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ratbastid · 11-22-2003, 06:29 AM

Here's the short version of How to Run Perl on a Windows machine!

First, download the latest version of ActiveState's ActivePerl from HERE. ActiveState is the company that maintains the latest Perl port for Windows. They tend to lag a version or two behind the latest release for *nix, but for a beginner it won't matter a whit.

You'll get a .exe installer. Run it. It'll install some stuff at (by default) c:/perl, most importantly, a Perl executable at c:/perl/bin/perl.exe. AND it'll associate the .pl file extension with that executable, which means that if you double-click a .pl file, it'll launch a terminal window (a lot like the MS-DOS prompt) and execute your script.

So now you can edit .pl files in notepad or wordpad (or one of a dozen editors BETTER than notepad or wordpad--syntax coloring and parathesis-balancing are wonderful things), save, and double-click to execute. Neat, hunh?

11-22-2003, 06:29 AM	#9 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	Here's the short version of How to Run Perl on a Windows machine! First, download the latest version of ActiveState's ActivePerl from HERE. ActiveState is the company that maintains the latest Perl port for Windows. They tend to lag a version or two behind the latest release for *nix, but for a beginner it won't matter a whit. You'll get a .exe installer. Run it. It'll install some stuff at (by default) c:/perl, most importantly, a Perl executable at c:/perl/bin/perl.exe. AND it'll associate the .pl file extension with that executable, which means that if you double-click a .pl file, it'll launch a terminal window (a lot like the MS-DOS prompt) and execute your script. So now you can edit .pl files in notepad or wordpad (or one of a dozen editors BETTER than notepad or wordpad--syntax coloring and parathesis-balancing are wonderful things), save, and double-click to execute. Neat, hunh?