pur'-el (n) 1. Computer programming language used mostly by male virgins, between the ages of 17 and 35, who are also well versed in the Lord Of The Rings stories.

Pratical Extraction and Reporting Language.

Perl is a script programming language that is similar in syntax to the C language and that includes a number of popular Unix facilities such as SED, awk, and tr. Perl is an interpreted language that can optionally be compiled just before execution into either C code or cross-platform bytecode. When compiled, a Perl program is almost (but not quite) as fast as a fully precompiled C language program. Perl is regarded as a good choice for developing common gateway interface (CGI) programs because it has good text manipulation facilities (although it also handles binary files). It was invented by Larry Wall.

perl is a language you will either love or hate. If you hate it, you're probably just confused because nobody told you about perldoc yet.

A programming language popular on *nix systems.

For some reason, Perl programmers find the need to write programs as small as possible. Many have attributed this to a similar phenonenom for unintelligent men to compensate for the size of their manhood by purchasing large, powerful cars. Instead of compensating by showing how immense their purchasing power (and in many cases, debt) is, Perl programmers compensate by showing how large their brains are.

Unfortunatley, this results in much Perl code to be somewhat difficult to understand by just looking at.

random line noise that does something useful most of the time

The only programming language that actually has contests held to see who can make the most unreadable code.

Also Known As the "Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister"