Larry Arnold Wall(born September 27, 1954)[1]is an Americancomputer programmer,linguist and author. He is best known for creating thePerlprogramming languageand thepatchtool.
Larry Wall | |
|---|---|
 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, includingAron |
| Website | www |
Early life and education
editWall grew up inLos AngelesandBremerton, Washington.He started higher education atSeattle Pacific Universityin 1976, majoring in chemistry and music and laterpre-medicine.After a hiatus of several years working in the university's computing center, he graduated with abachelor's degreein Natural and Artificial Languages.[2]
While in graduate school at theUniversity of California, Berkeley,Wall and his wife were studyinglinguisticswith the intention of finding an unwritten language, perhaps in Africa, and creating awriting systemfor 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 theNASAJet Propulsion Laboratoryafter he finished graduate school.[4]
Career
editWall is the author of thernUsenet clientand the widely usedpatchprogram. He has won theInternational Obfuscated C Code Contesttwice and was the recipient of the firstFree Software FoundationAward for the Advancement of Free Softwarein 1998.[3]
Wall developed the Perl interpreter and language while working forSystem Development Corporation,which later became part ofBurroughsand thenUnisys.[5]He is the co-author ofProgramming Perl(often referred to as theCamel Bookand published by O'Reilly), which is the definitive resource for Perl programmers; and edited thePerl Cookbook.He then became employed full-time byO'Reilly Mediato 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".
Personal life
editWall is an active member of the New Life,Church of the Nazarene.[6][7]He also works with his local church forBible Quizzingfor 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" (Matthew13:46).[8]Similar references are the function namebless,and the organization ofRaku(previously known as Perl 6) design documents with categories such asapocalypseandexegesis.Wall has also alluded to his faith when speaking at conferences, including at the Perl Conference 3.0 on August 23, 1999.[9]
See also
edit
References
edit- ^"The man behind the Perl - Things you might not know about Larry Wall".blog.builtinperl.Archived fromthe originalon February 28, 2018.RetrievedJune 19,2017.
- ^Marjorie Richardson (May 1, 1999)."Larry Wall, the Guru of Perl".Linux Journal.RetrievedJanuary 12,2012.
- ^abLarry Wallinterviewed on the TV showTriangulationon theTWiT.tvnetwork
- ^Sims, David (April 8, 1998)."Q&A With Larry Wall, Creator of Perl".TechWeb. Archived fromthe originalon December 5, 1998.RetrievedAugust 15,2011.
- ^ab"Larry Wall".O’Reilly net.RetrievedJanuary 12,2012.
- ^"Larry Wall, Fundamentalist, non-Creationist, programmer".Gene Expression.
- ^New Life Church
- ^Silberman, Steve (2000),"Scripting on the Lido Deck",Wired,vol. 8, no. 10, archived fromthe originalon March 7, 2016
- ^Wall, Larry (August 30, 1999)."Third State of the Onion".Perl.RetrievedJanuary 15,2020.
Further reading
editExternal links
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