Perl Resource Kit -- Win32 Edition

By Erik Olson, Brian Jepson, Dick Hardt, David Futato
First Edition
Pages: 1
ISBN 10: 1-56592-409-6 | ISBN 13: 9781565924093
(Average of 1 Customer Reviews)

This book is OUT OF PRINT.

Book description

The Perl Resource Kit -- Win32 Edition is an essential tool for Perl programmers who are expanding their platform expertise to include Win32, and for Win32 Webmasters and system administrators who have discovered the power and flexibility of Perl. The Kit contains some of the latest commercial Win32 Perl software from Dick Hardt's ActiveState Tool Corp., along with a collection of Perl modules that run on Win32, and a definitive documentation set from O'Reilly. The Perl Resource Kit -- Win32 Edition provides: * Over 1800 pages of in-depth documentation covering hundreds of Perl modules and detailed instructions on the new Win32 Perl software. The books in the Kit are not available elsewhere and include:

Programming with Perl Modules, by Erik Olson
Perl Module Reference, two volumes compiled and edited by David Futato

* A CD-ROM containing the complete Perl for Win32 5.005 distribution, plus new commercial Win32 Perl software, including:

Perl debugger (enables easy location of bugs and swift verification of your scripts)
Visual Package Manager (enhances installation of hundreds of certain Perl modules that run on Win32)
PerlCOM (enables access to Perl scripts as COM objects)
PerlCtrl (turns a Perl script into an ActiveX control)
Network Install (enables installation on a network)
Win32 Perl Help from O'Reilly and other tools for Perl developers

The Perl Resource Kit, Win32 Edition, is brought to you by the premier publisher of Perl and Windows books and documentation, O'Reilly & Associates.

Post-purchase benefits:

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Cover | Table of Contents | Index

Book details

First Edition:
ISBN: 1-56592-409-6
Pages: 1
Average Customer Reviews: (Based on 1 Reviews)

Featured customer reviews

Perl Resource Kit -- Win32 Edition Review, June 06 2000

Rating:

Submitted by Bob Madore   [Respond | View]

I purchased this kit over a year ago.
It was and still is a bargain when installing Perl on any WIN32 machine.

Sure, the Perl needs updating as soon as you can get on line, but the PPM sure saves a lot of trouble.

This is not for a person with no programming experience.

Perl is a scripting language which is used on the internet and can perform many routines on a win32 machine better than DOS.

The PDK is included free, needs upgrading, which is also free if you buy this kit.

Yes you can download the Perl and also all the packages on the net, individually, but time and connections can divert your attentions and you will never get the full benefit of Perl.

I recommend this package to persons desiring to get Perl up and running in the shortest period possible and it is absolutely a must for those machines with a slow modem connection to the web.

Perl Resource Kit -- Win32 Edition Review, June 28 1999
Submitted by Jeff Buchmiller   [Respond | View]

The unadvertised limitations really disappointed me.

I was most excited about creating *.exe files from my *.pl files, so I tore into the PL2EXE module.

Turns out that PL2EXE does not compile Perl code. It apparantly wraps the code in a *.exe wrapper (or *.bat if you prefer).

I was going to try anyway, and view the binary file, to see whether anybody could simply read my code in it.
But, PL2EXE only works on Windows NT (not 95/98), so it greatly limits its usefulness in my situation.
I didn't learn this until I got the kit and started reading the files on the CD-ROM.

Also unadvertised was the limitation that Perl code converted to *.exe files can not utilize pipes to interact with other Perl programs, for example.
This cripples its usefulness to me, unless I want to restructure my entire application.

It seems that with most of the components in this kit, there are significant limitations, but that's just from reading the readme's and doco on those.

The strength of the package is having the module software and documentation handy (as opposed to downloading from the net and dealing with whatever hurdles that entails).
I have not tried the visual debugger or other modules.

Perl Resource Kit -- Win32 Edition Review, February 16 1999
Submitted by Sundar Raman   [Respond | View]

I've now owned the Win32PRK for about 3 months.
Initially I was quite ecstatic about the pkg.
It was nice to have all the documentation on a
single CD, rather than having to download things,
and it was nice to have things like the visual
debugger, and the visual package manager. So, as
a perl novice, I was pleased.
That said, today I doubt I use ANY piece of the package at all!
And that's been the case for about 2 months now.
Doing the math, the PRK was useful for about 1
month, and that was it. I started finding that
the bugs with VPM and VDebuger and the major
errors in the documentation were more irritating
than I would originally admit. Further, I was
laboring under the "it's from oreilly so it MUST
be good" syndrome.
I would complain louder and more ferociously, but
I've reconciled myself with the thought that the
$120 that I spent will hopefully go towards
ActiveState's future development plans.
To anyone who plans on purchasing the PRK now -
DON'T!!! Just wait until the next stable release,
which, hopefully, will be more true to the
oreilly tradition. It's more worthwhile to spend
the $120 on the following:
Perl Interactive Tutorial - $40
Perl Cookbook - $32
Effective Perl Programming - $27
(Amazon prices)
And you'll end up with $20 to spare! There is
little, if any, convenience to the PRK (at least
in my experience). :((

Read all reviews

Perl Resource Kit -- Win32 Edition Review, February 06 1999
Submitted by jks (niccolo666@hotmail.com) [Respond | View]

This package is a disgrace for O'Reilly. Large
portions of the software on the CD are not
functional (even after applying Service Pack 1).
For example, neither the Visual Package Manager
VPM nor Perl/Tk work. Even the Perl/Tk demo
program on the CD does not work, which speaks
volumes for quality control. At least standalone
perl and the debugger run, but if you had
planned (like me) to use Perl with Tk to build
user interfaces - forget it. I essentially blew
$150.- for a set of manuals, without working
software.

Perl Resource Kit -- Win32 Edition Review, September 29 1998
Submitted by Jurgen [Respond | View]

1. The regular price of the collection is too high.

2. I do not understand why the perl help system on the
CD only works with a recent version of Internet Explorer
(it apparently does not work with IE 3.0 or with Netscape).
What is so special about these helpfiles that can not be
captured with regular HTML? Do I really have to go through
the trouble and download a bloated browser I usually don't
use just to get access to the help files?

Media reviews

"O'Reilly & Associates Inc. is coming to the rescue of Windows and Perl developers struggling to manage disparate Perl tools and resources.

"O'Reilly last week shipped the second beta of the Perl Resource Kit Win32 Edition, which will provide developers with several tools that will allow them to work with Perl in Windows. A final version due in August for $150.

"O'Reilly, a technical publishing house based in Sebastopol, Calif., shipped a Unix version of the kit last year.

"The Windows resource kit contains a software CD and four books, including a programming book, a two-volume reference set and a utilities manual. The software includes an ActiveState Perl Debugger GUI for debugging scripts, a Perl Package Manager/Visual Package Manager installation tool, a Perl for WebSite API, a Perl for Internet Server API and a network installer.

"Perl is an open source programming language developed about 10 years ago for Unix systems and is now widely used to build database connections for Web sites. Perl is good for manipulating large pieces of text and working with Common Gateway Interface scripts, officials said.

"'I think a lot of people who are new to Perl and have this kit will see a lot of other [Perl] resources out on the Internet,' said Marcos Mondragon, a network systems programmer for NationsBank, in Chicago. 'This is a good introduction to what's out there and where you can get it.'

"Mondragon, whose department in NationsBank's Global Finance unit uses Perl to administer over 1,000 Unix and NT machines, said the debugger is especially valuable because it provides a visual snapshot of the debugging process. He added that one of the kit's main benefits to veteran Perl users is having all the resources in one package. 'For a lot of shops, corporate or otherwise, pulling this amount of information in over your firewall ... could get ugly,' he said."

--By Brian Hannon, PC Week Online, June 15, 1998

"The Perl Resource Kit, Win32 Edition provides you with a set of tools that will definitely enhance your Perl-scripting experience. The only tool missing from this kit is a visual Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for developing Perl scripts. ActiveState has one in the works (in fact, it may even be out in a beta version by the time you read this).

I definitely recommend this kit for anyone who uses Perl for Windows NT. Those of you who operate under strict orders not to use free software will also benefit by being able to tell your boss that Perl is no longer a free download and that support for the kit is available through O'Reilly and Associates. So enjoy this late Christmas gift and happy scripting!"

--Mike McMillan Windows NT Systems Magazine, March 1999 http://www.ntsystems.com/nts303tc.shtml

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