1. If you use Notepad++ already, I'd recommend Notepad++ Integrated Perl Debugging.
  2. CPAN is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network from whence perl modules are obtained. C-SPAN is the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, which allows you to watch Congress, if you really want to.
    • ActiveState perl has access to the normal cpan client... however, by default, there isn't a compatible compiler included with ActiveState (I know that recently, I saw a thread which included an ActiveState module you can download that includes a compiler for you... but I don't remember which one, so you might want to run a Super Search
    • ActiveState comes with its PPM module installer, which installs a subset of CPAN modules; the modules you want might be available thru PPM.
  3. I don't have much experience with offline Excel-parsing modules, sorry.
  4. Assuming I won't get too many downvotes for the heresy I'm about to utter: since you mentioned Parse::Excel, I am assuming you have access to Excel.
    • First heresy: If your license includes the VBA macros for Excel, you might want to look into just using Excel's macro-recording capability to record some of the manual tasks your coworkers perform; then, once you have that, you can tweak the resulting VBA code to become more general. Using the integrated help, I was able to learn the VBA language and the Excel object model solely from recorded macros in Excel.
    • Some orthodoxy: There's also Win32::OLE (which I think comes with ActiveState), which can be used to drive/automate Excel from perl. If you want to go down that route, Using Win32::OLE and Excel - Tips and Tricks got me to a hello-world style access to Excel thru Win32::OLE, and from there, I was able to use my knowledge of the Excel-VBA interface to go a little farther from there. MSDN Excel 2010 Developer Reference will be an invaluable reference to the Excel object model. You could even record macros in Excel VBA, then translate them to perl.
    • More heresy: a benefit of direct VBA over perl/Win32::OLE would be that to your coworkers, the macros could be run as just another part of Excel, and would probably feel more natural to them than having to run a separate perl process to edit the spreadsheet, and could be done "live" (while they are still editing the spreadsheet) instead of having to exit out of the spreadsheet just to run the automation.
    • Possible orthodoxy: I don't know whether Win32::OLE would enable access to the Excel object model even if you don't have Excel-VBA macro capability. If it does, that would increase the usefulness of perl, because you could use perl even if you don't have VBA macros. But I have no clue whether that would work (or if there even exist Excel versions without Excel-VBA, which would make it a moot benefit).

In reply to Re: Advice on building a Perl App for Windows by pryrt
in thread Advice on building a Perl App for Windows by Anonymous Monk

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