What is it about Perl that makes it so useful in Bioinformatics ? Why isn't C++ or Matlab or Python the big language?
Why is Perl so heavily used in Bioinformatics?
computer science;perl
What makes Perl so useful for bioinformatics is that 1) its a relatively easy language to learn, 2) there are lots of pre-existing scripts to use, including bioPerl and 3)chances are the lab you work in has hundreds of scripts and modules, already written in Perl.The level of the programmer less to do with the choice of language, then the tasks being asked of him.  Any advanced or computationally expensive jobs are usually written in Java, or C, and run on a cluster.One thing to understand about bioinformatics, is that it is a diverse field, with diverse tasks being asked upon those who practice it.  Its not uncommon for me to use Perl, R, and Java in one day.  Perl for scripting stuff, moving files, downloading things, some basic data analysis etc, R for data visualization, and Java for algorithmic computation/working with and modifying applications.  That being said, most of the tasks I do require the use of Perl, however, I would like to switch to Ruby, as it has more advanced functions, lambdas & procs, that can lead to more succinct code and is fully object oriented.