The new features of 5.6.0 include generation of C
code and support for lightweight processes. This latest
version offers increased stability and security features.
This version is a stable, production release that
compiles out of the box for virtually any Unix, its
native environment, plus VMS, OS/2, and 32-bit Microsoft
platforms as well. In standard terminology a compiled
program can be run multiple times, as opposed to a
script which must be translated by a program each
time it's used.
An informative site describing the new features in
Perl 5.6.0 is titled "What's New in Perl 5.6.0"
and located on the internet at the following Url http://www.perl.com/pub/2000/04/whatsnew.html.
Perl programs, are neither strictly compiled nor strictly
interpreted. Perl is an interpreted language optimized
for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information
from those text files, and printing reports based
on that information. It's a derivation from C programming
language and to a lesser extent from sed, awk, the
Unix shell, and at least a dozen other tools and languages.
Perl's process, file, and text manipulation facilities
make it particularly well-suited for tasks involving
quick prototyping, system utilities, software tools,
system management tasks, database access, graphical
programming, networking, and world wide web programming.
Information on debugging compiled Perl scripts can
be found at the Perlbug Database v2.23 http://bugs.perl.org/perlbug.cgi.
To search on the Perlbug Database website, be sure
to change the Operating System drop down box from
the default "any" to "Linux",
enter the latest version 5.6.0, and click the "Query"
button to run the search sequence.
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