, making it worth learning if not worth admiring. Larry Wall’s philosophies seem to have been embedded in the language. I really like some of his quotes:
While it may not be the next big thing, PERL remains a language worth at least maintaining a working familiarity with.