in reply to Re^2: Does anyone use Perl on Windows?
in thread Does anyone use Perl on Windows?

Well, I just answered the original question in the title - "Does anyone use Perl on Windows?"

I do. I use it for data processing to meet my own personal needs. I don't work for a company where they tell me what version to use or what modules I should use or can't use, etc. I create my own rules. Yes, I started learning in 2016, and I am still learning. I always learn something new.

People say that TinyPerl is unofficial or broken or unsupported, but honestly I have yet to see a bug in it. I have been using it all these years and have never seen a bug. The only "bug" I found so far is that it cannot create scalar (strings) that are longer than 256MB, but that's not a huge problem. I learn to work around that issue.

As far as security, I can't remember the last time I got hacked or got a virus or spyware on XP. XP is very safe. Of course, if you download and install random things from the internet all the time or click on links in emails, then obviously it's unsafe. But Linux can be unsafe as well if someone doesn't keep basic safety rules. But as long as you know how to use Windows XP safely, it won't bite you. I have been using it for 20 years or so.

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Re^4: Does anyone use Perl on Windows?
by syphilis (Archbishop) on Oct 22, 2024 at 13:36 UTC
    I have been using it all these years and have never seen a bug.

    Assignment of floating point values will often be buggy in your perl.
    I expect you'll (eg) be seeing: 
    >perl -le "$d = 1180591620717411303424.0; print unpack ('H*', reverse(
+pack('d', $d)));"
444fffffffffffff

    [download]
    But the wrong value is being assigned to $d, and the correct result is 4450000000000000

    This wasn't fixed until perl-5.30, IIRC.
    I can see it going back as far as 5.10.0, but I don't go back to perl-5.8.x.
    (It's not specific to Windows.)

    Cheers,
    Rob
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      Indeed, 444fffffffffffff is what I got.

      Interesting!

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        Interesting!

        There are many other values which are also assigned incorrectly by those old perls.
        If TinyPerl has the POSIX module you might find that assigning by using POSIX::strtod() fixes the problem.
        This works for me on my Windows perl-5.10: 
        >perl -MPOSIX -le "$d = POSIX::strtod('1180591620717411303424.0'); pri
+nt unpack ('H*', reverse(pack('d', $d)));"
4450000000000000

        [download]
        However, IIRC, there are other values that the strtod function provided by old gcc versions (and hence also POSIX::strtod on old perls) will assign incorrectly.
        In such cases, a gcc upgrade is one solution.

        Cheers,
        Rob
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Re^4: Does anyone use Perl on Windows?
by SankoR (Prior) on Oct 22, 2024 at 15:36 UTC
    Well, I just answered the original question in the title - "Does anyone use Perl on Windows?"

    Context clues. You're purposefully ignoring the entire point of the post:

    I need to know whether my work on berrybrew is worthwhile or not.

    Are future efforts worthwhile?

    They're not just looking for people who use Windows; they're looking for people who might potentially be impacted if berrybrew is no longer maintained. They want to know if anyone is making use of something they spend their time working on. You aren't in that group and it's not because you've found an alternative solution or feel like berrybrew is complete enough to be put on the backburner. You're not in that group because you're fully against the philosophical and practical aims of both berrybrew and Strawberry Perl. It feels like you jumped into this thread just to dump on both projects existing at all and that's what bothers me the most. Someone starts with 'does anyone care if-' and, without missing a beat, you leap out of your seat shouting "I don't!" That's how I read your comment and, looking at the votes, it's how several others read it as well.

    Every other person here is talking about co-maintenance, keeping the project alive, and sharing their experiences but not you... The rest of us understand that we all need projects like Strawberry Perl and berrybrew to thrive even if we don't use Windows, Strawberry Perl, or berrybrew personally. But you don't even care that perl itself is still maintained. You've decided you're not even interested in the last 20 years of performance and security work done to keep Perl alive. You aren't even interested in the work put into the standard release of perl 5.8.x. Finally, you don't test projects on a range of versions and you aren't maintaining software for CPAN or a Darkpan wider than your desk. I hate myself for saying this but I'm not even sure if your 2¢ even amounted to a useful datapoint for OP.

    He wasn't talking to you.

    I won't argue with you because I'm convinced even holding a cordial conversation with you is a massive, frustrating waste of time but he wasn't talking to you.

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