Introduction to Perl© Philip Yuson
Jul 24, 2000
Who should read this?
What is Perl?
Perl was originally developed with an emphasis on system
management and text handling. However, as it was revised, other
features were included such as regular expressions, signals and
network sockets. If you have programming experience in any language,
you can easily learn Perl.
Advantages of Perl
One of the nicest thing about Perl is that you can add
extensions to the core package. This allows you to access databases
and user interface systems.
It is available in many platforms. This means that if you
coded a program on one platform, you will have a high probability
that you can run it on another platform. This means savings in
terms of time and also money.
Since most cgi scripts use perl, you have a lot of resources
available - both on the internet or in books.
Last but not the least, you get a powerful programming
language at little or no cost! If you have an internet connection
already, you can download it directly from the perl website
(http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/so...
Where can I get Perl?
You can download
the source and compile it. Warning!!! Do this only if you are
familiar with the compile process or if you want an exercise in
using your compiler. Since the compile process is beyond the
scope of this document, we will cover this in future issues.
If you are using Linux, you can download Perl in one of the
major distribution installation format. However, you may want to
check if Perl is already installed on your system. To see if Perl is
installed, start a console if you are in a Window manager. Type
this:
If Perl is installed, it will respond with a message similar to
this:
This is perl, version 5.003_07
Copyright 1987-1996,
Larry Wall
+ suidperl security patch
Perl may be copied
only under the terms of either the Artistic License or the
GNU
General Public License, which may be found in the Perl 5.0 source
kit.
If you are using Windows 9x or
higher (yes, Perl has a Windows port also), you have two
places to download the Perl binaries:
Both of them come
with their own package manager but IndigoPerl comes with a ready to
use Apache web server.
For other distributions, you can
check this out at
Note that the entire Perl package can be as big as 8MB (or more).
If you plan to download it, make sure you have the time to do it
specially if you are using dial-up connection.
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The copyright of the article Introduction to Perl in Perl is owned by Philip Yuson. Permission to republish Introduction to Perl in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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