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Pioneer

Larry Wall

Also Known As TimToady · Larry Arnold Wall
Software And Its Engineering

Larry Wall is an American computer programmer, linguist and author who created the Perl programming language while employed as a programmer at Unisys, releasing version 1.0 on December 18, 1987, as a general-purpose Unix scripting language meant to make report processing easier. He also created the patch tool and the rn Usenet client, and won the International Obfuscated C Code Contest twice. In 1998 he received the first Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Birth Year
1954 1
Birth Date
1954-09-27 1
Nationality
American 1
Award
STUG Award 2
Award
FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software 2
Larry Wall
Filter Results2 entries

Perl

Larry Wall

Raku

Larry Wall
FAQs

What did Perl versions 2 through 5 add, in Larry Wall's own summary?

Perl 2 added regular expressions, Perl 3 added binary data handling, Perl 4 matched the first Camel book, and Perl 5 added everything else.

Larry Wall wrote a short history of Perl that is kept in the Perl documentation. In it he says Perl 2 added Henry Spencer's regular expression package, and Perl 3 added the ability to handle binary data, meaning embedded nulls. Perl 4 introduced the first Camel book; Wall notes that the version numbers were mostly switched so the book could refer to 4.000. Perl 5, in his words, introduced everything else.
Connections

In Field

Programming Language Theory, Fields
Source Wikipedia: Larry Wall

Invented

Perl, Programming Languages
Source Wikidata: Perl
Additional Source Wikipedia: Larry WallCareer section
Raku, Programming Languages
Source Wikidata: Raku
Additional Source Wikipedia: Larry WallInfobox: known_for
In the Other Atlases

Nationality

United States

Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Larry Wall
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Career
    Wall is the author of the rn Usenet client and the widely used patch program.
  • Introduction
    Larry Arnold Wall (born September 27, 1954) is an American computer programmer, linguist, and author known for creating the Perl programming language and the patch tool.
  • Invented: Perl, Career section
  • In Field: Programming Language Theory, Lead paragraph
  • Invented: Raku, Infobox: known_for
    Perl, patch, Raku
View the Source
2. Wikidata: Larry Wall
Wikidata Q92597, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
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