Although I like cygwin and also suggest that you grab it, it isn't always the best way to get Perl for Windows. It has the distinct advantage of running many Perl scripts that a native Win32 port of Perl will not [since native Win32 doesn't support alarm() nor fork() and the fork() emulation in Win32 Perl 5.6 is still pretty bad]. It has the distinct disadvantage of not allowing you to do Win32ish things (like access the Windows Registry or any other Win32-specific feature). It also will take a much longer time to download than an only-Perl install would (of course). It will also probably occasionally cause various minor problems if you try to use it from a cmd.exe prompt instead from a bash prompt.

So if you plan to always use bash and don't care about using Perl for Win32-specific tasks, then cygwin's Perl is probably your best choice. Otherwise you probably want a native Win32 port of Perl, or both.

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