Perl

Perl is a programming language that has been under continuous development for over 37 years. It is described as highly capable and feature-rich, offering flexibility and power for a variety of programming tasks. Perl is supported by a large global community, with more than 230 local groups, mailing lists, and support or discussion websites, making it accessible to both new and experienced programmers.

The language provides extensive learning resources, including free online books and core documentation, as well as FAQs and translated materials. Perl's ecosystem is notably expanded by the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN), which hosts over 25,000 open source extension modules and distributions, allowing users to extend the language's capabilities. Object-oriented programming in Perl is enhanced through modules such as Moose and related MooseX modules, which provide a modern object system for Perl 5.

Perl is actively developed and maintained, with opportunities for community involvement through contributions, events, conferences, and other networking or learning activities. The Perl Foundation supports the advancement of the language through collaboration, design, and code. There is also interoperability between Perl and its sister language Raku, with available libraries that facilitate calling Perl code from Raku programs and vice versa.

The language is positioned as a general-purpose, extensible programming tool, suitable for a wide range of users and applications. Its open source nature is implied through the availability of open source distributions on CPAN and the active contributions from the community.