Possessed of a name that stands for "Practical Extraction and Report Language" -- or maybe not -- Perl has expanded from its humble beginnings to let users perform a wide variety of tasks. Before you can use it to do any of those tasks, however, you must install it. That is the focus of this article, the first in a series that will teach you the basics of Perl programming.
For users of those systems, it's time to wail and lament; I'm not comfortable explaining the installation process for those systems. I will say however that on most Unix/Linux systems out there, Perl comes pre-installed.
If you're unlucky enough to have a version on which Perl is not pre-installed, don't panic. There are plenty of examples of how to install it on those platforms (Google is your friend; go forth and search). Since I do not normally work in those environments, I'll leave those explanations to the pros.
In Closing
That's it for this tutorial. In my next tutorial, I will cover the basics of Perl programming and by the end of the series delve into dynamic web development with Perl.
Perl Programming 
