Preface
Larry Wall released the first version of Perl in 1987. The language grew from its niche as a tool for system administrators who
needed something more powerful than shell scripting and easier to use than C programming into a general-purpose programming
language. Perl has a solid history of pragmatism and, in recent years, a disciplined approach to the enhancement and backward
compatibility.
Over Perl’s long history–Perl 5 has been continually refined over the past twenty years–our understanding of what makes great Perl programs has changed. While you can write productive programs which never take advantage of all the language has to offer, the global Perl community has invented, borrowed, enhanced, and polished ideas and made them available to anyone willing to learn them.
Modern Perl is a mindset. It’s an approach to writing great software with the Perl programming language. It’s how effective Perl programmers write powerful, maintainable, scalable, concise, and excellent code. It takes advantage of Perl’s extensive library
of free software (the CPAN) and language features designed to multiply your productivity.
You’ll benefit most from this book if you have some experience with Perl or another programming language already. If you’re
comfortable writing and executing programs (and happy to consult the documentation when it’s mentioned), you’ll get the most from this book.