Perl, PHP, and Python are used in many software projects today due to their flexibility, simplicity, portability and extensibility. To help you gain a better understanding of their popularity with Open Source developers, this article takes you through a tour of the important features and functions of Perl and Python. Using these language extensions in combination with IBM's� DB2� database and with Web services provided through the Google APIs, they build a client and server-side application in both Perl and Python.