Perl is described as a language that can replace awk and sed. It is an interpreted language that is optimized for scanning and extracting information from text files, as well as performing system management tasks. The author believes that Perl combines the best features of C, sed, awk, and sh, making it familiar to those who are already familiar with those languages. The expression syntax in Perl closely resembles that of C. Perl can be a good option for solving problems that exceed the capabilities of sed and awk, or for situations in which speed is a priority. There are also translators available to convert sed and awk scripts into Perl scripts.
https://github.com/Perl/perl5/commit/8d063cd8450e59ea1c611a2f4f5a21059a2804f1