Larry Wall facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Larry Wall
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Wall in 2007
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Larry Arnold Wall
September 27, 1954 |
| Alma mater | Seattle Pacific University UC Berkeley |
| Occupation | Computer programmer, author |
| Known for | Perl, patch, Raku |
| Spouse(s) | Gloria Wall |
| Children | 4, including Aron |
Larry Arnold Wall was born on September 27, 1954. He is an American computer programmer, a person who writes computer code. He is also a linguist, someone who studies languages, and an author. Larry Wall is famous for creating the Perl programming language. He also made a useful computer tool called patch.
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Larry Wall's Early Life and School
Larry Wall grew up in Los Angeles and Bremerton, Washington. In 1976, he started college at Seattle Pacific University. He first studied chemistry and music. Later, he focused on pre-medicine, which prepares students for medical school.
After taking a few years off to work at the university's computer center, he went back to school. He earned a bachelor's degree in Natural and Artificial Languages. This means he studied both human languages and computer languages.
College Plans and Changes
Larry Wall went to graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he and his wife studied linguistics. They planned to find a language in Africa that had no writing system. Their goal was to create a way to write it down. Then, they wanted to translate important texts, like the Bible, into that language.
However, due to health reasons, their plans changed. They stayed in the United States. After finishing graduate school, Larry Wall started working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This is a famous place where scientists and engineers build and operate robotic spacecraft.
Larry Wall's Career and Creations
Larry Wall has created many important computer tools. He is the author of `rn`, which was a program used to read messages on Usenet. Usenet was an early internet discussion system. He also created the very popular `patch` program. This tool helps computer programmers update software by applying small changes, or "patches," to the code.
Larry Wall has won the International Obfuscated C Code Contest twice. This contest challenges programmers to write code that is hard to understand but still works. In 1998, he received the first Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software. This award honors people who make important contributions to free software.
Creating the Perl Language
Larry Wall developed the Perl programming language and its interpreter. An interpreter is a program that runs code written in a programming language. He created Perl while working for System Development Corporation. This company later became part of Unisys.
He also co-wrote a very important book called Programming Perl. People often call it the Camel Book because of its cover. This book is a key guide for anyone who wants to learn Perl. He also helped edit the Perl Cookbook. Later, Larry Wall started working full-time for O'Reilly Media. His job was to keep developing Perl and write more books about it.
How Linguistics Influenced Perl
Larry Wall's background in linguistics, the study of language, is clear in his work. He often compares Perl to a natural language, like English or Spanish. He explains his choices in designing Perl using ideas from linguistics.
He even uses linguistic terms for parts of the Perl language. For example, instead of saying "variable," "function," or "accessor," he might say "noun," "verb," or "topicalizer." This shows how deeply his understanding of human language shaped his computer language.
Larry Wall's Personal Life
Larry Wall is an active member of the New Life, Church of the Nazarene. He also helps his local church with Bible quizzing for the Nor-Cal district. Bible quizzing is a fun competition where young people answer questions about the Bible.
Faith and Perl's Names
Larry Wall's Christian faith has influenced some of the names used in Perl. The name "Perl" itself is a reference to a story in the Bible about a "pearl of great price" (Matthew 13:46).
Other examples include the function name bless. Also, the design documents for Raku, which was once known as Perl 6, have categories like apocalypse and exegesis. These are also terms with religious meanings. Larry Wall has spoken about his faith at computer conferences, including the Perl Conference 3.0 in 1999.
See also
In Spanish: Larry Wall para niños
- List of computer scientists
- List of programmers
- Timeline of programming languages
