ActiveState: Perl .NET

[ Linux Today readerDavid sent us this link he thought other readers might be interested in: ]

"Perl .NET is the result of a research project, creating a native code compiler for Perl to the Microsoft .NET Framework. The status of the compiler is experimental; it also supports just a subset of the language."

"Perl for .NET Proxy
Compiling Perl to native .NET code has several inherent limitations:

• Due to the enforced strong typing of the .NET environment the code runs slower than traditional Perl.
• All extension modules containing XS code are not available in the .NET environment.
• The compiler cannot be re-entered at runtime: string eval and runtime require cannot be supported in this implementation."

"ActiveState will provide an alternate solution to make legacy Perl code available from within the .NET Framework. A new component of the Perl Dev Kit will allow programmers to create a stub proxy object within the .NET Framework, but with the actual code running outside .NET using the traditional Perl interpreter. Method calls and property accesses will be marshaled semi-transparently across this boundary."

"This approach will address these programming concerns. A first version of this new component is expected to become available with the Perl Dev Kit 2.1."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Network Week: Open Source Community Fears Loss Of Perl(Jun 09, 1999)
• CNET News.com: Microsoft funds Perl open-source effort(Jun 03, 1999)
• Microsoft - Activestate deal(Jun 02, 1999)