Perl vs Python | Major Differences Everyone Should Know

This article aims at improving the knowledge of our readers about Perl vs Python programming languages.

The focus would be to bring out the differences between these two high-level languages.

The article starts by introducing Perl and Python, along with a little background on each language. Then we will examine Perl and Python in more detail. As you read on, you will learn more about the benefits of these languages.

What Is Perl

Perl is an interpreted and dynamic, general-purpose programming language. The language was created by Larry Wall in 1987. As a text processing language, Perl was originally designed for extracting the necessary information from a text file and converting the file into another format. The language supports procedural and Object-Oriented programming. Syntactically, Perl is very similar to C, so anyone who has knowledge of C, C++ will find it easy to learn.

History of Perl

Perl was created in 1987 by Larry Wall. As a programmer, he worked for an IT company called Unisys. As a scripting language, Perl was used to create reports. On Dec 18 that year, a new version of Perl was released.

A version of Perl 2 was released in 1988, a version of Perl 3 was released in 1989, and a version of Perl 4 was released in 1991. There were no changes in version 4 from version 3, but it was released with strong reference documentation. Version 5 of Perl was introduced in 1994. The latest version of the language includes many recent additions, such as modules, references, and objects.

What Is Python

The Python language is a general-purpose, high-level programming language. It was originally developed by the Python Software Foundation in 1991 and designed by Guido van Rossum. In order to make code more readable, its syntax was designed to allow programmers to express ideas in fewer lines of code.

History of Python

Python was created in late 1980 by Dutch programmer Guido van Rossum. It was first released in 1991. The Python programming language succeeded ABC in rapid application development, and it quickly gained popularity.

Version 2.0 of Python was released in 2000. Version 3.0 of Python was released in 2008. Following that, Python 3.0 has been released in many versions.

Pros and Cons — Perl vs Python

In this section, we will discuss the Pros and Cons of Perl and Python.

Perl PROS:

1. Perl provides powerful one-liners and even UNIX piping-like syntax, which can be used to perform various tasks on the command line, as well as being influenced by Unix and its command-line programming, which allows it to integrate many command-line influenced features into its code.
2. Due to its influence on powerful UNIX utilities sed and awk, Perl is known for its powerful regex and string comparison operations. With regex and string operations such as substitution, matching, and replacement, Perl performs better than Python, which would require a few lines of code to accomplish the same thing. In addition, Perl is faster at file I/O operations and exception handling.
3. Perl is known as one of the most famous languages for report generation since its introduction, as one of the main reasons the author developed it was to generate reports.
4. Among the many applications Perl finds use in are Network Programming, System Administration, CGI Scripting (here Python will surpass Perl with Django and web2py), etc.
5. The symbols Perl uses to identify variables are easy to identify, such as “@” for arrays and “%” for hashes.

Perl CONS:

1. The Perl code is very complex, making it difficult for beginners to understand. Inexperienced programmers have trouble understanding and programming subroutines, and even symbols such as ‘$*’, ‘$&’, etc. Furthermore, Perl code when read would be difficult and complex to understand unless you have experience with it.
2. There isn’t much need for OO programming in Perl, as it was never known for it, and many operations similar to threading aren’t as prevalent in Perl.

Python PROS:

1. With its simple and elegant syntax, this language is an excellent choice for novices who want to get hands-on experience with any programming language.
2. With Python you get very advanced and in-built OO programming, as well as thread programming is better than Perl.
3. In a number of areas, Python outperforms Perl. Perl’s main advantage is its speed for writing CGI scripts. A growing number of Python scripting languages, such as Django and web2py, are also spreading.
4. Provides SWIG wrappers for a number of programming languages, including CPython, IronPython, and Jython. These wrappers preceded the SWIG wrappers for Perl.
5. Whether you are reading someone else’s code or your own code after years, Python code is always well indented and easy to read.
6. Due to its Open Source nature, Python is suitable for numerous applications, such as Big Data, Infrastructure Automation, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, etc. It also has a large community of active users.

Python CONS:

1. In some cases, such as regex and string-based operations, Python is slower than Perl.
2. In Python, sometimes it is difficult to determine the type of variable, as in the case of very large codes it can become hectic and complex to determine the type of variable.

Areas Of Use

Perl area of uses include:

• It is primarily used for writing CGI scripts
• Various large-scale projects such as Bugzilla, Splash, RT, etc.
• These are websites that receive a lot of traffic, such as IMDb, Live Journal, Slashdot, etc.
• The language is used as the operating system programming language of Debian (a Linux distribution).
• It is also used as a scripting language for
• Binding systems and interfaces together that are otherwise not interoperable.
• In order to create reports, large volumes of data must be processed.

Python area of uses include:

• For developing large websites or web applications, Python is used. Google, Netflix, Instagram, Spotify, and Netflix are just a few of the websites that use Python.
• Apps for gaming are also developed with it.
• Big Data analytics can also be performed with it.
• Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence use its large library support.

Conclusion

According to the applications they target, both Perl and Python are good programming languages in their respective capacities. The comparison of Perl and Python has been thoroughly discussed already. It is obvious that students will gain much from our blog. Additionally, they will be able to decide which programming language they prefer to learn after reading this blog, as this blog will answer all your questions regarding Perl vs Python.

If you are a programming student and facing difficulties in completing your python assignments, don’t worry. Our experienced programmers offer the best Python Programming Assignment Help to students worldwide at a very affordable price.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q #1) Can Python replace Perl?

Answer: Perl and Python are high-level programming languages invented to accomplish different tasks. Larry Wall developed Perl for the purpose of making reports easily on Unix. Nevertheless, Python was designed to allow its users to write small and large programs with code readability.

Q #2) Why is Python so popular?

Answer:

The reason Python is popular is because it is simple to write code in Python compared to other high-level languages. Even beginners enjoy using Python.