8/30/00
CSIT: IT1 Web Structure http://aspen.csit.fsu.edu/it1fall00
37
Web
Technologies in a Nutshell - PERL
•PERL is a C
like Interpreter with powerful direct
access to UNIX system commands and very easy ways of processing text files
•PERL is a relatively old technology which has being overtaken
by Java tidal wave.
•Still PERL has significantly better Systems and Document
handling capability than Java
–Very good for UNIX as much easier than Shell for system
scripts -- PC versions exist but not so
well integrated into O/S
–Wonderful regular expression handling
•PERL is traditional but not best choice for server CGI extensions and development of
filters even for simpler cases involving text documents
•PERL5 is object
oriented but much less elegant (in my
opinion) than Java
–PERL5 has very useful multidimensional associative and
regular arrays
•Use PERL for UNIX
batch jobs to edit text files (e.g.
map www.npac.syr.edu to aspen.csit.fsu.edu) and quick simple Web server extensions – Convert
latter to Java for production