SL System: Perl

The SL Toolkit includes the Perl programming language interpreter. The SL Toolkit uses Perl internally for various utility functions, and the SL Compiler is written entirely in Perl. You may wish to use this instance of Perl yourself for your own programs (such as using the SL Libraries for Perl), or you can use your own copy of Perl (such as ActivePerl from ActiveState or the Perl included in Cygwin).

Details

Perl is installed in the "system" subdirectory. The Perl executable is located at "system/bin/perl". To reduced disk usage, the Perl documentation is not included (see links below for Perl documentation).

To use the SL Libraries for Perl, you must point Perl to the location of the SL Libraries for Perl. For example, one way (not the only way) is to use the "-I" switch:

cd /D c:\sim7\sl system\bin\perl -Ilib\perl user_files\myprogram.pl

If you want to learn more about Perl, try these resources:

• SL Libraries - Manipulate SIMION PA files from
• Perldoc.com - Documentation on Perl
• Perl.org - The main Perl web site
• Perl.com - Perl information from the O'Reilly bookpublisher. New Perl users may wish to try one of their books on Perl.
• search.cpan.org - Documentation on Perl modules
general purpose programming languages. Includes a version for Perl.

It is said that Python is a better language than Perl for beginners (and maybe advanced users as well) since it has a simpler syntax. Both are very capable, and there are arguments for both. Perl was included because the SL Compiler requires it.

LICENSE: Perl is copyright 1993-2004 by Larry Wall et al and is distributed under the Artistic License.