Perl Editor

[kiwibrit]

I have been reading another thread about books for Perl beginners - and will be off to PC World this afternoon. But right now, I just want to edit already existing scripts. Is there a reasonably cheap Perl editor that any one can recommend? I was wondering about something like Perl Editor by DzSoft.

[Matt Probert]

I always use an command line, Wordstar style text editor. Works fine for me.

Matt

[kiwibrit]

Thanks, Matt. I'll look into that. Currently I am editing in Notepad, as anything else seems to throw in or remove code characters. I was wondering whether there was something that would syntax check - a bit like Dreamweaver does HTML (although I do a final check with W3C if I am in any doubt, it's nice to have a fast on-line check).

[wruppert]

I use EditPlus (at the obvious url). It has the ability to run a program using your current file as input. So I have a control key that runs the file through "perl -c" (syntax check). The output goes into a separate window, and the editor is smart enough to go to the correct line if you click on an error. It also does Perl syntax highlighting.

[rocknbil]

Homesite.

[wdr1]

Editors/IDEs don't hold the same place in the Perl culture as they do with other languages. If you're just starting out, best to stick with something simple. A lot of folks like Textpad, but even Wordpad will do the trick on Windows.

After you're comfortable with Perl, check out Emacs for windows. :-)

My two cents,
-Bill

[mikeyb]

Another vote for EditPlus here, works brill.
Also use it for HTML editing.

[Moby_Dim]

DzSoft Perl Editor is the best choice imho.

[phoenix_fly]

I´ve been using Crimson Editor, wich has tons of features I´ve never dreamed of, like replacing on multiple files at once, regular expression pattern match and replace and etc. I don´t use it, but I know they also have color marking for specific languages, including Perl. And, of course, it´s freeware.

PS: I know I sounded like an ad! But I´m really enthusiast of it! ...lghs

[edited by: jatar_k at 3:16 am (utc) on June 10, 2005]
[edit reason] no urls thanks [/edit]

[bennymack]

I prefer eclipse with the Perl plugin. Simple enough to get started right away. Powerful enough to keep you using it when your needs become more advanced. A free editor that runs on any platform with syntax highlighting, how can you go wrong? Also has a ton of other plugins. Heck, you can use it to restart your Apache or MySQL server!

[AKat]

I use TextPad. You can download a copy of it. It's basically an HTML editor. I like it because it can handle enormous files. I use it to read my log files. It's perfect for that.

AKat

[TheWhippinpost]

A lot of editors can deal with Perl these days, to a greater or lesser degree. If you're looking to save time then a dedicated Perl IDE is better, IMHO.

Try searching for:

Perl Express
Open Perl
Perl Edit

Also, might wanna have a look at Tavrida which is interesting, and OptiPerl (which I won't buy 'cos their trial version is so restrictive it barely functions - Gimme 30 days not this anal retentive piece of registry bloat - but I'll concede it does look useful).

As usual, different editors, different strengths, meaning own them all to cover your bases!

[billegal]

I've heard good things about Affrus for OS X. There's also Komodo.

[wruppert]

This recent article on perl.com about parsing Perl includes a discussion on the lack of really smart Perl editors. The author has written a module to sort of parse perl, specifically to enable construction of tools like an intelligent editor. The comments mention a number of Perl editors that currently exist.

[perl.com...]