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Larry Wall | |
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 Wall in 2007 | |
| Born | Larry Arnold Wall September 27, 1954 |
| Alma mater | Seattle Pacific University UC Berkeley |
| Occupation(s) | Computer programmer, author |
| Known for | Perl, patch, Raku |
| Spouse | Gloria Wall |
| Children | 4, including Aron |
| Website | www |
Larry Arnold Wall (born September 27, 1954) [1] is an American computer programmer, linguist and author. He is best known for creating the Perl programming language and the patch tool.
Wall grew up in Los Angeles and Bremerton, Washington. He started higher education at Seattle Pacific University in 1976, majoring in chemistry and music and later pre-medicine. After a hiatus of several years working in the university's computing center, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Natural and Artificial Languages. [2]
While in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, Wall and his wife were studying linguistics with the intention of finding an unwritten language, perhaps in Africa, and creating a writing system for it. They would then use this new writing system to translate various texts into the language, among them the Bible. [3] For health reasons these plans were cancelled, and they remained in the United States, where Wall instead joined the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory after he finished graduate school. [4]
Wall is the author of the rn Usenet client and the widely used patch program. He has won the International Obfuscated C Code Contest twice and was the recipient of the first Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software in 1998. [3]
Wall developed the Perl interpreter and language while working for System Development Corporation, which later became part of Burroughs and then Unisys. [5] He is the co-author of Programming Perl (often referred to as the Camel Book and published by O'Reilly), which is the definitive resource for Perl programmers; and edited the Perl Cookbook . He then became employed full-time by O'Reilly Media to further develop Perl and write books on the subject. [5]
Wall's training as a linguist is apparent in his books, interviews, and lectures. He often compares Perl to a natural language and explains his decisions in Perl's design with linguistic rationale. He also often uses linguistic terms for Perl language constructs, so instead of traditional terms such as "variable", "function", and "accessor" he sometimes says "noun", "verb", and "topicalizer".
Wall is an active member of the New Life, Church of the Nazarene. [6] [7] He also works with his local church for Bible Quizzing for the Nor-Cal district.
Wall's Christian faith has influenced some of the terminology of Perl, such as the name itself, a biblical reference to the "pearl of great price" (Matthew 13:46). [8] Similar references are the function name bless, and the organization of Raku (previously known as Perl 6) design documents with categories such as apocalypse and exegesis . Wall has also alluded to his faith when speaking at conferences, including at the Perl Conference 3.0 on August 23, 1999. [9]
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language".
Yukihiro Matsumoto, also known as Matz, is a Japanese computer scientist and software programmer best known as the chief designer of the Ruby programming language and its original reference implementation, Matz's Ruby Interpreter (MRI). His demeanor has brought about a motto in the Ruby community: "Matz is nice and so we are nice," commonly abbreviated as MINASWAN.
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Randal L. Schwartz, also known as merlyn, is an American author, system administrator and programming consultant. He has written several books on the Perl programming language, and plays a promotional role within the Perl community. He was a co-host of FLOSS Weekly.
Programming Perl, best known as the Camel Book among programmers, is a book about writing programs using the Perl programming language, revised as several editions (1991–2012) to reflect major language changes since Perl version 4. Editions have been co-written by the creator of Perl, Larry Wall, along with Randal L. Schwartz, then Tom Christiansen and then Jon Orwant. Published by O'Reilly Media, the book is considered the canonical reference work for Perl programmers. With over 1,000 pages, the various editions contain complete descriptions of each Perl language version and its interpreter. Examples range from trivial code snippets to the highly complex expressions for which Perl is widely known. The camel book editions are also noted for being written in an approachable and humorous style.
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Sean Michael Burke is a Perl programmer, author, and linguist. He was a columnist for The Perl Journal from 1998 and has written several dozen Perl modules for CPAN, as well as books for O'Reilly Media.
Chromatic is a writer and free software programmer best known for his work in the Perl programming language. He lives in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. He wrote Extreme Programming Pocket Guide and the lead author of Perl Hacks, co-wrote Perl Testing: A Developer's Notebook, and is an uncredited contributor to The Art of Agile Development. He has a music degree. Also, he has contributed to CPAN, Perl 5, Perl 6, and Parrot.
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Jesse Vincent is a computer programmer and entrepreneur, best known for his work with the Perl programming language. He created the ticket-tracking system Request Tracker ("RT") and founded the company Best Practical Solutions.
The Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming Award was an annual prize given to individuals who, in the opinion of the editors of Dr. Dobb's Journal, "made significant contributions to the advancement of software development." The Excellence in Programming Award includes a $1,000 prize that was donated in the award winner's name to a charity of the winner's choice. The award was launched in 1995 in the print edition of Dr. Dobb's Journal and was given each year until 2009. In his March 1995 article introducing the awards, then editor-in-chief Jonathan Erickson wrote that the award was intended to recognize "achievement and excellence in the field of computer programming." Erickson explained that the winners were "selected by a special editorial committee" of the magazine. Because Dr. Dobb's serves an audience of software developers, the Excellence in Programming Award is specifically intended to recognize resources for programmers: languages, code libraries, tutorial books, and so on. Developers of shrinkwrap software intended for retail sale, custom software for corporate use, embedded software, or general-purpose applications were not considered for the award.
Thomas S. "Tom" Christiansen, nicknamed tchrist or occasionally thoth, is a Unix developer and user known for his work with the Perl programming language.
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