Are you chaps really answering the question (at the assumed level of
the those who are likely to ask it), or are you just having a
discussion at your own level?
Anyone considering starting Perl, and wanting to work on Windows,
indeed has these choices, between a Win-native Perl (such as
ActiveState Perl, or the Indigoperl package for those who happen to
want an easy CGI bundle including Perl and Apache) on the one hand, or
Cygwin on the other hand.
But they aren't really in competition to each other. Anyone wanting
to go the Cygwin route should take a good look at what it is and what
they'd be getting. To put it briefly: a unix-like environment inside
Windows (and then, Perl inside that, along with a vast range of free
application and development software). If that's what they want, then
go ahead - I'd certainly install it, for lots of good reasons - but
I wouldn't see it as an /alternative/ to native Windows Perl.
On the other hand, if the questioner just wants to get started, and
wants to use Perl to drive Windows applications in a Windows-
flavoured environment, then a native Perl such as ActiveState would be
a good choice now. Btw. that comes with quite a neat HTML-ised
interface to the Perl documentation, both the core and the
Win-specific. Later, one can certainly consider installing Cygwin
Perl, and having the best of both worlds without having to leave
Windows. (I'm going to have to add that running a real OS is yet
another option, but I'm trying to answer on the assumption of a
questioner who wants to stick with Windows as the actual OS).
For Windows there is nmake (
http://johnbokma.com/perl/make-for-windows.html )
OK
and it was just last month or so that for the very first time I had
to compile some C (PAR) for Perl on Windows.
Haven't done that myself, I must admit: AIUI if you want to build Perl
stuff for native Windows, then you need the same C compiler as one's
Perl installation was built with, nicht wahr? Which might mean a
chargeable licensed product. I've no problem in principle with paying
the money, but it's a considerable drag keeping track of software
licences...
In short: for learning Perl you probably don't need C (which
probably has to be learned as well) for the next few years. Make,
maybe, but nmake should do the trick unless you do need a C
compiler.
Indeed. And as Tassilo rightly said about native Perl versus Cygwin,
it's easier to learn one thing at once than two. Put Cygwin off for
later - maybe even after having sampled Perl under a unix-like OS such
as linux.
Wrt cygwin, I agree. Have been using it for several months, and if
you are an XP user, just don't install it.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Pardon me?
As a matter of fact we install the cygwin core on all our windows XP
systems (supported desktops and laptops), if only to get the free X
Windows server, so that our Win-based users can also work comfortably
with the linux systems. Having done that, the users can have as many
of the cygwin applications as they want - Perl not excluded.
hope this makes some kind of sense.
