If you want to actually experiment with PERL, the question is, “Are you on Linux, Mac, or Windows?”<\/p>\n If you’re running Linux, you can run PERL programs right now. I know so, because I use Linux – specifically, Ubuntu.<\/p>\n If you’re running a Mac, I’m told that once again, PERL is native to your system, so you can run PERL programs already. However, the last time I used a MAC was the AppleIIcx in 1988; therefore, I don’t speak from experience.<\/p>\n If you’re using Windows, you’ll likely have to download a PERL compiler. Don’t worry; it’s free and I’ve done it before. There are several good bundles you can find on the internet. Some people like ActiveState, some people like Strawberry PERL…I’ve used both.<\/p>\n Going forward, your only other need is a text editor, which is a program that produces files in “plain text.” Document files are not plain text; a typical word processing program will not produce plain text unless specially ordered to (if that’s even possible).<\/p>\n If you’re running Linux, there are many plain text editors to choose from – including, under Ubuntu, one called “text editor”. Under Windows, there’s “Notepad”, which I’ve used faithfully for many years. I think you’ll find it under Accessories<\/em>.<\/p>\n Once again: I don’t have a Mac. However, I’m sure it contains a text editor that’s easy to find, since Macs are good for stuff like that.<\/p>\n For today, we’ll leave it there. I’ll continue next time with writing a couple of lines of code in the text editor, then hopefully getting it to run:)<\/p>\n
\nBack in March (see here<\/a> and here<\/a>), I opened the topic of programming with the language PERL. Today I’ll “start at the beginning.”<\/p>\n