Perl development tools - Part I: the text editor

Like the smith with a hammer, a forge and an anvil, the would-be programmer needs tools to perform his trade. Thankfully, only a few of them are required to program in Perl (none of which is an anvil).

The most basic tool is an advanced text editor. You could write Perl scripts using Notepad but there are free alternatives that make programming much more comfortable. To reuse our smithy analogy, the better the tools, the quickest and sturdiest your work will be.

There are scores of free text editors and you are welcome to choose any of your liking.
Personally, I will be using Notepad++:

- It supports Perl syntax highlighting
- It has regular expression capabilities
- It is an open source project.
- You can install plugins to add more functionalities

Download the editor's installation file from here. You can also get the zip version. The latest available version at the time of this post is Notepad++ 5.1.4.

We'll see later how to fine-tune the configuration of the editor. Notepad++ is one of the more popular choices and is used for a wide range of programming languages.

French expression of the day:
"C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron": Practice makes perfect (litterally: It is by forging that one becomes a smith)

Next posts:

• More about the Strawberry Perl distribution
  
• No follow links
• How to install the Strawberry Perl distribution and set up your Windows development's environment?
• How to install Google Analytics on your Blogger blog
• Hello World program
• First version of FileInfo script