Can someone make an encyclopedic definition of what Perl Toolchain really is?

Like all the best marketing speak, and high-class hookers (so I'm told:), it can be whatever you want it to be.

A "toolchain" is generically the set or sequence of tools that you use to develop your working programs.

It might be a simple as a text editor and a command line. It might be a sophisticated IDE.

Some would include their source-control software; some their bug tracking software; for some it might all be centred around their favoured unit test framework. You could probably include the cpan shell, or PPM or APT interface. For some, easily accessible and searchable help files.

Without further context, probably the best definition that you could come up with would something like: The set of tools you use to develop your Perl programs. Which is probably completely accurate, but so devoid of any useful information as to be meaningless.

Ie. Perfect for marketing blurb.

The obvious part is that the toolchain consists of several tools.

Usually tools are included that help with the installation, creation and maintenance of perl modules, the compiler and distributions.

So they include things like Module::Starter, Module::Build, App::cpanminus, App::perlbrew, Devel::Cover and so on.

Can someone make an encyclopedic definition of what Perl Toolchain really is?

Google is your friend

While not very concise it does give you an idea of what makes up the Perl Toolchain.

In what context?

toolchain

toolchain A collection of tools used to develop for a particular hardware target, or to work with a particular data format (thus `the Crusoe development toolchain', or the `DocBook toolchain'). Often used in the context of building software on one system which will be installed or run on some other device; in that case the chain of tools usually consists of such items as a particular version of a compiler, libraries, special headers, etc. May also be used of text-formatting, page layout, or multimedia tools which render from some markup to a variety of production formats. Differs from `toolkit' in that the former implies a collection of semi-independent tools with complementary functions, while `toolchain' implies that each of the parts is a serial stage in a rather tightly bound pipeline. Seems to have become current in early 1999 and 2000; now common.

toolchain

In software, a toolchain is the set of programming tools that are used to create a product (typically another computer program or system of programs). The tools may be used in a chain, so that the output of each tool becomes the input for the next, but the term is used widely to refer to any set of linked development tools.

A simple software development toolchain consists of a text editor for editing source code, a compiler and linker to transform the source code into an executable program, libraries to provide interfaces to the operating system, and a debugger. A complex product such as a video game needs tools for preparing sound effects, music, textures, 3-dimensional models, and animations, and further tools for combining these resources into the finished product. A toolchain is analogous to an IDE (Integrated Development Environment).