Open Source Perl IDE

[staeryatz]

I don't know how many of the other perl monks use notepad to code Perl in Windows (that's what I've been using when I'm not in *NIX), or if they use something else.

Since I started coding in Perl this summer, I've always wondered if there was an IDE designed specifically for Perl.

Fortunately today, I stumbled accross one by fluke. It's called Open Perl IDE. It's open source (MPL), and it looks pretty impressive. The interface has a slight resemblance to (or reminds me of) MS Visual C++, but has better syntax highlighting.

I haven't enough experience with it to write a full review on it, but it looks promising enough. Check it out and see for yourselves. If you've already used it, please share with me your experiences and opinions on it.

[Starky]

Since you use Windows, you should check out Visual Perl or Komodo from ActiveState.

Visual Perl is a plug-in for Visual Studio, which Microsoft would very much like you to use. Komodo is a full cross-platform IDE which comes with a nice endorsement from Clay Shirky. (If it's good enough for Shirky, it's more than good enough for me.)

I don't work with Windows, so I can't personally recommend either. However I've used ActiveState products in the past, and I've got to give them credit for putting out first-rate code. They really seem to know what they're doing.

And while Komodo and Active Perl aren't open source or free as in beer, I am more than happy to support businesses that base their revenue model on open source products, particularly when they're responsible members of the community.

Finally, one application that always seems to get lost in discussions of IDEs is Emacs. It seems that it would meet just about any definition of IDE (or the definition of just about anything else including the kitchen sink for that matter ;-).

I know this isn't exactly what you were looking for in your post, but I thought I'd throw it out there for any other monks who may be interested in related products ....

[staeryatz]

Just to clear things a bit: I "use Windows" not as often as Linux. I am forced to, because some of my hardware is sadly dependent on Windows, and I have to use Visual C++ for my thesis project.

Thanks, Visual Perl looks nice. I'd consider using it for the times that I am in Windows, but I sure wouldn't pay for it. The reason that I mentioned Open Perl IDE is because I thought it was great to have another useful free and Open Source development tool for Windows (and just maybe, Windows users would consider using more open source software in the future).

As far as *NIX development software goes, I use KDevelop or Anjuta for my C++, and plain pico for Perl.

[perrin]

Clay Shirky is endorsing IDEs? Who's next, Michael Jordan?

I have to agree about Emacs. I use it when I'm on Windows and it's nearly the same as on Unix.

[TomK32]

Because we all know that vim is simply a lot better than overloaded Emacs.

[jeroenes]

All links in this thread and many more can be found at tombstone 163.

If you don't find your favourite (remotely) perl-related link over there, be sure to drop a /msg to neophyte.

Cheers,

Jeroen
"We are not alone"(FZ)

[hakkr]

Perl Builder is a pay for IDE for Win/Linux. Has some wizards that create dubious quality code. Otherwise has nice html form simulation and debugging.

[poqui]

I prefer VIM myself, and I use Windoze all ther time!
(twitch, twitch)

It has good syntax highlighting and I get to use all the familiar vi commands I spent so much time learning.

"That that is, is... for what is that but that? and is but is?" Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act IV, Scene 2

"Yet THAT which is not neither is nor is not That which is!" Frater Perdurabo (pseud. Aleister Crowley), Liber CCCXXXIII, The Book of Lies

[jlongino]

I use perl mainly for sysadmin functions on Solaris boxen and use joe (similar to pico but with more features). For Windows (which I use mostly for playing with Perl) I have been using TextPad, which you can license for a nominal fee ($27US). Normally I don't like shareware/trialware, but after using Textpad for a while, I stopped using Write/Wordpad/Notepad altogether.

The only problem I've found with TextPad is that it doesn't handle large files very well (10+MB). But then, I'm not planning on writing any Perl programs that large (not yet, anyway).

I downloaded Open Perl IDE at home last night after reading your post and liked what I saw. I'm all for freeware, particularly if it is a well written and useful product, so I'm hoping it lives up to the expectations I developed after my first impressions of it. Thanks for the tip.

Update: After using it a bit on my home Win98 box, the only problem I've encountered is that it doesn't always exit nicely. About 40% of the time I have to cancel it to remove it from my task bar.

--Jim

[John M. Dlugosz]

Everyone: Tell me which editor you use and what platform(s) via /msg and I'll post a summary chart. On a subsequent pass we can add feature matrix.

--John

[Starky]

I have one more comment on this thread which is not so much a comment as a rant.

Why oh why is there no end-all-be-all set of development tools produced by the open source community?

Emacs and vim are fantastic and have been 100% sufficient (and then some) for 99.9% of my development needs, but of all things the open source community could produce well, I would imagine that slick development tools would be up there at the top.

Not only would the interface be better because it would be a tool developed by developers for developers (finally coders could come up with an interface without worrying so much about confusing cluebies) but the potential level of appreciation from the community I would imagine would be unbeatable.

Not that there aren't lots of good open source IDEs out there, but there is no single product that has wide industry and user support out there. I would really like to see industry leaders like Sun, IBM, HP, Red Hat, SuSE, etc. do for development environments what Sun has already done for office suites and Netscape has done for browsers.

It would be nice to see a first-rate basic core environment put together by these players which they could then add proprietary extensions or plug-ins to for their profit-making motives (e.g., Sun could sell a version which would include a first-rate set of Java Beans and templates). Everyone would benefit: The gains that those companies see from open source would only be improved because development would be easier and more accessible, the development community would be happier and more productive, and IBM and others could save development costs by not worrying about creating the core functionality for their proprietary IDEs, rather, they would only have to focus on adding to the IDE what they do best.

Anyhoo, that's my rant for the day FWIW.

[hsmyers]

Single best thing I can say about Open Perl IDE is that the author responds quickly to bug reports. Other than that I'd have to say I'm still evaluating it. My current arrangement is a selection of editors and IDESs, I mainly use EditPlus, which has almost everything I want, syntax highlighting and so on, test by Alt-tabbing to Dos session. Also use CodeWright for heavy search and replace (typically with better regexs than EditPlus) It also has everything I want, but it certainly wasn't free or even cheap. I've got all of the ActiveState products which are getting better at a nice rate...but still too slow. I use emacs if I'm going to need portability between platforms for code editing or if it seems like I'll need a specialized editor. Mostly I'll use whatever comes to hand that does what I need it to do. Extra stuff always winds up proving that there is still no such thing as a free lunch. Lately I'm doing so much in multiple languages that I need an editor that speaks whatever I'm doing or that can be made to do so. I don't think this is a battle you can win, just one that you can keep up with—barely!
hsm