Re: ActivePerl on WinXP vs. LinuxRH9

Perl is definitely more "at home" in a Unixy environment like Linux (real fork(), shell integration, CPAN, etc.).

That said, if you *have* to do Windows-specific stuff (control COM objects, for example), it will be easier to just do it on Windows than to have a mixed environment.

I would decide like this: if there are Windows-only components that I must integrate with, use Windows. Otherwise, use Linux.

Comment on Re: ActivePerl on WinXP vs. LinuxRH9

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Re^2: ActivePerl on WinXP vs. LinuxRH9 by mosh (Scribe) on Nov 10, 2004 at 17:27 UTC
Thanks, What did you mean by saying: "Perl is definitely more "at home" in a Unixy environment like Linux (real fork(), shell integration, CPAN, etc.). " Is there a problem with CPAN modules ? Using them ? Installing them ?	[reply]
Re^3: ActivePerl on WinXP vs. LinuxRH9 by JSchmitz (Canon) on Nov 10, 2004 at 17:59 UTC
Well you grab the modules from the PPM repository which is not CPAN. You also have a lot bigger selection of modules on the *nix side. The only reason I would ever use ActiveState perl is if I HAD to do something on a windows box. Otherwise I would use the version that came with Red Hat or download a fresh build.	[reply]
Re^4: ActivePerl on WinXP vs. LinuxRH9 by radiantmatrix (Parson) on Nov 10, 2004 at 21:14 UTC
Any CPAN module that doesn't rely on any platform-specific magic can and will work with ActivePerl. You needn't use PPM for everything. That said, while you can pretty much guarantee that any module you'll need will be available for NIX (except `Win32::` things, obviously), no such guarantee can be had for Windows. Anything in Pure Perl will work with ActivePerl, so long as the module author uses platform-independent conventions. Most authors do. Additionally, while Perl clearly has platform-independence in mind, it was (and is) targetting primarily at a NIX audience. That means that NIX users will have a newer, more stable verion of Perl-related things before Windows users. NIX also allows you to "cheat" a lot using OS shortcuts that Windows lacks. You can accomplish the same things, but it often takes more code on Windows if there are low-level tasks. So, I would agree that given a choice, using something in the NIX family is the way to go for a Perl developer. However, it is rather rare to be unable* to solve a problem in a Perlish way on Windows. But it is fairly common to have to work a bit harder for a Win solution. radiantmatrix `require General::Disclaimer;` Perl is	[reply]