Perl Tutorial - 1: Introduction; Installation; First Script! Video Lecture | Perl Building Blocks: An Introduction to Perl - Back-End Programming

hello guys welcome to my channel this is
the first tutorial in the series of
tutorials on pearl in this tutorial we
are going to talk about some features of
pearl we are going to download install
Padre pearl which is an integrated
development environment for pearl a tool
that we will be using to write and run
our scripts and we are also going to
build and run our first Perl script so
pearl is a language that is used mostly
for creating dynamic websites it is also
used for system administration and text
processing and managing and configuring
networks and because it is so powerful
and so versatile it is also known as the
Swiss Army chainsaw of programming
languages and in this course we are
going to start with the basics and as we
move towards the end of the course we
are going to check out some advanced
stuff as well so the first thing that I
want you to do is open your web browser
and make a Google search for Padre pearl
right and I want you to click on the
download Padre link that pops on the
screen and then if you're using Linux
that you could follow the instructions
on how you can install this on Linux
depending on the distraught you're using
if you're using Mac then you could check
out the instructions here but I'm using
Windows and I would suggest that you
click on this link over here which is d
wim pearl and then the version is 5 and
it's an executable file that you can
download and I already have the software
installed on my system so I'm not going
to download this set of file again but
once you've downloaded this file you
just have to click on the file and run
it as the administrator on your system
and then follow the defaults and you
have the software installed there's
really nothing fancy in the installation
process you just have to you know stick
to the defaults and once you have the
software installed
system I would recommend that you create
a shortcut on the desktop or on the
taskbar because we are going to use it
very frequently while we were learning
Perl and I have created a shortcut on my
taskbar and as a matter of fact I have
already written a Perl script I have it
open here and I want you to notice a few
things about this script not everything
I particularly want to do ignore the
text that I have you know everything
except the text that I have on line
number 6 you could just ignore right now
one thing that I want you to note is
that I have saved this file and it has
the dot PL extension right this is very
important whenever you create a Perl
script you need to give it the dot PL
extension so that the system can
recognize that it is a perl script and I
have given it the name hello so the idea
of building a hello world the program
when you begin learning a new
programming language is not to learn a
feature of the language or absorb the
syntax or anything it is just to
familiarize with the environment of the
language particularly if you're using an
IDE or some tool like eclipse then to
understand how you can create a script
file or a program in that IDE how you
can save the file and how you can run it
so in Padre it is really quite simple if
you want to create a script file just go
to file and click on new if you don't
want to do that then you could also
press ctrl n on your keyboard and it
opens a new tab wherein you can type
your Perl code and to run the script you
could either click on the play button in
the menu here or you could go to run and
click on run script or you could just
press f5 on your keyboard right if I
click on run script it asks me to save
the file first as I mentioned it's very
important to save Perl scripts with the
dot PL extension and unless you save the
file with the extension after giving the
file a name
it won't allow you to run the code so I
already have created a script file for
this tutorial so I'm going to close this
tab and get back to my hello PL file
and on line number six in in this file I
have a print statement the job of this
statement is to display the text hello
world with an exclamation symbol on the
output screen and I also have a newline
escape sequence I'm going to talk about
this later on when we discuss escape
sequences in this course and I also have
a semicolon at the end and this is
because in Perl
you have to terminate all executable
statements with a semicolon right so
when I run this file by going to run and
then clicking on run script a new window
opens up which displays the text hello
world exclamation symbol and it also
tells me that if I want to close this
window then I have to press a key on the
keyboard and I will just press the
spacebar and the window automatically
closes and I am back to my editor right
so I'm going to talk about the shebang
line and the user I can use warnings in
a later tutorial for the timing I just
wanted to show you guys how a perl
script looks and the fact that you have
to save all your Perl scripts with the
dot PL extension the last thing that I
want to show you guys is how you can see
the version of Perl that is installed in
your system and a few more details about
Perl through the command line for that
you'll have to go to start and then type
CMD or just open the command prompt if
you're using Ubuntu then you'd have to
open the terminal or you know if you're
using Mac's then I'm sure there is some
program to access the shell and you have
to open that program in Windows it is
called command prompt and it looks like
this and just type Perl and give a space
put a hyphen and then type the alphabet
V write in lowercase and when you do
that you see this text and you will see
this only if Perl has been properly
installed on your system if there were
errors while you were installing the
setup file then you will not see this
text and
in some operating systems Perl is
pre-installed so even if you haven't
installed the you know Perl from a
third-party source or if you haven't
installed an IDE you should still see
this it tells you the version the
subversion it gives you a few more
details about Perl and if you want more
details then you could type Perl space -
but this time instead of lowercase we
type in uppercase we and you would see
the binaries that were installed along
with the interpreter the libraries the
packages and all of that which gets me
to the point that Perl is an interpreted
language it is not a compiled language
like C or Java which is in a way a good
thing because you don't have to go
through the hassle of creating a
compiled file so that you could run the
code
it's really quite fast and versatile and
you know simple and flexible and there
are a lot of good things that I can say
about Perl it's one of my favorite
programming languages and I hope during
this course I share things about Perl
which you are able to appreciate and
hopefully we will have fun as we move
along in this course I'll see you in the
next video thank you so much for
watching this one hope you liked it and
take care