perl, intro, resources

perl
- program - originally developed to transform various dataformats
- useful for data manipulation
- esp. text manipulation by means of regular expressions
- web pages (amazon.com etc)
- cf data manipulation for Human Genome Project
-
- Bioperl - (manipulation and evaluation of genome sequence data)

can be downloaded free from activestate.com as ActivePerl

intro at perl.com, perl.org, where also a library with online books can be found
eg. beginning Perl by S. Cozens
at CPAN - official Perl site with comprehensive documentation-

intro text also here, helps to get first glimpse on the structure of perl + one gets acquainted with some terminology (variable types-scalar, array, hashes, references, subroutines, regular expressions), but not many "aha" feelings so far. however - nicely organized.

PERL INTRO + links to other INTROs and more
Broman´s page - reads very well

Perl code editors - syntax color coding, ....
FREE:
Perl Express - looks trustworthy - last update 2005?
Open Perl IDE looks like OptiPerl - from 2003+patch for Perl 5.8
Perl code editor - basic, webpage rather shabby

shareware
OPTIPERL intergrated environment - looks interesting
DZSoft Perl Editor