I know Perl is a language revered by many hackers (as in hacker vs cracker) and respected by many good programmers for its expressiveness. I also realize it is useful to know and it's very handy at generalizing common Unix tasks (Unix here includes Linux and Cygwin). I also know that being a good hacker probably means you're a good programmer in general (references on this one are sparse around the web, but about everything Paul Graham has ever written seems approving of this statement to me). So my question is whether there is a reason that attracts hackers to Perl in particular? Will learing Perl improve my general programming, problem-solving and hacking skills if done properly? Does it present unique tools that are more useful to a hacker?