See http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/ports/index.html#win32 for an official list of places to get Perl for Windows.

These are "binary distributions" because you don't need to compile the C source code in order to build perl.exe which is what knows how to run Perl scripts.

The scripts are not "binary" vs. "standard" and choosing a binary distribution over the standard distribution doesn't change what scripts you can run (other than some experimental features that may not be supported in all binary distributions but that you really don't want to be playing with at this point anyway).

It is just that the "standard" distribution of Perl only includes the C source code (so that it can be used on hundreds of platforms) while a "binary" distribution instead includes a pre-compiled perl.exe. For Windows, one of the fine binary distributions is certainly the way to go.

Although the one from ActiveState is the most popular, I prefer InidigoPerl because it has a more basic install process, a less restrictive license, has a nice GUI module installer, and includes a web server. While SiePerl is nice because it comes with a huge list of modules already included.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

In reply to (tye)Re: Running/Testing Perl on Windows -- binaries, compiling by tye
in thread Running/Testing Perl on Windows -- binaries, compiling by garyj

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