Perl

Perl is a general-purpose programming language developed for more than 38 years and released under the Artistic License or the GNU General Public License. It addresses the need for a portable language suited to both rapid prototyping and large-scale development, running on over 100 platforms from portables to mainframes. The language supports object-oriented, procedural and functional programming styles, and includes tools for text manipulation, Unicode support, and database integration through DBI, which connects to third-party databases such as Oracle, Sybase, Postgres and MySQL. Perl can interface with external C/C++ libraries via XS or SWIG, and the interpreter can be embedded into other systems such as web servers and database servers.

The perl.org site provides download links, core documentation, FAQs and translations, along with community resources including mailing lists, local groups and support sites. CPAN, the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, offers open source module distributions for download, covering areas such as web frameworks, object relational mapping (DBIx::Class), profiling, testing, Plack/PSGI development and IPv6. Raku, formerly known as Perl 6, is a separate sister language in the Perl family, with libraries allowing calls between Perl and Raku code. Perl is open source software with no stated pricing or packaging tiers.