From your mention of Java Desktop it looks like you have a recent version of Solaris on your system. You should find that Perl comes already installed with the operating system. Unless you want to install extra modules that require compilation, the Perl that comes with the O/S should be sufficient for your needs. If you can start a terminal (I'm not sure where they hide them in Java Desktop but they will be on a menu somewhere) what happens if you type /usr/bin/perl -v at the prompt? If you get several lines printed with information about perl interpreter version etc. then you're in business.

To get started writing scripts you need to create a plain file to hold your code, make it executable and then use an editor to add code, something like

$ touch myscript
$ chmod +x myscript
$ vi myscript
i      (to enter insert mode)
#!/usr/bin/perl
#
use strict;
use warnings;
print "Hello World\n";
<ESC>  (to exit insert mode)
:wq    (save file and exit)
$ ./myscript
Hello World
$
[download]

Trivial example obviously but I hope this gets you started.

Cheers,

JohnGG

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