As a quick answer to your question, perl is a shell scripting language for Unix. With a lot of work you can use Apache for Windows and run perl scripts as a backend to websites. However, it's not a language to develop software programs in.
For each of thse languages you need a compiler for that language. Of the languages posted, free compilers / IDEs are available, though mostly for unix/linux based operating systems.
cscgal
The Queen of DaniWeb
19,421 posts since Feb 2002
Reputation Points: 1,474
Solved Threads: 229
Perl's actually a scripting language for a number of platforms. It might have its roots in Unix, but it has been extended to work with Windows, Pre and Post OS X Macs, and it even works on DOS, Amigas, and BeOS. There are tons of other platforms, too!
Just so you know, you can use Perl to do application development, just like you can do with Python, another scripting language. I don't know about how quick it is for doing it, or whether you'd want to do it, but I know it can be done.
alc6379
Cookie... That's it
2,820 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 186
Solved Threads: 147