Why I Started Learning Perl

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, THIS IS MY STORY

I didn’t originally plan to learn Perl, but here’s the backstory. Back in 2018, I bought a book titled Bahasa Pemrograman Perl by Askari Azikin published in 2013. I stumbled across it at Penerbit Informatika on Jln. Bauh Batu No. 52 Bandung, and thought it might be interesting. It cost me around Rp 50k (i forget the actual amount), but I never actually opened it. It sat on my shelf collecting dust for years.

Recently, out of curiosity, I decided to finally crack open the book and see what Perl was all about. I wasn’t looking for any specific language at the time—I was just interested in broadening my programming knowledge. Now that I’ve started diving into it, it seems Perl might be useful for scripting 😅, and it might serve as a good foundation for additional programming concepts.

I don’t plan to dive too deeply into it. I can’t quite explain why, but it feels like focusing on Perl would be a waste of time for me. Not because Perl is a bad language, but because its ecosystem and environment haven’t evolved much in recent years. In a landscape where newer technologies are thriving, Perl feels somewhat outdated. (Somehow I think Python, Javascript, Ruby, and Lua are more worth the time and effort to dive into rather than Perl). So, I don’t see it becoming a major focus in my learning path. But for now, I will finish my understanding of what I need from this book.