ActivePerl FAQ

Contents

   * What is ActivePerl
   * Getting Started
   * Troubleshooting FAQ
   * Questions, Comments, and Info

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What is ActivePerl?

The ActivePerl Package is the most significant and exciting advance in
Perl  platforms! This is the long-awaited "merge" of the popular Perl
ports, and has the absolute best of both plus more!

New Features in ActivePerl:

   * Globalization and Unicode
   * Concurrent Interpreters
   * Granularity of warnings
   * New regex constructs
   * Additional documentation and tutorials
   * Lvalue subroutines
   * Subroutine attributes
   * 64-bit platforms
   * Large File Systems

The complete ActivePerl Package contains:

   * Perl - binary of core perl distribution
   * Complete Online documentation
   * Perl Package Manager - Perl extension installer and manager.

The Windows version also includes:

   * Perl for ISAPI - IIS plug-in that makes perl CGI faster
   * PerlScript - ActiveX scripting engine, like JavaScript or VBScript
     with a Perl brain
   * PerlEz - Embedded Perl

The ActivePerl Package is covered by the Community License. This defines
your rights to use and redistribute this package.

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Getting Started

Running Perl scripts from the command line

To run your Perl scripts, type:

perl <scriptname>

at the command prompt, where <scriptname> is the name of the script you
want to launch. Also, if you are using Windows and have associated the
extension of the file with perl, typing <scriptname> will also launch the
script.

Sample Script

In the /eg directory of your Perl install there is a sample script named
example.pl To run it, launch a console window, make the /eg directory your
current working directory and type:

   * perl example.pl

You should see:

   * "Hello from ActivePerl!"

If you do, you've successfully installed ActivePerl! If not, there's
something wrong with your install. Check to make sure that your Path
environment variable includes the directories to which you installed the
Perl core binaries. (You can type set at the command prompt to see what's
in your Path.) If you chose the defaults during the install, these should
be set to the correct values for you when you start a new command prompt.

One last note, typing perl -h will display all of the available command
line options available to you.

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Troubleshooting FAQ

The ActivePerl Package comes with the newly updated collection of
Frequently Asked Questions about ActivePerl. The FAQ is a valuable source
of distilled wisdom about using Perl. It is a must read!

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Questions, comments and info

We're interested in what you have to say. Do you have something that used
to work that just doesn't work anymore? Any incompatibilities? Let us know!
We can't guarantee that all suggestions will be implemented in future
releases, but we'll do our best!

Please submit bug reports here. All bug reports should be accompanied by
one or more concrete examples that will help us reproduce the problem.
Include all relevant information that you think will help us recreate the
particular environment in which the bug was observed. Remember, if we
cannot reproduce the problem, we cannot fix it!

General help and questions about using ActivePerl are available from the
Perl-Win32-Users mailing list. ActiveState also hosts several other highly
engaging mailing-lists on various topics related to Perl.

Before posting to any of the mailing lists, please be sure to read the
online documentation included with every copy of ActivePerl, which includes
the Perl FAQ, and the ActivePerl FAQ.

Thanks!



 ActivePerl FAQ