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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

5271.0. "PERL for the Amiga?" by DREUL1::rob (Rob Marshall - Customer Service Dresden) Fri Dec 13 1991 07:53

Hi,

I'm in the process of convincing myself that I should buy an Amiga 2000.  I 
have seen a few scant referrals to PERL (or AmigaPERL) and I was wondering if
anyone knows anything more definite about whether, or not, PERL is available
for the Amiga.

Thanks,

Rob
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
5271.1TENAYA::MWMFri Dec 13 1991 14:0416
I assume you're talking about the Unix "Practical Extraction and Report
Language".

Yes, there's a version for the Amiga. It's on fish disk #161. It's a rather
old version, and has some important features missing because they
relied heavily on Unix facilities.

If you want to write Amiga-specific scripts, Rexx makes an adequate
substitue - I've wished for Rexx on my DECStation about as often as
I've wished for PERL on my Amiga.

If you want to write things that will be portable between the two, you
may be out of look. I use Scheme, but I that may not be an acceptable
alternative to you.

	<mike
5271.2What's Rexx?DREUL1::robRob Marshall - Customer Service DresdenMon Dec 16 1991 02:3919
Hi Mike,

Thanks for the info.  I had also seen something (I think it was in comp.lang.
perl) about someone porting 4.19 to the Amiga, so who knows...

One question I do have, though, is: what is Rexx?  I keep seeing references to
Rexx and ARexx, but, being that I don't (yet? :-) have an Amiga, I don't know
what they are.  Do they come with the Amiga?  and are they similar to a shell
in U*IX? (I've done a lot of shell [ksh] programming and now I'm learning PERL).

I guess that having PERL itself isn't as much the issue as being able to write
scripts that allow me to use system facilities (and other utilities) fairly 
easy, ie in U*IX style.  Like being able to use pipes, command substitution,
or equivalents would be nice.  Although the strings capabilites (regexp's) in
PERL are *very* nice.

Thanks,

Rob
5271.35006.*WHAMMY::268For three strange days...Mon Dec 16 1991 12:158
Check out note 5006.*, entitled "History & Description of Arexx, please".
Mike wrote a very good description in note 2.

The standard Amiga shell has pretty adequate scripting facilities, but
there are several U*x type shells available with much more functionality.
Not having used ARexx I can't compare it with the shells.

Steve
5271.4re: previous 2KALI::PLOUFFOwns that third brand computerMon Dec 16 1991 13:013
    Boys, boys!  It's *OK* to say "Unix" these days. ;-)
    
    Wes
5271.5TENAYA::MWMMon Dec 16 1991 13:206
The following two comments point out something quite pertinent - if you
want a Unix-like shell, you can get it. Either csh-like or ksh-like.
You can also get WShell (a commercial producct from the author of Rexx)
that provides those - and more - in a very AmigaDOS compatable manner.

	<mike