-If you're on Unix, you already have an IDE -- Unix itself. This powerful
-IDE derives from its interoperability, flexibility, and configurability.
-If you really want to get a feel for Unix-qua-IDE, the best thing to do
-is to find some high-powered programmer whose native language is Unix.
-Find someone who has been at this for many years, and just sit back
-and watch them at work. They have created their own IDE, one that
-suits their own tastes and aptitudes. Quietly observe them edit files,
-move them around, compile them, debug them, test them, etc. The entire
-development *is* integrated, like a top-of-the-line German sports car:
-functional, powerful, and elegant. You will be absolutely astonished
-at the speed and ease exhibited by the native speaker of Unix in his
-home territory. The art and skill of a virtuoso can only be seen to be
-believed. That is the path to mastery -- all these cobbled little IDEs
-are expensive toys designed to sell a flashy demo using cheap tricks,
-and being optimized for immediate but shallow understanding rather than
-enduring use, are but a dim palimpsest of real tools.
-
-In short, you just have to learn the toolbox. However, if you're not
-on Unix, then your vendor probably didn't bother to provide you with
-a proper toolbox on the so-called complete system that you forked out
-your hard-earned cash on.
-
-PerlBuilder (XXX URL to follow) is an integrated development environment
-for Windows that supports Perl development. Perl programs are just plain
-text, though, so you could download emacs for Windows (???) or a vi clone
-(vim) which runs on for win32 (http://www.cs.vu.nl/%7Etmgil/vi.html).
-If you're transferring Windows files to Unix, be sure to transfer in
-ASCII mode so the ends of lines are appropriately mangled.
+Perl programs are just plain text, so any editor will do.
+
+If you're on Unix, you already have an IDE--Unix itself. The UNIX
+philosophy is the philosophy of several small tools that each do one
+thing and do it well. It's like a carpenter's toolbox.
+
+If you want an IDE, check the following (in alphabetical order, not
+order of preference):
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Eclipse
+
+http://e-p-i-c.sf.net/
+
+The Eclipse Perl Integration Project integrates Perl
+editing/debugging with Eclipse.
+
+=item Enginsite
+
+http://www.enginsite.com/
+
+Perl Editor by EngInSite is a complete integrated development
+environment (IDE) for creating, testing, and debugging Perl scripts;
+the tool runs on Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP or later.
+
+=item Komodo
+
+http://www.ActiveState.com/Products/Komodo/
+
+ActiveState's cross-platform (as of October 2004, that's Windows, Linux,
+and Solaris), multi-language IDE has Perl support, including a regular expression
+debugger and remote debugging.
+
+=item Open Perl IDE
+
+http://open-perl-ide.sourceforge.net/
+
+Open Perl IDE is an integrated development environment for writing
+and debugging Perl scripts with ActiveState's ActivePerl distribution
+under Windows 95/98/NT/2000.
+
+=item OptiPerl
+
+http://www.optiperl.com/
+
+OptiPerl is a Windows IDE with simulated CGI environment, including
+debugger and syntax highlighting editor.
+
+=item PerlBuilder
+
+http://www.solutionsoft.com/perl.htm
+
+PerlBuidler is an integrated development environment for Windows that
+supports Perl development.
+
+=item visiPerl+
+
+http://helpconsulting.net/visiperl/
+
+From Help Consulting, for Windows.
+
+=item Visual Perl
+
+http://www.activestate.com/Products/Visual_Perl/
+
+Visual Perl is a Visual Studio.NET plug-in from ActiveState.
+
+=item Zeus
+
+http://www.zeusedit.com/lookmain.html
+
+Zeus for Window is another Win32 multi-language editor/IDE
+that comes with support for Perl:
+
+=back
+
+For editors: if you're on Unix you probably have vi or a vi clone
+already, and possibly an emacs too, so you may not need to download
+anything. In any emacs the cperl-mode (M-x cperl-mode) gives you
+perhaps the best available Perl editing mode in any editor.
+
+If you are using Windows, you can use any editor that lets you work
+with plain text, such as NotePad or WordPad. Word processors, such as
+Microsoft Word or WordPerfect, typically do not work since they insert
+all sorts of behind-the-scenes information, although some allow you to
+save files as "Text Only". You can also download text editors designed
+specifically for programming, such as Textpad (
+http://www.textpad.com/ ) and UltraEdit ( http://www.ultraedit.com/ ),
+among others.
+
+If you are using MacOS, the same concerns apply. MacPerl (for Classic
+environments) comes with a simple editor. Popular external editors are
+BBEdit ( http://www.bbedit.com/ ) or Alpha (
+http://www.his.com/~jguyer/Alpha/Alpha8.html ). MacOS X users can use
+Unix editors as well. Neil Bowers (the man behind Geekcruises) has a
+list of Mac editors that can handle Perl (
+http://www.neilbowers.org/macperleditors.html ).
+
+=over 4
+
+=item GNU Emacs
+
+http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html
+
+=item MicroEMACS
+
+http://www.microemacs.de/
+
+=item XEmacs
+
+http://www.xemacs.org/Download/index.html
+
+=item Jed
+
+http://space.mit.edu/~davis/jed/
+
+=back
+
+or a vi clone such as
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Elvis
+
+ftp://ftp.cs.pdx.edu/pub/elvis/ http://www.fh-wedel.de/elvis/
+
+=item Vile
+
+http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html
+
+=item Vim
+
+http://www.vim.org/
+
+=back
+
+For vi lovers in general, Windows or elsewhere:
+
+ http://www.thomer.com/thomer/vi/vi.html
+
+nvi ( http://www.bostic.com/vi/ , available from CPAN in src/misc/) is
+yet another vi clone, unfortunately not available for Windows, but in
+UNIX platforms you might be interested in trying it out, firstly because
+strictly speaking it is not a vi clone, it is the real vi, or the new
+incarnation of it, and secondly because you can embed Perl inside it
+to use Perl as the scripting language. nvi is not alone in this,
+though: at least also vim and vile offer an embedded Perl.
+
+The following are Win32 multilanguage editor/IDESs that support Perl:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Codewright
+
+http://www.borland.com/codewright/
+
+=item MultiEdit
+
+http://www.MultiEdit.com/
+
+=item SlickEdit
+
+http://www.slickedit.com/
+
+=back
+
+There is also a toyedit Text widget based editor written in Perl
+that is distributed with the Tk module on CPAN. The ptkdb
+( http://world.std.com/~aep/ptkdb/ ) is a Perl/tk based debugger that
+acts as a development environment of sorts. Perl Composer
+( http://perlcomposer.sourceforge.net/ ) is an IDE for Perl/Tk
+GUI creation.
+
+In addition to an editor/IDE you might be interested in a more
+powerful shell environment for Win32. Your options include
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Bash
+
+from the Cygwin package ( http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/ )
+
+=item Ksh
+
+from the MKS Toolkit ( http://www.mks.com/ ), or the Bourne shell of
+the U/WIN environment ( http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/uwin/ )
+
+=item Tcsh
+
+ftp://ftp.astron.com/pub/tcsh/ , see also
+http://www.primate.wisc.edu/software/csh-tcsh-book/
+
+=item Zsh
+
+ftp://ftp.blarg.net/users/amol/zsh/ , see also http://www.zsh.org/
+
+=back
+
+MKS and U/WIN are commercial (U/WIN is free for educational and
+research purposes), Cygwin is covered by the GNU Public License (but
+that shouldn't matter for Perl use). The Cygwin, MKS, and U/WIN all
+contain (in addition to the shells) a comprehensive set of standard
+UNIX toolkit utilities.
+
+If you're transferring text files between Unix and Windows using FTP
+be sure to transfer them in ASCII mode so the ends of lines are
+appropriately converted.
+
+On Mac OS the MacPerl Application comes with a simple 32k text editor
+that behaves like a rudimentary IDE. In contrast to the MacPerl Application
+the MPW Perl tool can make use of the MPW Shell itself as an editor (with
+no 32k limit).
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Affrus
+
+is a full Perl development environment with full debugger support
+( http://www.latenightsw.com ).
+
+=item Alpha
+
+is an editor, written and extensible in Tcl, that nonetheless has
+built in support for several popular markup and programming languages
+including Perl and HTML ( http://www.his.com/~jguyer/Alpha/Alpha8.html ).
+
+=item BBEdit and BBEdit Lite
+
+are text editors for Mac OS that have a Perl sensitivity mode
+( http://web.barebones.com/ ).
+
+
+=back
+
+Pepper and Pe are programming language sensitive text editors for Mac
+OS X and BeOS respectively ( http://www.hekkelman.com/ ).