Can someone please explain to me what 'tags' are (in reference to programming editors/IDE's) and if they have any benefit or relation to programming in Perl?

In my endless search to find a programming editor for Linux that has any of the basic features of BBedit for Macintosh, I've tried almost every editor/IDE downloadable from freshmeat, linuxapps, and tucows. Some of them have a CTAGS/TAGS feature to which I've never been introduced, nor have I found any definition or explanation.

Keeping an open mind, I've even tried XEmacs on the suggestion of PerlMonks. When a perl script is loaded, there is a Perl menu in the menubar, under which you can find about 6 items referring to 'Tags'. But I can't find anything in the included docs that explains what they are.

The feature I am specifically looking for in an editor is an automatically-generated list of all subroutines within the perl script that you have loaded, i.e. for quick navigation. Both BBedit and Pepper for Macintosh have this, and CodeForge for linux has it. I was hoping these 'Tags' are related to this type of feature.

In reply to TAGS and Perl? by fpi

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