On the 18th December 1987, the initial version of the programming language Perl was announced by Larry Wall on the news group comp.sources.mis. During the years Perl has become one of the most popular programming languages and is especially known for its great ability to process text.

Perl is often included in the standard set-up for both Unix and Linux systems, and is widely used for executing local applications and as scripts in various web solutions.

The last main update from Perl, Perl 5, came back in 1994, but the language is still maintained. The latest version is 5.8.8, but Perl 6 is currently under development.

Perl is one of few languages that can do a lot from only a few lines of code. This again can make it difficult for anyone but the author to interpret what a piece of code actually does.

Perl supports modules, which is used extensively. CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) is a collection of alomost 13.000 Perl modules that offers tons of pre constructed routines available for other Perl developers.

Once again, Happy Birthday and best of luck!