# ActivePerl FAQ - Availability and Installation

- NAME
- DESCRIPTION
  - What is Perl?
  - Where can I get tons of information about Perl?
  - Where can I get the ActivePerl interpreter?
  - What do I get with ActivePerl?
  - How do I install ActivePerl?
  - Can I build Perl from the source code?
- AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT

## NAME

ActivePerl-faq1 - Availability and Installation

## DESCRIPTION

Getting, installing, and using Perl.

## What is Perl?

Perl is a scripting language widely used for system administration and programming on the World Wide Web. It originated in the UNIX community and has a strong UNIX slant, but usage on Windows has grown rapidly. ActivePerl is a quality-assured binary distribution of Perl for popular UNIX platforms and Windows.

perl (small 'p') is the program used to interpret the Perl language.

## Where can I get tons of information about Perl?

Extensive online documentation is included with Perl itself. You can read the documentation with the `perldoc` command, as in `perldoc document_name`. You should start with the `perl` document and the `perlfaq` document. For information on other ways of accessing the Perl documentation (including HTML versions of this documentation), see Where can I get documentation on ActivePerl?.

To get more information about Perl, check out these URLs:

- http://www.ActiveState.com - The ActiveState Home Page.

- http://www.perl.com - The Perl home page.

- http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Programming_and_Development/Languages/Perl/ - The Yahoo Perl page.

There are several good books about Perl. The premier book on ActivePerl for Windows is Learning Perl On Win32 Systems By Schwartz, Olson, and Christiansen (O'Reilly & Associates, 1997). This is the Gecko book, and has a picture of a gecko (little chubby lizard with big toes and a smile) on the front cover.

For general perl, two books to consider are Programming Perl, 3rd Edition, by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen and Randal L. Schwartz (O'Reilly & Associates, 1996) and Learning Perl, 3rd Edition, by Randal L. Schwartz (O'Reilly & Associates, 1993). These are referred to by Perl enthusiasts as the Camel book and the Llama book, respectively.

If you are new to Perl and there are any terms mentioned in this FAQ that you don't get, try one of the above resources. See the perlbook document that comes with Perl for more information.

## Where can I get the ActivePerl interpreter?

ActivePerl is available from the ActiveState home page.

To download ActivePerl from ActiveState, look in this directory:

      http://www.ActiveState.com/ActivePerl

## What do I get with ActivePerl?

ActivePerl is a complete, self-installing distribution of Perl based on the standard Perl sources. It is distributed online at the ActiveState site.

"Perl for Win32" generally refers to ActivePerl for Windows.

## How do I install ActivePerl?

For complete installation information, see the ActivePerl Installation Guide.

## Can I build Perl from the source code?

The Perl source code includes complete instructions on building Perl. You can obtain the latest Perl source from:

        http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/latest.tar.gz

Once you extract the source, read the README file for instructions on compiling Perl.

## AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT

This FAQ was originally assembled and maintained by Evangelo Prodromou. It has been revised and updated by Brian Jepson of O'Reilly & Associates, David Grove, David Dmytryshyn, David Sparks and Michael Smith of ActiveState.

This FAQ is in the public domain. If you use it, however, please ensure that you give credit to the original authors.

ActivePerl FAQ - Availability and Installation