Re: What defines "Pure Perl"?

"Pure Perl" refers to not using the C-extensions ("XS") and thus, not requiring a working C compiler setup. This is often preferred because in many environments, you don't have the luxury of having a C compiler that works with the version of Perl supplied by your vendor. Having a pure Perl module also makes it easy to include the code in your program by copying the source code of the module into your program directly.

Comment on Re: What defines "Pure Perl"?

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Re^2: What defines "Pure Perl"? by mpeg4codec (Pilgrim) on Sep 08, 2008 at 18:51 UTC
An example of such a platform is Solaris, since Sun wants big bucks for the native compiler. While there are hacks for using gcc to build XS modules, they are just that: hacks. Pure perl is vastly preferred.	[reply]
Re^3: What defines "Pure Perl"? by Joost (Canon) on Sep 08, 2008 at 19:11 UTC
Actually, for all the perl work I've done on Solaris, I've used the gcc-built perl and the gcc suite from sunfreeware. Much easier to get real work done with that. "What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"	[reply]
Re^4: What defines "Pure Perl"? by DrHyde (Prior) on Sep 09, 2008 at 09:26 UTC
At least the last time I compared them, gcc produced code that was quite noticeably slower. Now this doesn't matter if you're writing your code in perl (if speed were all important you'd use C or FORTRAN or some related evil), but it does matter for some XS modules.	[reply]
Re^3: What defines "Pure Perl"? by waswas-fng (Curate) on Sep 08, 2008 at 22:49 UTC
gcc works well (and is even shipped) with Solaris 9 and later. Before that gcc worked well for xs, but you needed to get it from sunfreeware or some other packager. -Waswas -Waswas	[reply]
Re^3: What defines "Pure Perl"? by Corion (Patriarch) on Sep 08, 2008 at 18:58 UTC
Actually I believe that the Sun Forté compiler is now available for free for Solaris 10, but I haven't looked closely.	[reply]
Re^3: What defines "Pure Perl"? by bingos (Vicar) on Sep 09, 2008 at 08:46 UTC
$35.00 doesn't strike me as "big bucks"	[reply]
Re^2: What defines "Pure Perl"? by lodin (Hermit) on Sep 08, 2008 at 20:35 UTC
I believe it often also includes not using any third-party software (e.g. sendmail) not explicitly part of the scope of the module. lodin	[reply]