Should I choose ActivePerl or Strawberry Perl for Windows? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Strawberry Perl uses CPAN, which means that you are up to date as far as modules are concerned. When things are added to CPAN, you have immediate access to them. Strawberry Perl also comes with MinGW which means that Strawberry Perl can use quite a few XS modules directly from CPAN without any modification. The MinGW distribution comes with gcc, make, ld and other tools to help you build modules. I think Strawberry Perl also comes with a few modules that let you install PPMs (Perl Package Manager files).

ActivePerl installs modules using its own format called PPM (Perl Package Manager). The official repository is hosted by ActiveState. You can find PPMs for most of the popular modules so you shouldn't have any trouble unless you are looking for an obscure or really new package (so bleeding-edge stuff won't work because PPM usually lags behind CPAN). Although easier to install than CPAN modules, PPMs are specifically created for Windows and so some CPAN modules will not work (because they do Unix-specific things).

I have used both before and it seemed to work for most cases. But I lean towards Strawberry Perl because the environment is closer to Unix and so there are not many incompatibilities. On the other hand, ActivePerl is made for Windows and so it works with Windows very well.

Another option is to install Cygwin and Perl that comes with Cygwin. I have done that before and it works reasonably well. You also get access to CPAN.

Pick what you think works best for you.

Answer 2

In a perfect world, I'd choose debian-interix or pkgsrc-interix Perl (not the ancient Perl that ships with Interix/SFU/SUA) since it provides the most POSIX / UNIX -like system (including real copy-on-write fork, not Windows fork emulation from Cygwin).

I have in the past (and it is installed on Windows machines here), but not everyone can / will install SFU/SUA just for Perl. In those cases I'd recommend ActivePerl, primarily for the interface's familiarity to Windows users (PPM graphical shell versus CPAN) and its integration with the Perl Dev Kit (PerlExe, PerlNET, PerlSvc, and friends).

Also, contrary to what others have answered, you can use CPAN (and the CPAN shell) with ActivePerl (though it does involve installing the necessary development tools via PPM first) if you need it.

Answer 3

ActivePerl excludes tons of modules from Community edition and building them under Windows is a real pain.

Also, they would let you download and use only latest editions for free. Everything else, like access to 5.8.8 or to earlier version of modules is either Business ($1000/year/server) or Enterprise edition (per quote).

Answer 4

Amplifying just a tiny bit on Vivin Paliath's helpful answer:

ActivePerl / PPM pros: If there's a PPM for your version, it's going to work, and simply.

ActivePerl / PPM cons: There's not always a PPM, or at least not always an up-to-date one.

Strawberry Perl / CPAN pros: Your repository is CPAN, not a bunch of binaries maintained by third parties. You have new modules the moment the author releases them, and you're using the build system that the author intended.

Strawberry Perl / CPAN cons: Not everything is guaranteed to build perfectly with the Windows tools.

Strawberry Perl / CPAN mitigating factor: The Strawberry developers try really, really hard to make sure that everything goes smoothly and that as much of CPAN as possible is available to you, and when modules are identified as trouble spots (difficult to build on Windows, but required for other popular modules/applications), they'll either work with the author to get the module fixed so that everyone can install it, or in exceptional cases, apply their own fixups and bundle the module with Strawberry Perl or Strawberry Perl Professional.

My preference is with Strawberry Perl. I appreciate what ActivePerl is trying to do, but I think it's a bottleneck in the development process. They were necessary before the community got together and built Strawberry Perl to bring Windows into the "first world" of the Perl ecosystem, but they're not necessary anymore.