Perl IDE

[Anonymous Monk]

Which is the best Perl IDE?

[dHarry]

I suppose it’s also a matter of taste. I use Eclipse with the EPIC plugin. I got used to Eclipse having worked with WSAD (WebSphere Studio Application Developer). I use Eclipse for multiple languages, it has some nice features. I have also been using VIM lately to edit Perl scripts.

[bassplayer]

I had to use Eclipse for a job a few years back, and we also used EPIC. I felt much better after finding viPlugin so I could still use VI within Eclipse. Cost a few bucks, but I got a better exchange rate back then. Alas, Eclipse became too "crashy" for us to use (seemed to dislike multiple large codebases), and so we moved back to our various editors of choice.

[plobsing]

Your question is ill-defined.

What do you consider best to mean? Most feature-rich? Best debugging capabilities?

What do you consider IDE to mean? Do you consider emacs/vi IDEs? What about a shell and a mastery of screen, ed, and the perl debugger?

[jvector]

The answer (if there is one at all) will depend also on:
• what OS are we running under? - I am fortunate enough not to have to work with Windows, but have gathered that Strawberry Perl and previously Active State Perl provided some more GUI-ish facilities than are present in the typical *nix environment.
• what is the programmer's background? - long-time C hackers who are happy in the bowels of gdb will probably be happier with the traditional perl debugger then those coming from 'higher level' languages which possibly do have more 'integrated' features. Folks used to an Eclipse-like environment may miss those features when working with Perl.
• what structure does our application have? - the wishlist for IDE features will differ for linear utility scripts, simple CGI applications, forking/threading systems, heavily object-oriented/modularised applications, those that utilise existing frameworks...
• at what stage of the application development cycle are we? - initial modelling/design, in midst of iterative development, picking up a monolithic legacy application..

Emacs+ perl -d + $SHELL may well be enough for many users (even for forking applications, which are fun). There are threads here that say you don't even need the perl -d.

For "simple" (relatively) tasks plain old perl -d seems to 'work for me'. I used to find perl -d:Ptkdb was a bit too much overhead, especially over a ssh connection.

For more structured/architected applications I am watching Padre with interest.

For web applications Selenium looks interesting but I've not gotten into it yet.

So, "which is the best?" .. which would you like?

[jethro]

I use ActiveStates Komodo which is a very polished and complete IDE available for Linux and Windows. It's the only one I ever used so I don't know if it is the best. I'm quite happy with it and especially with its debugging facilities.

Komodo costs money, but if you use it for work this should be no hindrance

[meraxes]

KomodoEdit is the free alternative they offer but it lacks VCS integration, debugging and the class/variable/function browser. That being said, I was using Eclipse + EPIC and got tired of the slowness, so I shelled out the cash for KomodoIDE and am very happy with it.

[CountZero]

Or do you mean an IDE written in Perl? Surely that must be Padre.

[Erez]

IDE written in Perl? Surely that must be Padre.

That's probably because it's the *only* one that is...

Bottom line: Perl doesn't need an IDE, as it arrives with both the compiler and the debugger. Throw in a mature editor and you're all set. Adding said editor will also benefit any needs for a more "integrated" environment, as most editors now come with an apt collection of configuration tools for any development needs.
If you *really, really* need a GUI for the whole debug process, the Devel::ptkdb tool will satisfy that need.

And as a bonus prize, you get to become a developer whose way of thinking isn't limited by the tools he use.

[linuxer]

That's probably because it's the *only* one that is...

Well, kephra is also an editor written in Perl and currently under development.

[oko1]

A still lake. Cherry blossoms
fall softly and disappear in mist.
Your question contains no meaning.


Use SuperSearch, please. Question similar to this one have been asked here before (and the answers can mostly be summed up as "it depends" and "it's a matter of preference.")

[jplindstrom]

Here is a rather comprehensive table of Perl Development Tools.

For Emacs users, Devel::PerlySense may be helpful. Helps with:

• Documentation of classes, methods
• Navigation to classes, base classes, methods, corresponding files
• Run tests, with assistance (sync test count)
• On-the-fly syntax and Perl::Critic check displayed in the source
• Code coverage displayed in the source
• Perl Regexp assistant
• ... and other smaller things

Works on Windows and Unix.

Even without Devel::PerlySense, Emacs already has syntax highlighting and indentation, a visual frontend to the Perl debugger, really nice integration with your version control system, ctags, the best diff/merge feature I've ever used, remote editing, etc. etc. So it's a quite capable package.

I'm not encouraging you to switch to Emacs or anything (it's got quite a daunting learning curve), but if you already use Emacs, make sure you explore all the brilliant tools it has accumulated over the years. Well, decades.