X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Larry Wall


Diff

In 1985, Larry Wall composed a separate utility, patch, that generalized and extended the ability to modify files with output from diff.

Larry Wall

Wall grew up in south Los Angeles and then Bremerton, Washington, before starting higher education at Seattle Pacific University in 1976, majoring in chemistry and music and later Pre-med with a hiatus of several years working in the university's computing center before being graduated with a self-styled bachelor's degree in Natural and Artificial Languages.

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).

Pearl onion

Larry Wall's yearly serious State of the Onion speeches about advancements in Perl programming, an allusion to the many layers of the language, are named as a pun both on the pearl onion and the US presidents' State of the Union addresses.


Programming Perl

Editions have been co-written by the creator of Perl, Larry Wall, along with Randal L. Schwartz, then Tom Christiansen and then Jon Orwant.


see also