I just downloaded ActivePerl, hoping it was some kind of IDE for perl. I run windows XP service pack 3 on this box. My Linux Box has perl already installed, but I want to use perl on my windows box as well.
I know nothing about perl, so do I just write a .pl file and execute it somehow, or is there a compiler or IDE such as in C or Python?

Many thanks ahead of time,
mruane.

Activeperl is perl, it is the compiler. The biggest difference, I guess, is that Windows does not use the shebang line to find perl.

You open a text editor and write some perl code and save it to your hard drive. To run it open a DOS windows and at the DOS prompt:

c:\>perl nameofscript.pl

assumes perl is in the command path which I think Activeperl does by default. You may need to add the path to the file if its not in the current directory.

You can download a free perl IDE for windows:

www.perl-express.com

That way you can write perl code and run it directly in the IDE which does make life easier.

If you want to start, I will recommend you to start with your linux box then move to your windows (as you already have a linux machine). Life will be a lot easier. There is an easyeclipse available for Perl and other scripting languages. You can find it here: http://www.easyeclipse.org/site/distributions/lamp.html