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Possible Duplicate:
Which version of Perl should I use on Windows?

I want to install Perl for Windows and according to http://www.perl.org/get.html there are two options: Strawberry Perl and ActivePerl.

Which is better and easier to use?

Community
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SIMEL
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  • AFAIK, Strawberry is simply the Perl-sources compiled for windows. ActivePerl contains a lot of tools and other useful stuff specifically for windows. It depends on your needs. – jwueller Nov 27 '10 at 22:06
  • @elusive No, that is Vanilla Perl. Strawberry Perl takes Vanilla Perl and layers on a bunch of commonly used modules, a full C toolchain, and other things. – Chas. Owens Nov 27 '10 at 22:09
  • @elusive: Actually, Strawberry Perl additionally contains everything you need to build modules under Windows, plus some pain-free utilities to make it easy to do so. – Cameron Nov 27 '10 at 22:10
  • @Chas. Owens, @Cameron: Okay, i obviously mixed something up here ;) – jwueller Nov 27 '10 at 22:28

6 Answers6

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ActiveState is usually easier unless you need a module (or newer version of a module) that isn't built for it. I'd generally go with Strawberry since I always end up wanting to use an obscure or new module at some point.

Quentin
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Strawberry Perl is the better, more modern, choice.

Yann Ramin
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AcivteState sells support for ActivePerl, so if you want commercial support, that is the way to go. Strawberry Perl is nice because it includes everything you need to install most modules from CPAN. They are both equally easy/hard to use. I would suggest looking at Padre (a Perl IDE written in Perl 5) if you are new to Perl. The installer includes a copy of Strawberry Perl.

Chas. Owens
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Between the two I won't make any comparison, but in addition to those, you can also take a look at Cygwin.

SingleNegationElimination
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I've used both (though not extensively), and I've found that Strawberry Perl offers the best experience when installing packages (things tend to Just Work), but ActiveState has better support for integration with Windows (e.g. the .pl file extension is registered automatically upon installation).

Note: I haven't used a recent version of either (recent being in the last year).

Cameron
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There is no real difference between recent versions of ActiveState Perl and Strawberry Perl from my perspective. (BTW, that is a great achievement on the part of the Strawberry developers).

You can install the same mingw tools and dmake with ActiveState and compile most XS modules successfully.

And, you can use ppm with Strawberry Perl.

Sinan Ünür
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