in reply to What defines "Pure Perl"?

The point is that it's possible to write Perl modules in C, which means that you can use the module like any other Perl module via "use", but it's actually implemented in C, and most often through the interface of XS.

The motivations for this are that you can do nasty low-level system things in C; and that some things are faster. For instance, many modules like List::Util have a Pure Perl implementation as well as an XS implementation. If the latter has been compiled, List::Util is supposed to be faster.

The downside is that you need a working C compiler to install these modules; and that's why some modules are advertised as "Pure Perl", i.e. easy to install.

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Re^2: What defines "Pure Perl"?
by dh1760 (Acolyte) on Sep 08, 2008 at 13:58 UTC

    Thanks for the quick response!

    I understand now that a Pure Perl module is one that doesn't require a C compiler resident on the system in order to be able to install it, and a Pure Perl solution is one that does not include any references to other modules that are not themselves Pure Perl.

    -DaveH (dh1760)
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