- The Big Picture
This course (Advanced Perl)
can be adapted for a variety of classroom hardware configurations:
- A roomful of NT boxes
- A roomful of Unix workstations
- Terminal emulators (on PCs or workstations)
connecting to a Unix host
All machines must, of course, have web browsers and be connected to the Internet.
Two basic classroom software configurations are possible:
- Each student's desktop machine has its own Perl interpreter.
- A single Perl interpreter resides on a server, and each student machine can connect
(via telnet or otherwise) to this server with read, write, and execute permissions.
The required software includes:
- A Perl interpreter -- 5.004 or later
- Utility Programs to Install
- Archive/Zipfile Unpacker
- Text Editor
Perl error messages include source code line numbers,
so the ability to locate lines in source code files
by line number is essential for debugging.
Make sure you have an editor that shows line numbers.
- For NT, suitable choices include:
- For Unix, vi and emacs
have line-numbering modes that can be enabled.
- Installing Perl
- Installing Perl on Windows NT
- Download the latest binary build of Perl from
ActiveState
to Temp folder
- Double click downloaded .exe file to execute self extracting setup file
- The Welcome Screen is displayed: Choose Next
- Software License Agreement: Choose Yes
- Installation Notes: Choose Yes
- Choose Destination Location: Choose Yes (C:\Perl)
- Select Components: Choose
- Perl
- Online Help and Documentation
- Choose Next
- Select Perl Options:
- Add the Perl bin directory to your path
- Associate '.pl' with Perl.exe in Explorer
- Choose Next
- Select Program Folder:
- Program Folders: ActivePerl
- Choose Next
- Start Copying Files: Choose Next
- Wait (5 to 10 minutes for processing)
- Do you want to review the release notes: Choose No
- Setup Complete: Choose Yes and click Finish (reboot)
- Verify a complete installation after reboot:
- Open a new DOS window
- Enter the command: perl -v
TOTAL TIME FOR INSTALLATION: 12 to 15 minutes.
- Installation time can be reduced by not
installing and building the HTML documentation.
- Installing Perl on Unix
- The tasks required here demand advanced system administration
skills... don't try this at home, kids! :-)
- If you are building a Perl interpreter for use by
any user (including the web server) you need root
privilege in order to write in /usr/local/lib
and related system directories.
- For Unix, you must download and compile the source code.
- Get it from
CPAN's source code
directory.
- You'll need an ANSI C compiler (such as gcc)
and gzip (get them from GNU).
- Installing the Class Labs Source Files
To install the labs on NT or Unix, follow these instructions:
- Create a new folder to store the files (e.g. perladv).
- Make sure this folder has the appropriate read, write, and execute permissions set, if required. (e.g. chmod 777).
- Into your new folder, download
an archive file
containing the source code for the labs in this class.
- With your zipfile unpacker, unpack the archive file into your new
perladv folder.
