Porta-Perl (Perl on PDAs/Handhelds)

[Sprad]

I'd like a portable device (not a laptop) that I can write and run Perl programs on. What's out there right now? Does anyone have any recommendations for/against particular devices?

[davido]

Yes, the Sharp Zaurus (SL-5500, SL-5600, etc.) are capable of running Perl.

I wrote a tutorial on installing Perl 5.6.0 on the SL-5500 with a minimal amount of extra memory in the form of either a CF or SD card. You can find it here: Installing Perl on the Sharp Zaurus PDA. The biggest problem with this port is its lack of the full set of core modules, and POD.

In the months since that was written, someone's ported 5.8.0 over to the Zaurus platform as well, but its requirements are more hefty: You need a 256MB CF card formatted for EXT2, if I recall. You should be able to find both ports at http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/.

One of the things I use my Zaurus for the most is as a handheld POD reference. It is great for that. I loaded ActiveState's HTMl-ized POD onto a CF card and view it with Zaurus's Opera browser.

I also moved my Perl CD Bookshelf (O'Reilly) over to the same CF card, and am able to read it with the Opera browser as well.

[sri]

Zaurus is very cute. *drool*

[andyf]

Ever so slightly OT, not so much a device as an OS/Tool. I recently got ahold of Knoppix 3. A single CD that can run Debian Linux from CD in ramdisk, and of course it comes with a full 5.8 Perl build. With this I can use any machine and code for a few hours, my Bro lends me his laptop, its pretty old but it works fine on that. Of course you will have to put any libs you want on the machine, which is a pain. Or you could try remastering it to make your own custom PerlDevEnv. (I trivially remastered by adding a bunch of libraries to Perl and adding my fave editor.)
have fun
Andy

[eserte]

I have Perl and Perl/Tk running on a iPAQ 3650. The Sharp Zaurus is a nice device, too, especially because of the tiny keyboard.