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MacPerl 5.6.1 Released
pudge (apple.slashdot.org editor and MacPerl Maintainer) writes "MacPerl 5.6.1r1 is the first release of MacPerl in four years. It is now based on perl 5.6.1 -- actually on the latest unreleased 5.6 sources, so MacPerl is the most advanced release of perl ever -- and support for MacPerl is now in the perl core, for both 5.6 and 5.8. MacPerl can also be built entirely with freely available software. And, like its predecessor, it runs on Mac OS X under the Classic environment. Read the announcement, and see macperldelta for details on what's changed."
Why do I need this? Does this offer anything that the version of perl included with Mac OS X doesn't?
Somewhere in the heavens... they are waiting.
MacPerl runs in Classic mode on OSX, a known resource hog. Now, I'm under the impression that a *nix flavor of perl would run just fine on OSX's *nix booty.
Hence I ask (serious question), is there any reason an OSX user would even consider using MacPerl over a (seemingly more native to OSX) *nix Perl??
There is a native OS X version.
skatters@quarterpounder(~)> perl --version
This is perl, v5.6.0 built for darwin
Copyright 1987-2000, Larry Wall
Perl may be copied only under the terms of either the Artistic License or the
GNU General Public License, which may be found in the Perl 5.0 source kit.
Complete documentation for Perl, including FAQ lists, should be found on
this system using `man perl' or `perldoc perl'. If you have access to the
Internet, point your browser at http://www.perl.com/, the Perl Home Page.
skatters@quarterpounder(~)>
Are there any plans underway to give Perl acces to Aqua, like with Perl/Tk or GTKPerl? I'd really like to be able to write perl scripts with simple, non-XFree86 GUIs on OSX, the way I can use various toolboxes on Unix to create GUIs.
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
Has anyone run examples from Learning perl 2nd edition by Oreilly in the verision of perl that is in Mac OS X? Has it worked?
This is great news. When I was writing automated backup scripts for our office macs, I turned to the old release of MacPERL after learning what a convoluted piece of garbage AppleScript was...
Congratulations to the MacPERL people
"Why not just port the OSX version to have the Mac:: modules? Why use the classic version at all? What's the point?" Etc, etc, etc. Well guess what, people, *not* *everybody* *uses* *OSX*. My little blueberry ibook would be crushed under the load of Aqua, and it hums along just fine with "classic", "old", "decript", OS9. And I use MacPerl, because I can hack around with it on road trips and write nifty stuff like "count the license plates" to keep my kids entertained. Sheesh, you'd think that there was no such thing as an old macintosh out there....
No, no, no, no! Please don't inflict upon yourself the pain of having to use AppleScript! Take a look at MPW instead.
Highlights: free (as in beer), integrated shell and text editor, handles very large files (4G), integrated C/C++/Asm for 68k and PPC, batch text editing, standard I/O support, "live" windows tied to the filesystem, Shell language for scripting, can send/receive AppleEvents...
Lowlights: Classic-only, discontinued by Apple.
Are you familiar with AppleScript Studio? The basic idea is that you can use InterfaceBuilder and ProjectBuilder (Apple's free developer tools) to create fully-fledged applications using just AppleScript, and you can easily combine AppleScript and Objective-C in Cocoa applications. It's rumored that Apple also has a "Perl Studio", but it's unclear if it'll ever get publicly released or if it's just something that some folks at Apple thought might be fun to play around with.
Personally, I'd love to see it released. I quite like Objective-C, but for small apps were performance isn't critical, it's often just too much trouble. AppleScript is nice, but it isn't nearly as powerful as Perl, and it has much lower performance. Perl would fill the gap between Objective-C and AppleScript perfectly, allowing people to develop fairly serious apps quickly and easily.
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