Perl

Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. In addition to CGI, Perl is used for graphics programming, system administration, network programming, finance, bioinformatics, and other applications but remains most popular as a scripting tool for web applications. The OS/2 implementation of Perl has a rather neat module called OS2:REXX that allows you to call DLLs that follow the REXX calling convention enabling Perl users to use any REXX extensions in their programs

JPerl

This is a version of Perl that allows it to be used with Japanese character sets, it was originally a patch by Yasushi Saito for Perl 4 but was expanded by Hirofumi Watanabe who maintained a JPerl OS/2 port for a number of years that also got ported to DOS and Microsoft Windows. There was resistance from the main Perl author for almost two decades to add the JPerl changes to the main codebase but in the end some of the changes eventually got folded into Perl 5.8.0 and subsequent releases.

Libraries

• Apache Xerces Perl - Perl API for Xerces C++ XML parser

Foreign libraries with Perl bindings

• Cairo - 2D graphics library
• LibcURL - Internet URL (WWW, FTP, etc) access
• Libxml2 - XML parser
• Libxslt - XSLT parser
• LZ4 - Compression library
• Snappy - Compression library

Programmer's utilities

• Exuberant ctags - Creates index files out of Perl source files

OS/2 Text & programmers editors with Perl support

• Boxer - Perl syntax highlighting support built in
• Elvis - Perl syntax support included by default
• Enhanced Editor - Has Perl syntax highlighting built in with some auto-formatting features
• FTE - Has support for syntax highlighting, code folding and syntax-aware autoindent.
• jEdit - Java based editor - Perl syntax highlighting built in
• Lugaru Epsilon - Perl syntax highlighting, code folding and syntax-aware autoindent
• NEdit - XFree86 - Autoindent, autocomplete and syntax highlighting

DOS Perl

While not officially supported Perl can be compiled and used with DOS using the 4.x branch, at this point in time 5.x branch is not supported.

• XAV's Active State DOS Perl archive - Instructions on how to compile Perl for DOS
• Perl 3.0 for MS-DOS A native DOS port of version 3, outdated but better native support than the later versions
• JPerl 5.005_03 - Instructions on how to create a DOS JPerl from source.

DOS text & programmers editors with Perl support

• Boxer - Perl syntax highlighting support built in - Commercial - DOS and OS/2 versions discontinued, Win32 version still sold.
• Elvis - Perl syntax support included by default - Open source - Current
• FTE - Has support for syntax highlighting, code folding and syntax-aware autoindent. - Open source - Current

Version

• Latest Version: Perl version 5.14.2 (2012-01-05)
• Latest JPerl version: JPerl v5.005_03-990503 (1999-06-27)

Links

• Paul Smedley's Perl port (Current)
• Hobbes' Perl directory - A collection of all things OS/2 and Perl
• Ilya Zakharevich's Perl archive - Outdated but contains a lot of OS/2 and generic scripts, some who never made it to Hobbes, et al.

Publications

Local articles

• Heiko Korsawe: An introduction to Perl - Translated to English by Thomas Klein.

Books

• Alligator Descartes; Tim Bunce: Programming the Perl DBI: Database programming with Perl - O'Reilly Media 2000, ISBN 978-1-56592-699-8

Licence

• Perl is open source software distributed under either the Artistic License or the GNU General Public License.

Author

• Larry Wall (Original author)
• Yasushi Saito (Original Japanistion patches)
• Raymond Chen (Original OS/2 16 bit port)
• Kai-Uwe Rommel (Original OS/2 32 bit port)
• Andreas Kaiser (Long time OS/2 port maintainer, OS2:REXX)
• Ilya Zakharevich (Long time OS/2 port maintainer)
• Hirofumi Watanabe (Japanese OS/2 port & patches to the main code)
• Paul Smedley (Current OS/2 port)