Re: perl version for windows

Stealth wrote:
On Sunday 23 November 2008 12:58:06 pm David Ehresmann wrote:

What is the difference between learning perl on windows vs. unix?

Perl was originally developed on UNIX and was later made available
for Windows. Perl on UNIX is in its natural environment.

perl on Unix is in its original environment. Given the amount of work that the
porters have put in to make it a platform-independent language I think they
would be upset to hear you call anything other than Unix 'unnatural'.

Perl on Windows is in a modified environment.

That is a strange comment. perl on Windows is in a customized environment, as is
perl on Unix, and even two different perls on the same Unix.

All Perl functionality works on UNIX. Some Perl functionality does
not work on Windows.

No, not all Perl functionality works on all Unix platforms. You are as likely to
find a compatibility issue moving from one Unix to another Unix as from Unix to,
say, VMS or Windows.

It is misleading to suggest that Perl on Unix is fine, and Perl anywhere else is
risky. It is usually a simple matter to write portable software, as described in

perldoc perlport

But platforms are different, and it would be bizarre to expect, for instance, a
Perl program that manipulated the Windows registry to work happily on Unix. That
is not a meaningful idea.

By and large, if what a Perl program does makes sense on a different platform
then it is likely that it will work there with minimal changes.

Rob
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Unix commands
    ... I don't recall ever writing a program that needed to trawl through ... All the Perl programs ... I'm not going to worry whether my tool is going to be run on Windows. ... // Actually many times I've ported my programs and tools to Unix too! ...
    (comp.lang.perl.misc)
  • Re: Unix commands
    ... ==> writing the program in Perl, ... ==> program that had to be ported to Windows. ... After installing a Unix toolkit the script ... And every other common Unix tool. ...
    (comp.lang.perl.misc)