 | This article'slead sectionmay be too short to adequatelysummarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead toprovide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(July 2023) |
Larry Wall | |
|---|---|
 Wall in 2007 | |
| Born | Larry Arnold Wall (1954-09-27)September 27, 1954 (age 70) |
| 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 |
Larry Arnold Wall (born September 27, 1954)[1] is an Americancomputer programmer, linguist and author. He is best known for creating thePerlprogramming language and thepatch tool.
Wall grew up inLos Angeles andBremerton, Washington. He started higher education atSeattle Pacific University in 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 degree in Natural and Artificial Languages.[2]
While in graduate school at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, Wall and his wife were studyinglinguistics with the intention of finding an unwritten language, perhaps in Africa, and creating awriting system for 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 Laboratory after he finished graduate school.[4]
Wall is the author of thernUsenet client and the widely usedpatch program. He has won theInternational Obfuscated C Code Contest twice and was the recipient of the firstFree Software FoundationAward for the Advancement of Free Software in 1998.[3]
Wall developed the Perl interpreter and language while working forSystem Development Corporation, which later became part ofBurroughs and thenUnisys.[5] He is the co-author ofProgramming Perl (often referred to as theCamel Book and published by O'Reilly), which is the definitive resource for Perl programmers; and edited thePerl Cookbook. He then became employed full-time byO'Reilly Media to 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".
Wall is an active member of the New Life,Church of the Nazarene.[6][7] He also works with his local church forBible Quizzing for 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" (Matthew 13:46).[8] Similar references are the function namebless, and the organization ofRaku (previously known as Perl 6) design documents with categories such asapocalypse andexegesis. Wall has also alluded to his faith when speaking at conferences, including at the Perl Conference 3.0 on August 23, 1999.[9]
