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 DLL's that follow the REXX calling convention enabling Perl users to use any REXX extensions in their programs

Perl libraries

• Apache Xerces Perl - Perl API for Xerces C++ XML parser - Open source - Current

Foreign libraries with Perl bindings

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

Perl related programmer's utilities

• Exuberant ctags - Creates index files out of Perl source files - Open source - Current.

OS/2 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.
• 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. - Open source - Current.
• jEdit - Java based editor - Perl syntax highlighting built in - Current.
• Lugaru Epsilon - Perl syntax highlighting, code folding and syntax-aware autoindent. - Commercial.
• NEdit - XFree86 - Autoindent, autocomplete and syntax highlighting - Open source - Discontinued.

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• Perl 3.0 for MS-DOS A native DOS port of version 3, outdated but better native support than the later versions

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)

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 - 2000 - O'Reilly Media - 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)
• 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)
• Paul Smedley (Current OS/2 port)