2.5 Text Editors

Now that you've set up your computer and installed Perl, you need to select and learn the basics of a text editor. A text editor is used to type documents, such as programs, and to save the contents of those documents into files. So to write a Perl program, you need to use a text editor. This can be a medium-sized learning job if you have never used an editor before, although some text editors are easy to learn. Here are some examples of the most popular editors, arranged by operating-system type:

Unix or Linux

vi and emacs are complex (but very good) editors. pico, xedit, and several others (nedit, gedit, kedit) are easy to use and simple to learn but less powerful. There is also a free, Microsoft Word-compatible editor included in StarOffice (but be sure to save your files as ASCII or text-only).

Macintosh

The built-in editor that comes with MacPerl is fine. There is also a nice commercial editor called BBEdit that is optimized for Perl, as well as a freeware version called BBEdit Lite. You can also use the Alpha shareware editor or Microsoft Word (be sure to save as ASCII text only).

Windows

Notepad works satisfactorily and may already be familiar; Microsoft Word is also usable, but always save as ASCII or text-only. Emacs on Windows is highly recommended for Perl programming on Windows-based computers, but it's a little complicated to learn. There are many other editors as well; I use a free version of the Unix editor vi called vim that has been ported to Windows.

Many other text editors are available. Most computers come with a choice of several editors. (Many programmers try their hand at writing an editor or extending an already existing editor at some point in their careers, so the choices are truly legion.)

Some editors are very simple to learn and use. Others have a huge variety of features, their own instruction books and discussion groups and web sites and so on, and can take quite a while to learn. If you're a new programmer, pick an easy one and save yourself the headache. Later, if you feel adventurous, you can graduate to a fancier editor with features that can speed your work. Not sure what is available on your computer? Ask for help from a programmer or another user, or consult the documentation that came with your computer system.