Editing Larry Wall (section)

==Career==
Wall is the author of the [[rn (newsreader)|<code>rn</code>]] [[Usenet client]] and the widely used [[Patch (Unix)|<code>patch</code>]] program. He has won the [[International Obfuscated C Code Contest]] twice and was the recipient of the first [[Free Software Foundation]] [[Award for the Advancement of Free Software]] in 1998.<ref name="tri"/>

Wall developed the Perl interpreter and language while working for [[System Development Corporation]], which later became part of [[Burroughs Corporation|Burroughs]] and then [[Unisys]].<ref name= orn>{{cite web |url= http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/148 |title=Larry Wall |publisher= O’Reilly net |access-date= January 12, 2012}}</ref> He is the co-author of ''[[Programming Perl]]'' (often referred to as the ''Camel Book'' and published by O'Reilly), which is the definitive resource for Perl programmers; and edited the ''[[Perl Cookbook]]''. He then became employed full-time by [[O'Reilly Media]] to further develop Perl and write books on the subject.<ref name = orn />

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 "[[Topic (linguistics)|topicalizer]]".