Embedding Perl Everywhere

rje has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear PerlMonks:

I would love to have a Perl interpreter embedded into -- nay, even compiled into -- my current job-required-runtime, be it in the browser, or in a foreign VM (yes, the JVM springs to mind, and even (whispering softly)... iOS).

I am tired of being forced to use an embedded JavaScript interpreter, or Groovy, or a one-off LISP variation, or Python, or whatnot, in order to script changing tasks and avoid compilation. I want Perl there!

Yes, I know, the rule is: if I want it, I should code it myself. I understand and agree. It just seems like this would be such a useful thing to have on so many "mini platforms" that surely somebody has ported Perl already.

Right?

Comment on Embedding Perl Everywhere

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Embedding Perl Everywhere by Corion (Patriarch) on Jul 30, 2012 at 20:51 UTC
Perl can be embedded. See perlembed. (Not so) obviously, the really tricky part is exposing the innards of your application in a meaningful manner to the Perl interpreter, especially when the application itself is not written in Perl.	[reply]
Re: Embedding Perl Everywhere by pemungkah (Priest) on Jul 30, 2012 at 23:58 UTC
For iOS, you might want to check into what the jailbreak community's done to see if you can get a working interpreter; if you want to build an app around Perl, remember that at present, Apple has only loosened the rules some on embedded interpreters, but has not eliminated them. The big restriction is that no downloaded code (except Javascript for a UIWebView) can be run in any interpreter in an iOS app. You have to include the interpreted code with the app as submitted for review, or have the user type their own code into the app. You may may run into trouble (i.e., your app will be rejected) if you try to allow sharing or saving of code into iCloud.	[reply]
Re^2: Embedding Perl Everywhere by rje (Deacon) on Aug 01, 2012 at 18:03 UTC
Fascinating! I'll have to read that restriction... it has interesting implications. For example, an image file read from the 'web can (loosely) be considered to be 'interpreted' when it is decoded. (I.E. at what point is decoding == interpretation). I'll go see... thanks for that post! ++	[reply]