I was asked (Gabor – thanks) to explain why do I actually need an IDE for Perl.
The short answer is –
To run my little Perl/TK program from inside the editor, and Debugging.
Details:
- First – a little background:
I’m not an experienced programmer. I mean – not in the sense of using major “heavy” languages like Java, C++/ C# or C and others. (I know just a little of those… ).
- Second – A specific example:
I do know know some Perl and use it at my daily work – to process textual files.
So I wrote a Perl/TK thing on my PC – to process a textual bibliographic files and add certain fixed bibliographic fields.
It’s Windows XP that I have at work.
So for editing my scripts – I use Vim, which is nice and colorful just like in various Unixes .
BUT For running – I currently use ActivePerl 5.10.0.1003 .The “coding” is separated from the code testing and debugging.
- Now – people around me at work use Visual Studio for C++ to develop a GUI application.
So … Why won’t I use something like this to improve my little Perl/TK program?What I do now is trial and error:
I edit the script / program in Vim but run it separately (done by ActivePerl when I double click it) and not from inside the editor.
And that’s where I need an IDE.
Vim is great – but IDE can stop the run in a breakpoint, so it saves a lot of debugging time.