Tools

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The current version of Perl at the time of this writing is Perl 5.8.0 (for which all examples and patterns in this book were written). A new version of Perl is currently under development, called Perl6. This version is the first that includes Perl community input into the design and development process.

Interpreter/Tools Used

Perl began as a tool for Unix platforms, but now runs on almost any operating system imaginable. Perl can be executed on Linux, native-Windows, Mac OS, and many, many others [Perl-Platforms].

Note 

The sample code patterns presented here (and in Chapter 19, Network Code Patterns in Perl) and on the CD-ROM will execute on any of the supported environments.

Networking API Used

Perl is bundled with its own networking APIs, but lacks support for multicast sockets. The IO-Socket-Multicast module (0.25) by Lincoln D. Stein was used for the multicast patterns and should be downloaded through CPAN. The LWP (libwww-perl) package is also available on CPAN, which provides a number of HTTP-related methods.

Where to Download

Perl can be downloaded at [CPAN], which is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (http://www.cpan.org). This site includes both source and binary versions of the interpreter.

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